Great Circle

In May 1931, Jamie hitches rides on trains across the country. In Seattle, he finds a cheap room in a boarding house and looks for work. As he searches the dock for a job, part of him hopes that he might find his father. When he thinks about signing on to work on a ship, he feels overcome with an obligation to protect Wallace from his alcoholism and to protect Marian from Macqueen. With his money dwindling, Jamie draws portraits in the park. He makes a little money, and, one day, he meets a girl named Sarah Fahey. He soon discovers that Sarah is from a rich family. He is so struck by her that he forgets to charge her for a portrait. She returns the next day, bringing the money, and they take a walk together. As they walk around the lake, he tells her about his strange life. The next day, they take the same walk and she tells him about her life. She invites him to lunch to meet her parents.

Jamie has Sunday lunch with Sarah’s family. Her father, a self-made businessman, is an avid art collector. He even knows of Wallace’s work and possesses one of Wallace’s paintings. Mr. Fahey hires Jamie to help him catalogue his art. Later, Sarah explains that her father made his money by owning slaughterhouses, processing plants, and tanneries. Jamie, with his deep appreciation and “burden of anguish” (187) for animals, does not know what to think of her father’s profession. Though he does not blame Sarah, he hates that her father will be paying him with the profits from the slaughter of animals. He decides that he will spend some of his earnings to feed stray dogs to assuage his guilt.

Jamie begins the job, though it is “too big for half a summer” (189). He draws the portraits of Sarah’s family members. Each day, he feeds stray dogs. One day, Sarah helps him, and they kiss. An expert from the state university visits to assess Mr. Fahey’s art collection. He casts aspersions on the usefulness of Jamie’s cataloguing, but, when Mr. Fahey insists that Jamie show his art to the expert, he seems more interested in Jamie’s opinion. Later, Jamie is credited with uncovering a particularly valuable and overlooked part of the collection. A dinner is hosted in Jamie’s honor. Mr. Fahey offers to pay for Jamie to attend an art course at Seattle University. In a state of confusion, Jamie reveals that he is a vegetarian. Mr. Fahey is offended and rescinds the offer. He forbids Jamie from seeing Sarah. Jamie makes his excuses and leaves, taking the first train back to Missoula. There, he learns that Marian is now engaged to Macqueen.

Two weeks before Jamie returns, Marian flies Caleb back to Missoula and then shares a drink with her friend in his cabin. They discuss Macqueen, and, for the first time, Marian admits that she loves him. However, her feelings are complicated, and she also resents him. The next day, Macqueen accuses her of sleeping with Caleb. He admits that he wants her to be “completely alone except for [him]” (198) and admits that he has her followed out of worry. Marian reveals what she discussed with Caleb; the idea that she loves him disarms Macqueen. She relents and tells him that she loves him. Macqueen is delighted but confesses that he has set some “terrible thing” (199) in motion, and he cannot stop it. 

After passing her audition, Hadley prepares for her role as Marian. She has lunch with Redwood Feiffer, and his earnestness disarms her. They agree that his mother’s book slightly distorts Marian’s character to make her a more relatable hero. After lunch, they drink wine and gossip about Hollywood figures. As she thinks about whether she finds Redwood attractive, he plays the piano for her. They swim, and, afterwards, they take psychedelic mushrooms while staring at the night sky. As the drugs begin to take effect, their conversation becomes more abstract as they try and describe the totality of the city to one another. 

In October 1931, two months after Jamie’s return from Seattle, Marian departs on her honeymoon to Scotland with Macqueen. They travel across the Atlantic on a ship, and Marian knows they will pass the place where the Josephine Eterna sank. She dresses in expensive and distinctly feminine clothes that she feels are only burdensome. Married life brings further difficulties: Marian realizes that Macqueen expects her to join him in abstaining from alcohol, and she still resents her new husband for buying all of Wallace’s gambling debts. Once he owned Wallace’s debts, Macqueen hoped to pressure Marian’s uncle to make her marry him. The incident made Wallace feel suicidal, but Marian assured him that the huge debt was paid; now, she feels as though she is paying off Wallace’s debt by marrying Macqueen. In New York City, Macqueen had taken her on an unsatisfying trip to the house where she was born. She felt no emotional reaction.

