The Great Believers

A page turnerAn absorbing and emotionally riveting story about what it s like to live during times of crisis New York Times Book Review.A dazzling new novel of friendship and redemption in the face of tragedy and loss set in 1980s Chicago and contemporary Paris, by the acclaimed and award winning author Rebecca MakkaiIn 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in 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, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself Soon 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 crisis, she finds herself finally grappling with the devastating ways AIDS affected her life and her relationship with her daughter The two intertwining stories take us through the heartbreak of the eighties and the chaos of the modern world, as both Yale and Fiona struggle to find goodness in the midst of disaster. New Read The Great Believers author Rebecca Makkai For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr Only giving this five stars because I m married to the author s husband.I m between 3.5 and 4 stars, rounding up.At the start of The Great Believers , Rebecca Makkai s beautifully poignant yet meandering new novel, it is 1985, and Yale Tishman and his partner, Charlie, are preparing for the memorial service for Nico, a friend who has recently died of AIDS.The gay community in Chicago where they live has been devastated by this recently discovered disease, as have gay communities across the country The sense of loss they feel is just beginning to hit them, as they I m between 3.5 and 4 stars, rounding up.At the start of The Great Believers , Rebecca Makkai s beautiful...4.5 The story opens with the death of a young gay man, named Nico Disowned by this family for his sexual preference, that is all but his younger sister, Fiona, who is with him until the end This is her introduction into the gay community, a community that will embrace her as she embraces them It is the eighties in Chicago, Boys town and the AIDS epidemic is in full swing We meet many of these young men, so many whose families have cut them loose See their fear, their sorrow...The Great Believers 3.5 stars rounded up 1980s Chicago, the devastating AIDS epidemic seen through the eyes of a group of gay friends as they slowly lose so many in their circle of friends, reflects the time in a realistic way Fiona who has lost her loving brother and many of their friends over the years travels in to Paris in 2015, connecting with Richard an old friend from those times, as she searches for her daughter and the grandchild she has not met The chapters alternate between these t The Great Believers 3.5 stars rounded up 1980s Chicago, the devastating AIDS epidemic seen through the eyes of a group of gay friends as they slowly lose so many in their circle of friends, reflects the time in a realistic way Fiona who has lost her loving brother and many of their friends over the years travels in to Paris in 2015, connecting with Richard an old friend from those times, as she searches for her daughter and the grandchild she has not met The chapters alternate between these two time periods and these two places and it was good to have the connection of some of the same people so moving from one time to another felt seamless in ways.This is an important story depicting the devastation of the Aids epidemic, but there were so many times when I felt that the story dragged on, was too long, that I was not as captivated as I hoped I would be While I was definitely moved by the 19...3.5 starsI really loved the themes running through The Great Believers, but I was a little less enthusiastic about the delivery.The story is told in two timelines The first timeline runs from the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s, and it is focused on a group of characters affected by the AIDS epidemic in Chicago The story is told from Yale s perspective, who is seeing many of his friends getting sick and dying Much of his story focuses on the breakdown of his relationship and an art show that he is 3.5 starsI really loved the themes running through The Great Believers, but I was a little less enthusiastic about the delivery.The story is told in two timelines The first timeline runs from the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s, and it is focused on a group of characters affected by the AIDS epidemic in Chicago The story is told from Yale s perspective, who is seeing many of his friends getting sick and dying Much of his story focuses on the breakdown of his rel...In a weird way, I feel that this is the sweeping gay masterpiece that A Little Life should ve been It s a nice long read about a close knit group of gay friends and their straight allies that jumps back and forth between the height of the AIDS crisis in Chicago and present day Paris Makkai does a pretty clever thing here by drawing parallels between the Lost Generation from WWI and survivors of the AIDS crisis Ordinarily, when I read books that go back and forth between two narrators I tend t In a weird way, I feel that this is the sweeping gay masterpiece that A Little Life should ve been It s a nice long re...When my best friend, Wade, died of complications of the AIDS virus in 1992, I was devastated and broken If it weren t for my fianc now husband , I may have spiraled into a dark, depressing space for a long time Makkai s book brought it all back to me the despair, the secrets, and the shame that was forced upon my friend from the virus and the politics of the time Even though the locale Chicago Paris in Makkai s novel is different than my own, and the plot of course sprang from the depth o When my best friend, Wade, died of complications of the AIDS virus in 1992, I was devastated and broken If it weren t for my fianc now husband , I may have spiraled into a dark, depressing space for a long time Makkai s book brought it all back to me the despair, the secrets, and the shame that was forced upon my friend from the virus and the politics of the time Even though the locale ...Genre General FictionPublisher Penguin Group VikingPub Date June 19, 2018 The Grim Reaper follows all in this novel Think of Scrooge without a happy ending The author, Rebecca Makkai, writes about the 1980s AIDS outbreak The novel is set in the heart of Chicago in an area known as Boystown There are two storylines, told in ...But what a burden, to be Horatio To be the one with the memory Like many others of a certain age who are fans of musical theater, I went through a phase in my late teens and early twenties where I thought Rent was the most amazing piece of art ever created A lot about the show hasn t aged well just pay your rent, guys but it s still a moving remembr...There s an important story here at least in the 1985 strand as AIDS cuts through the Chicago gay community but something about Makkai s style left me feeling mostly disengaged from it in emotional terms Sure, I had moments of anger as we witness a dead man s parents exclude his lover from the funeral, the horrible voyeurism that makes a thing of a man being gay, black, whatever But overall I was never able to get involved or attached to what is going on.Add to the style a baggy structure t There s an important story here at least in the 1985 strand as AIDS cuts through the Chicago gay community but something about Makkai s style left me feeling mostly disengaged from it in emotional terms Sure, I had moments of anger as we witness a dead man s parents exclude his lover from the funeral, the horrible voyeurism that makes a thing of a man being gay, black, whatever But overall I was never able to get involved or attached to what is going on.Add to t...

• English
• 24 March 2017
Rebecca Makkai
• Hardcover
• 421 pages
• 0735223521
• Rebecca Makkai
• The Great Believers