Chapter summaries Great Circle Maggie Shipstead

Chapter 20: Red Herrings — Following the False Leads

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

Chapter 20 opens with a table read for the film Peregrine. Director Bart Olofsson reads from Marian Graves's book, emphasizing that beginnings are not fixed but ambient, and that every action sets off irreversible chain reactions within the constraints of the past. Hadley observes the film's structure: it starts with the plane running out of fuel, flashes back to the shipwreck, then moves forward while intercutting the round-the-world flight.

Hadley's mind drifts to the night she spent with Redwood after taking mushrooms. She slept in his bed, but nothing happened; he made breakfast tacos the next morning and told her he thought she was great. She is confused by his behavior and seeks advice from her assistant Augustina, who offers little clarity. Later, Hadley scrolls through the Instagram profiles of past lovers, including Alexei, Oliver, and Jones Cohen, feeling like she is pulling up a net full of red herrings. She decides to text Mark, an old acquaintance from her Katie McGee days, who comes over and stays the night.

The next morning, a Vanity Fair writer interviews Hadley while Mark suns himself in the pool. Hadley discusses her parents' disappearance, revealing that she hired an investigator who found nothing. She reflects on the difference between searching and seeking, and when asked about love, she says she is more likely to find enlightenment, and that love and enlightenment are opposites.

After the table read, Hadley and Redwood have an awkward conversation. She suggests they meet again over wine, and he agrees, though he is called away before they can say more.

Key Events

  • Bart Olofsson reads from Marian's book and delivers a philosophical speech about beginnings and the past.

  • Hadley recalls the night with Redwood and his ambiguous comment that she is great.

  • Hadley asks Augustina for interpretation but gets no satisfying answer.

  • Hadley scrolls through Instagram profiles of past lovers and texts Mark.

  • Mark spends the night, and the next morning a Vanity Fair writer interviews Hadley.

  • Hadley discusses her parents' disappearance and her failed investigation.

  • Hadley and Redwood share an awkward post-table-read conversation and agree to meet again over wine.

Character Development

This chapter deepens Hadley's self-awareness and her struggle with agency. She recognizes that she has been reacting to circumstances rather than setting her own course, thinking, “I was always just reacting, always just getting buffeted along, never setting a destination.” Her confusion about Redwood reveals her vulnerability and her tendency to project hopes onto new romantic prospects. She admits to herself that she was hoping Redwood would be the key to freeing her from her feelings for Alexei and her guilt about Oliver, but she also realizes that fresh starts are often illusions.

Hadley's conversation with the Vanity Fair writer exposes her complicated relationship with her parents' disappearance. She has hired an investigator and found nothing, and she now feels that her parents “never existed at all.” This reflects her broader sense of being unmoored. Her distinction between searching and seeking—where a seeker looks for enlightenment and a searcher is more open-ended—shows her intellectual engagement with her own identity, even as she admits she is “a little bit lost.”

Redwood remains somewhat opaque, but his cautious behavior and his nervousness about having made a fool of himself suggest he is also uncertain about their connection. Bart's philosophical monologue influences the chapter's tone, framing Hadley's personal struggles within larger questions about fate and free will.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

  • Beginnings as ambient and unfixed: Bart's speech directly echoes Marian's opening lines and applies them to the film and to Hadley's life. The idea that beginnings are not fixed but happen all the time without notice resonates with Hadley's inability to pinpoint where her relationship with Redwood started or where it might go.

  • Irreversible chain reactions: Bart's concept that every action sets off unforeseeable consequences mirrors Hadley's reflections on her past relationships and her current choices. She sees her life as a series of reactions rather than deliberate actions.

  • Disappearance as escape hatch: Hadley's discussion of her parents' disappearance and her own interest in Marian's fate highlights the idea that disappearance offers an escape from accountability or pain. She notes that even if Marian had survived, she would be a hundred years old now, so the mystery is ultimately moot.

  • Searching versus seeking: The Vanity Fair writer's distinction between a searcher and a seeker becomes a key motif. Hadley identifies as a searcher, but one who is often lost, suggesting a lack of direction.

  • Red herrings as distractions: Hadley's Instagram scrolling is explicitly described as pulling up a net full of red herrings. She is looking for answers in the wrong places, distracting herself from the real questions about her life.

  • Reaction versus agency: Hadley's internal monologue emphasizes her passivity. She is always reacting to others—Redwood, Mark, her past—rather than making deliberate choices.

  • The past as constraint: Bart's assertion that “the past” is the system we act within is reflected in Hadley's inability to escape her history with Alexei and Oliver.

  • Parental abandonment: Hadley's interview reveals her deep-seated fear that her parents' disappearance was a deliberate abandonment, and she has tried to investigate it, but found nothing.

  • Love versus enlightenment: Hadley explicitly states that love and enlightenment are opposites, suggesting she sees romantic love as a distraction from self-knowledge.

  • Fresh starts as illusion: Hadley's realization that each new romantic prospect is not a fresh start but a continuation of previous trajectories undermines the idea of a clean slate.

Why This Chapter Matters

Chapter 20 is pivotal for Hadley's character development. It exposes her internal conflict between wanting connection and fearing vulnerability, and it introduces the film's structure as a metaphor for her own fragmented sense of time and identity. Bart's speech about beginnings and chain reactions provides a philosophical framework that Hadley applies to her own life, making her more introspective than in earlier chapters.

The chapter also advances the subplot with Redwood, setting up a potential relationship that is both promising and uncertain. Hadley's decision to text Mark and her subsequent interview with Vanity Fair highlight her tendency to use distraction and public persona to mask her private insecurities. Her comments about disappearance and abandonment deepen our understanding of her motivations and her connection to Marian, whose story she is telling.

Finally, the chapter's title, “Red Herrings,” underscores the theme of misdirection—both in Hadley's personal life and in the narrative itself. It reminds readers that not everything is as it seems, and that Hadley's search for meaning may be leading her astray.

Study Questions and Answers

1. How does Bart's speech about beginnings and chain reactions reflect Hadley's own situation?

Bart argues that beginnings are not fixed but ambient, and that every action sets off irreversible chain reactions within the constraints of the past. Hadley applies this to her own life, realizing that her night with Redwood was not a fresh start but part of an ongoing trajectory shaped by her feelings for Alexei and her guilt about Oliver. She sees herself as being “buffeted along” by reactions rather than making deliberate choices, which aligns with Bart's view that we are all acting within an impossibly complex system.

2. What does Hadley's Instagram scrolling reveal about her state of mind?

Hadley scrolls through the profiles of all her past lovers, including Alexei, Oliver, and Jones Cohen, but she admits she doesn't know what she is looking for. She describes it as pulling up a heavy net full of red herrings, suggesting she is distracting herself from the real questions about her life. The scrolling reflects her restlessness and her tendency to look for answers in the wrong places, as well as her inability to move on from the past.

3. How does the Vanity Fair interview shape Hadley's public persona versus her private self?

During the interview, Hadley performs a version of herself that is confident and unbothered, with Mark in the pool as a prop to signal that she doesn't need pity. She gives quotable lines like “I always seem to be a little bit lost” and discusses her parents' disappearance in a way that sounds rehearsed. However, her private thoughts reveal deep uncertainty and a longing for connection. The interview highlights the gap between her public image and her internal struggles, a theme that runs throughout the novel.

Navigation

Published by What Happened?

How this guide was made Report an error