Reviews with content warning for Grief - O Grande Círculo

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Summarizing this book, or my feelings about it, in one tiny review seems impossible, as it's so big and complex. I'll try nonetheless.

There's the story of Marian Graves, who goes through trauma, multiple sexual awakenings, but stays constant nonetheless; a stubborn, boyish woman who loves to fly. There's the people who surround her, some of whom get their own stories - especially dear Jamie - some of them remain side characters to Marian's.

Then there's the story of this actress - Hadley - who plays Marian in a movie, but also has problems of her own to deal with. Fame, grief, love, scandal, finding a goal in life (no one is as blessed as Marian, after all, with a life direction handed to her on a golden plate (or in an airplane)).

I thought it was interesting, to follow these lives, but I did find myself confused quite often. This because of multiple reasons: the massive amount of characters - their names, their varying agrees of importance to the story and how exactly were they connected to Marian again; the switching timelines, and the timejumps within those timelines; and the writing, which was beautiful, but sometimes unclear on whether it was being literal or figurative.

Also unclear to me, was the meaning of this book. I'm inclined to say it was just a character study; a behind the scenes on these two women's lives and the extra mile they have to walk to achieve the same things a man can with half the effort, the trauma they have to go through, both emotionally and physically. But then why would you write this dual timeline, why not just focus on Marian, who was interesting enough on her own? Maybe it was a way of showing the discrepancies that can exist between a real life and the way outsiders view it. Oftentimes the script of the movie they're producing in modern times, doesn't rhyme with what actually happened. Take for example the (spoiler?) sapphic love affair Marian has with someone she meets during the war. Society is so eager to paint her as a straight woman that they choose to ignore this very real part of her.

That does bring me to one critique, though: the only lesbian mentioned in this book gets killed off relatively quickly after we get to know her. I get that it was necessary to the ending of the book, but damn, it's 2022, we've had enough of seeing lesbians die in media.

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alomie's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

So, I really loved the parts about Marian Graves from her perspective, but the Parts about Hadley really ruined this book for me and I would have rather not had the spoiler at the end and the epilogue I felt gave a neat ending but I think I would have liked not to know to be left with the option of deciding for myself.

I really felt for Marian stuck in a time that was not ready for her. She was a trail blazer and although flawed she did all she could despite her circumstances to make her dreams a reality.

Hadley on the other hand felt thin maybe vapid, and unable to make a good decision to save herself. She redeemed herself in the latter half of the book but by then I found I could not get behind her.

Overall I liked this book and its worth a read but I really can't forgive half the story.

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vikkom's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

This piece of fiction HITS on so many levels once it's finished. Judging by my engagement at the start I was definitely not expecting how many moments throughout that I would read a sentence and just sit there and stare and ponder, or bookmark to write down once I get up after keeping on reading.

I thought this book was going to be about this random lady Marian Graves attempting a north-south circumnavigation, and the fictional actress Hadley being fascinated and throwing herself into the history of Marian in preparation for the role. The book is about that, but I'd say that it's only about 10% that.

The rest of the book is about Marian Graves, and the people she loved and loved her, from before birth, to death; it is about Hadley, the starlet, and her journey with the pressures of hollywood, acting, falling in lust, and being... drawn to Marian and also knowing and feeling uncomfortable with the fact that the Marian she is playing is almost entirely reconstructed.

This book paints the sweeping arc of Marian's life, and the lives of the people that were most important to her. It deals with feeling multiple, contradictory feelings at once; it deals with estrangement from people you love; it deals with loving people and yet hating them; it deals with queer love in the 40s and 50s; it deals with the what-could-have-beens while acknowledging that sequences of events have a certain inevitability and circularity; and overall, it deals with the messy and complex and less-than-idyllic ways that humans connect. Lives are lived, opportunities are lost. People die. We go on.

N.B. one thing I would say though, is that it took me over half of the book (no small feat, it's a solid 300 pages) to actually get *into* the story. I think mainly because I wasn't expecting a grand sweeping whole-of-life tale, but the book comes around in a nice circle, once I realised that was what it was.

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