Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart

 

What happens when six friends, fueled by plenty of alcohol, are together during lockdown? We’re far from placing the pandemic in the rearview mirror but the immensely talented Shteyngart studies what could go wrong (and right) under such a pressure cooker environment. Alternatively funny and pithy, the novel gives off Big Chill-esque vibes. The story displays a powerful grasp of  class divides and the pressures on progressives seething in the Trumpian era. Overall though, the novel feels half-baked, the bows too neatly tied together in the end. A worthy addition to an impressive body of work but not my favorite.

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

 

The “great circle” is the path that fictional pilot Marian Graves wants to trace — from the North to the South Pole. In reading the story of her accounts, we realize that the collective arcs of our individual stories turn out to be equally stunning. In mapping Marian’s “great circle” of life, from early abandonment as a baby, to life with her twin brother, growing up in the ruggedness of Montana, and serving in World War II, Shipstead paints a sweeping and majestic portrait of an unforgettable and spunky heroine. This is a novel to sink into and savor slowly.