Bingo: Recommended. A book tokker I enjoy highly recommended this book
Rebecca Makkai’s The Great Believers is one of those books that is so good, that immerses you so much, and touches you somewhere so old and grief-laden, that it’s hard to write the review. It’s one of those things where you have so much to say but without the faith you can say it right.
The book flip flops between the mid eighties/early nineties and 2015. The eighties portion follows Yale, a young gay man living in Chicago where the AIDS epidemic is starting to impact his friends and loved ones. Yale works as a fundraiser for a university’s art gallery and lives with his partner Charlie. The book opens on the celebration of life for Nico, a beloved friend who has died from AIDS. His sister Fiona is there, heartbroken but a fierce keeper of her brother’s memory, and a vital part of Nico’s community.
The 2015 section follows Fiona, who is now in her fifties and visiting Paris to try to find her estranged daughter. As Fiona’s story unfolds, the past is still with her. There is an ache for the days before the epidemic ravaged her brother’s and her friend group; a deep longing for the beautiful, free time before the many illnesses and death. There is also grief for her lost relationship with her daughter, and her guilt for the blanketed grief that she feels made her a difficult mother.
Makkai truly knows how to capture grief, memory, and the immense losses suffered by the gay community and the people that loved them. It is a well woven, moving story that tapped into my own memories of loss in general, but also raised the specter of those I lost to AIDS back in the eighties and early nineties.
This book manages to convey pain and promise in a completely authentic way. It is not maudlin or sentimental; it digs deep while also being a very engaging story with excellent characterization. Highly recommended.