The Great Believers

A Novel

by

Paperback, 448 pages

Published June 4, 2019 by Penguin Books.

ISBN:
978-0-7352-2353-0
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3 stars (3 reviews)

In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup: bringing an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDs epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying and after his friend Nico's funeral, he finds his partner is infected, and that he might even have the virus himself. The only person he has left is Fiona, Nico's little sister.

Thirty years later, Fiona is in Paris tracking down her estranged daughter who disappeared into a cult. While staying with an old friend, a famous photographer who documented the Chicago epidemic, she finds herself finally grappling with the devastating ways the AIDS crisis affected her life and her relationship with her daughter. Yale and Fiona's stories unfold in incredibly moving and …

7 editions

reviewed The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

Review of 'The Great Believers' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This book explores the lives of people in Chicago as their lives were turned upside down by AIDS in the 1980s. It draws important parallels to Paris around the time of the World War I and the Influenza pandemic. While the disruptions of World War I, the Influenza pandemic, and the early days of AIDS are different from the experiences we are having during the COVID pandemic, there are important insights we can learn.

I highly recommend this book for anyone thinking about how we respond war, pandemics, and other disruptions.

reviewed The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

Review of 'The Great Believers' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

[possibly 2+] I think if this had been significantly shorter (better edited and focused) it could have been a much better book. The Paris story line was largely unnecessary until the very last line of the book, which, surely, could have been handled a different way/sooner. I didn't form a strong interest in any of the characters, save Nora, who was incidental (especially if the Paris story line was cut). I could have mustered up more interest in Yale, possibly, had the book been focused on his story line (set in the mid- to late-80s, on the AIDS crisis in Chicago).

reviewed The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

Review of 'The Great Believers' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

[possibly 2+] I think if this had been significantly shorter (better edited and focused) it could have been a much better book. The Paris story line was largely unnecessary until the very last line of the book, which, surely, could have been handled a different way/sooner. I didn't form a strong interest in any of the characters, save Nora, who was incidental (especially if the Paris story line was cut). I could have mustered up more interest in Yale, possibly, had the book been focused on his story line (set in the mid- to late-80s, on the AIDS crisis in Chicago).