Marian spends her time alone on the ship. She drinks champagne to spite her new husband and sleeps peacefully while he tosses and turns. She thinks about writing to Jamie, remembering how he returned from Seattle with a melancholy but assured air about him. He reacted angrily to her weary explanation of her loveless engagement. Wallace was at a rehab facility by the time of the wedding (at Macqueen’s expense) while Jamie avoided the ceremony altogether.

In Edinburgh, Scotland, in November 1931, Marian struggles with the cultural differences in a new country while Macqueen seems comfortable and at ease. She is frustrated by her inability to integrate or enjoy her travels as she once hoped she would. After a month in Edinburgh, she writes to Jamie. She admits that he was right to be cautious of Macqueen and explains how she finds marriage constricting and depressing, especially as Macqueen wants a baby. She never realized how much she depended on Jamie until he was no longer in her life. Jamie writes back to his sister. He sees Caleb occasionally, and he began painting with oils but has mostly been “moping” (221) after losing Sarah Fahey. Wallace is recovering and has begun to paint again, though he feels as though he sold Marian to Macqueen. He cautions Marian against bearing a child. However, the letter arrives too late, so the hotel clerk forwards it to Barclay Macqueen in America.

Marian and Macqueen return to America. Macqueen’s friend Sadler drives them back to Macqueen’s house, where Marian will now live. She receives an unexpectedly warm welcome from Macqueen’s mother and sister, Kate. Marian is not allowed to fly or help with any of the ranching. Jamie’s letter arrives, and Barclay reads it; he angrily insists that Marian will love a baby when it arrives, even if she insists that she does not want to be a mother. When she remains adamant, he tells her that she has changed. Marian insists that she is exactly who she has always been, otherwise Macqueen himself has changed her. The next day, Macqueen returns home drunk. As Marian helps Kate deal with him, Kate explains that Macqueen drinks heavily once a year. When he recovers, he tells Marian that he feels powerless. He recalls the night he first saw Marian; she had such an effect on him that he could do nothing other than drink heavily. He eventually wandered the streets of Missoula and nearly froze to death. The only thing that saved him was the idea that he could eventually convince Marian to love him. Afterward, the deeply religious Mother Macqueen blames Marian for her son’s drinking. She pretends not to know that he is a bootlegger.

From winter to spring, 1932, Marian begins to fly the plane carrying Macqueen’s contraband alcohol across the Canadian border. She is permitted to fly for fun, though she lies about the routes she takes. The little lies warm her “like an ember” (230). Marian and Macqueen continue to argue. She defies him by taking a plane and visiting Jamie; she finds him in a disheveled, hungover state, though his heavy alcohol consumption has not prevented him from creating beautiful oil paintings. Among the paintings of birds are portraits of Sarah. Caleb joins them that evening after Marian cleans the house. Jamie recounts the full story about his time in Seattle and then asks Caleb and Marian to dance while he sketches. Later, Jamie asks Marian to take him “somewhere else” (234). After three nights in Missoula, Marian returns to Macqueen’s house on the day of his expected return from his business trip. When he finds out about her trip, Macqueen forces Marian onto the bed and violently removes the diaphragm she had been using to prevent a pregnancy, and then he rapes her. She lies motionless while Macqueen seems close to tears. After he leaves, Marian lies on the bed for hours. Kate arrives to check on her. She sympathizes with Marian’s desire not to have a baby and offers to help her replace the diaphragm because, if Marian has the baby, then “we’ll never be rid of you” (238). Marian tries to will her body not to become pregnant. Macqueen tells her that she can only fly again when she forgives him.