Thewanderingjew

The Great Believers, Rebecca Makkai, author; Michael Crouch, narrator

This novel alternates between the past in the 1980’s and pretty much the present, in 2015. In the traumatic early 80’s, there was a large scale outbreak of AIDS in the gay community. AIDS was already surging in Africa. Now it was decimating a once thriving small neighborhood in Chicago. The backlash against those infected was huge. Their behavior was blamed as fear swept the country and they were not considered worthy of saving. They were left mostly to their own devices as they suffered and died in cities all over the United States. As it spread into the larger community of straight men and women, who were considered less expendable, it became a more urgent concern to find a cure or a treatment. Makkai puts the reader in Chicago’s Boystown, where the gay community lived, loved, played, suffered, and died.

In the 1980’s, Yale lived with his partner, Charlie. They had both tested virus free, but their friend Niko was now infected and dying. His young, teenage sister Fiona was his main support after he was thrown out of his home. Yale and Fiona were very close friends. Together, they illuminate the tragedy of AIDS as their anxieties and experiences are illustrated with emotional and intellectual authenticity.

When Fiona’s Great Aunt Nora wanted to donate art work to a museum where it would be displayed, Fiona suggested Yale to her. He was fundraising for a gallery he had started in conjunction with Northwestern University. Cecily was the woman involved with planned giving at Northwestern University. Together she and Yale visited Nora to learn about her art collection. Cecily had a young son, an 11 year old, named Kurt.

When the novel goes some three decades into the future, to 2015, the reader finds an older Fiona in Paris, crashing at her friend Richard’s house. He is an artist who happily lives with his partner Serge. The times have changed, and they have become more open to gay relationships and marriages. Fiona had grown up. She had a daughter, named Claire who had not contacted her for three years. She had gone to Paris to hire a private detective to search for Claire. She believed she was in Paris. Fiona had recently learned that Claire might have had a child of her own. Was Fiona a grandmother? Claire had never told her. Several years prior, Claire had run away and married Cecily’s son, Kurt, who was much older than she was. Together, they had joined a cult. Shortly after she makes contact with Claire, there is a terrorist attack in Paris, near the area where Claire lived.

Meanwhile, back in the 1980’s, Yale is exploring the art collection of Fiona’s Great Aunt to see if it is of any value. When he decides to accept the donation to the museum and Nora’s terms, the reader learns of Nora’s past. Nora’s relationship with famous artists and her description of her experiences during the war years enhances the book. There will be a common theme of trauma during the war years that parallels both the trauma of the Aids epidemic and the trauma of the terrorism in Paris. Another common theme is the study of the word attack. AIDS victims suffer attacks of illness. Soldiers suffer attacks during the war. Terrorists attack innocent people in Paris. All of the victims are to one degree or another unfairly marked! Another common theme is art. Yale is fundraising for an art gallery. Nora wants to donate her art collection. Richard is soon to have a reception in his honor at the Pompidou.

The author truly captured the atmosphere of the times and the way of life that was shared by those who contracted and suffered from this dreaded disease. She illustrated the feelings and concerns of those who became caregivers to those infected with the virus. She accurately presented the shared concerns of those who were related to, or who were friends of victims or soon-to-be victims. Some, in the gay community refused to be tested to see if they carried the virus. They were on tenterhooks. It was a death sentence, and they did not want to know until they had symptoms. Still, that meant they might spread it to others, since it was spread through bodily fluids. Drug addicts who shared needles, bisexual married men, and surgical procedures in hospitals, all placed others at risk as they might be carriers or spreaders of the disease.

The author has captured the souls of the men who were vulnerable and shared their varied attitudes toward life and the disease. She has gently written of their love and their plight in a way that is not offensive, but rather, it exposes the brutal way that they were treated, before and after the epidemic. There was little compassion for their fear, pain and loneliness as they were spurned by almost everyone who feared the spread of the infection to themselves. Makkai described the public’s reaction to the disease and the thoughts of those afflicted, with perfection.

I lived through that time with friends who were stricken, and I know that they were avoided like the plague, as were those who visited with them. The parents of those infected, suffered in many ways. It was at that time, that there was not only the shame borne by the gay child, but there was shame of having a gay child. It was thought that the parent must have done something to cause the alternate sexual preference. Then, coupled with that pain, they had the further, far worse pain of watching their child suffer the awful indignities of the disease which was torturing and killing them. The public was unkind. The disease was unknown. It was a death sentence and it created widespread, and often, irrational fear. Watching those involved with the cleaning of apartments after victims died, watching first aid workers helping victims of accidents and cleaning up the scene, watching hospital employees, doctors and nurses in hazmat suits, did not create a vision of safety or confidence. Aids began in a community that was shunned because of its sexual practices. It took years for the public and the government to intervene and provide the funds for the research into a treatment and/or cure for it. It had hit a marginal, largely unaccepted community of men and women, first. It was on the bottom of the list of priorities. The victims often lost their jobs and their health insurance. It was a terrible time, and the author has described the emotions and fears of those affected, as well as those who feared infection.

The book is about devastating loss, remorse, deceit, and suffering, as well as loyalty, compassion and devotion. It is about the long term effect of trauma. Fiona feared that if she loved someone openly, they would die, because everyone around her that she loved seemed to be dying. Yale becomes aware of all the little things he would miss doing or the things he could never do again. Still, when an old friend, Julian, thought to have died of the disease, suddenly makes an appearance near the end, the reader realizes that it is no longer a death sentence, there is hope. There is a recipe of drugs that holds the virus down and does not let it develop. Today, the victims survive.

I was a bit put off by author’s political statement as she attacks the need for health care as a right and has the characters loudly condemn the Republicans and President Reagan for not doing enough to stop the crisis created by the dreaded disease. She writes about protests that, in fact, did take place, and finally brought about some change. So perhaps, the remarks were necessary. I also found the timeline confusing at times as it took me awhile to realize that the Kurt in the 1980’s, was the same Kurt that grew up and then married his friend Fiona’s young daughter, Claire. In the end, all of the pieces of the story were knitted together in perfect order! I highly recommend it, even though it is dark at times.