Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

 Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022--San Antonio

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead is a wonderful novel.  Two stories parallel each other through the book--one that starts in the 1920s about a young girl living in Montana at that time who wants to become a pilot after a barnstorming plane flies near her on its way to an air show in nearby Missoula.  The other takes place in the 2010s about an actress who has made 3 films in a series of a planned 7 films to complete the story and has made some mistakes that have resulted in bad publicity.  But as soon as she gets fired from the series of films, she is offered a role in a film about to be made about the life of the female pilot who is the protagonist in the other part of the novel.  Most of the book is about the pilot rather than the actress and thoroughly held my interest.  The part about the actress became better as the book progressed and was critical to completing both the stories.  Originally, I considered 4 1/2 stars for the book, but I decided to round it to 5 stars out of 5 since it is one of the best stories I have read in quite a while.

Infinite Country by Patricia Engel

January 27, 2022--San Antonio

Infinite Country by Patricia Engel was named as the best novel of the year by both TIME and EW magazine.  It is a short novel about the experience of immigrants who come to the US without residency papers.  It is different from most such stories, because the original couple come from Colombia legally on a tourist visa good for six months with the intent of using the time to work illegally and make money they can take back home with them to resolve some financial difficulties.  (I know Brazilians have come to the US like this and returned to their country.)  However, by the end of their visa, live has not been easy and they have not make the money they thought they would.  Faced with the idea of returning to Colombia and the hard life they left or staying in the US with hopes that the hard life they are living will eventually improve, they decide to overstay the visa.  The story continues with vivid descriptions of life both in Colombia and the US and experiences that mirror those of many immigrants--children who are born in the US and are, therefore, citizens; a first child who was born in Colombia and isn't a citizen; capture and deportation that separates the family, etc.  During the first 60% of the book, I thought I would rate it 3 1/2 stars; it was interesting and well written, but seemed to be lacking whatever others had based their ratings on.  But the final third of the book took a bit of a turn and became more interesting to me.  I would rate the book 4 stars out of 5.