Friday, July 26, 2024

Book 1 - Great Circle

I cannot quite believe it, but it's true. It seems I've only completed one full book so far this year. I did finish Demon Copperhead this year, but I started that last year. So far Great Circle is the only book I started and finished in this year. Gosh, I don't know what to make of my unproductivity. It's almost hard to believe that there were years passed that I managed to read more than 5 books a year. Anyways, Great Circle is by Maggie Shipstead. It tells 2 stories, one was about a girl, Marian, born in the 1910s who wanted to fly plane and she did that. The book opens with a map showing a great circle around the earth that Marian attempted to complete, but there's a missing line, signifying she didn't complete her circle. The other story was about an actress in our contemporary time who's going to be playing Marian in a movie. I didn't enjoy the actress story much and even wondered the point of her story, but she's important to deliver the twist on what happened to Marian in the end. Throughout I was more interested with Marian's story. Yes, the actress also had a tragic childhood similar to Marian, but I was just more invested with Marian while the actress just tired me. The other thing about Marian, the other characters in her life were also interesting. I love reading about her twin brother Jamie and their childhood friend Caleb. Jamie was not the main character in this book, we don't know much about his thoughts during his childhood so to learn more about him was great. He was such an endearing character. Another thing that I wanted to learn more is about Marian and Jamie's dad, but we didn't get to know more about what happened to him.

SPOILER ALERT - stop reading if you're planning to read the book. As depressed as I am, I was surprised at myself because I was happy upon finding out that Marian survived the flight and she's alright. She's not lost somewhere in some ocean. Marian went through a lot of difficulty and sadness in her life, but she had also overcome a lot, so if she was to die, I was acceptant about it and she was too, but I supposed it's in her instinct to always try and so she lived on. As someone who thinks that living is more difficult than dying, I was just surprised that I was glad at this fact. Not only did Marian survive, she also flourished in the next part of her life. She's one of those people who would just always be okay no matter the struggles in life. One of the character in the book described her as formidable and she's indeed so. Side note: one time in french class the teacher pronounced the word formidable, couldn't remember why he did so, but I just thought it sounded better in french, like formidable sounds more formidable in french :D Anyways back to Marian, one thing that differs with me and Marian and made me think I need to reasses myself is how I felt about the end of her navigator. Her navigator chose not to go with her in her last leg. The navigator thought they wouldn't make it and he didn't want to die drowning. So he decided to stay in Antartica alone which essentially meant he's going to die. He was at peace with it saying maybe he'd just walk out one night and lie down under the aurora. Marian had guilt about this, about not trying to persuade him to go with her, about leaving him alone, and about not sending help even after she survived, but the navigator already said that she shouldn't do all that. He had chosen his path. I do not have guilt about this whatsoever. I know that one couldn't say for sure if this happens to be an actual person I know, not just some character in a book, but overall I think he's a grown adult who through the twists and turns of his own life came to this decision. So if it were me, I would ask are you sure maybe more than 10 times and then be like okay. There's an appeal to me about being alone on your own term and knowing your time is going to end and it may end soon. I am way too depressed, I guess. Overall not a bad book. There are some lines that Marian wrote in her journal that just spoke to me, things like, why go at all? I have no answer beyond my certainty that I must.

What else? Been watching a few stuff. I was glad that The Bear season 3 is still great. I also watched The Sympathizer which I thought was not bad. I remember I didn't particularly enjoy the book, like I can't remember much of the story of the book. The TV series did a better job of making me follow a line of story better. There's an unsettling feeling throughout all the episodes which personally for me was rather truthful to the feeling that I got from reading the book. The ending when we have to reflect on the line nothing is more precious than independence and freedom did stump me a bit. I think I got it though it took me awhile to think about it and even so I don't know if my understanding of it is correct. It felt like a very Buddhist way of thinking, of forming non-attachment. I feel like I still need to think about it, especially in the context of all the characters in the story who struggled in this Vietnam revolution. The nothingness, their suffering, their ideals, how to come to terms with all that. Really it's like I need to think more about this. I could be getting all this completely wrong. Some good stories are the ones that get you thinking deeply, unfortunately I don't give much time for that because once a story is done, I move on to the next.

:) eKa @ 9:45:00 PM •