The Great Believers
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By Matthew Johannes, Intern Writer
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Edited By Kiara Timo-Vaughn, Lead Editorial Intern
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In her novel, The Great Believers, Rebecca Makkai tells the story of a group of friends coping with the fear of death against the backdrop of the 1980s AIDS epidemic that ravished the Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual population of the United States, especially in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco. As with the works of art about this epidemic that came before it, The Great Believers serves a twofold purpose, both to entertain the reader with its artistic values and to reclaim and draw light to a historical tragedy that was pushed under the carpet in its own time. When the AIDS epidemic was in full swing, it was never treated as an emergency by the right-wing administration and as such, it fell on the shoulders of artists, like Rebecca Makkai, to tell the true story.
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At its heart, The Great Believers is a story both of living in the belly of the tragic epidemic, and of looking back on it years after as a survivor, trying to cope with the horror of the event. The Great Believers is paced in a nonlinear fashion. The chapters shift back and forth between the height of the epidemic between 1985 and 1989 and the year 2015 thirty years after. In the 1985 period, we follow the character arc of Yale Tishman, the developmental director of a Chicago art gallery whose circle of friends is decimated by the AIDS epidemic. As the disease picks off his friends one by one, he is left with the protagonist of the 2015 period, Fiona, the sister of one of his dead friends. Fiona’s 2015 arc depicts her dealing with the trauma of the effects that the AIDS crisis had on her friends and family while she stays with a photographer in Paris, who documented the pandemic at its height.
The back and forth nature of the chapters leads to an effect that, while occasionally confusing (as one would expect from such a narrative style) leads to an extremely rich and thorough view of the entire situation revolving around the crisis. The dramatic time shift also creates a sense of viewing the story as generational that seems important to the author’s mission. Through this generational effect we are forced to see the AIDS pandemic, and the story she tells within its sphere, not as some isolated historical event, but as a defining moment in the history of our culture. This essentially breaks the situation free from the narrative that the reigning powers attempted to push during the pandemic. The effects of the disease are not pushed down and diminished but rather allowed to tragically blossom through the story, touching the lives characters of characters across the generational gap.
While by no means a light read, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in gaining a thorough view of an event that was historically pushed under the carpet, as well as anyone interested in an incredibly well crafted and immersive story of tragedy and friendship.
While by no means a light read, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in gaining a thorough view of an event that was historically pushed under the carpet, as well as anyone interested in an incredibly well crafted and immersive story of tragedy and friendship.
