Chronically Ill Kat

TW Aids, Death:
I read The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai recently and decided that I needed to review it. Today is World Aids Awareness day so seemed like the perfect time to discuss a novel set in the gay scene whilst the AIDS epidemic was on the rise.

At the beginning of this novel we meet Yale and his partner Charlie, who are preparing to go to the unofficial wake of their friend Nico. Nico is the first of their close friendship group to die of AIDS. And this sets the tone for the rest of the book.

The book flicks between two different narrators and time periods. One tells the tale of Yale and his group of predominantly gay friends in 1980s Chicago: the beginning of the AIDS crisis. As might be expected in a tale about a group of gay men in the 1980s, this one is incredibly tragic. We are introduced to a number of characters, each of whom is incredibly life-like and interesting – and we fall in love with every one. They are in no way one-dimensional, and each has their own quirky set of circumstances, life story and characteristics: for example, Julian, a very flirty, somewhat flaky, but also warm and entertaining character. We watch as Yale and his friends navigate the early part of the AIDS crisis and, gradually, we see many members of their group becoming infected and dying. The impact on their friendship group slowly intensifies and the tone of the novel begins to turn. Makkai does an incredible job of conveying the confusing and complicated emotions and relationships of this time – in a tone which is tragic but still manages to mix optimism and despair.

Throughout this part of the story we see the way in which different parts of the community come to terms with and deal with the onset of the AIDS crisis. This is around the time when the AIDS test was developed, and there are huge differences in opinion within the group of friends about whether they should get tested or not. Some of the characters also end up being involved in massive protests, demanding the government to do something about AIDS. This is a time when the implications of being unfaithful suddenly became about so much more than just cheating; sometimes it was literally a matter of life and death. The intensity of this is pervasive, and the level of fear and distrust, mixed with people’s attempts to carry on living normally, are so clear to see. They still have their jobs, their relationships and their everyday lives to lead.

Yet there is so much shame associated with this epidemic and with getting sick – not only on individuals but on the gay community as a whole – a sentiment which comes across really clearly. Makkai conveys the contradiction between inexorable doom, and the need to carry on living. Whilst there are inevitable similarities in the ways in which each character dies, their deaths are also incredibly different, depending on their wealth, the particular hospital they are in, how supportive their families are, and also how many people are left in their circle to care, by the time they die.

In Yale’s part of the story we also learn about his job. He is working in the art world, on a major project, and is aiming to get Nora, an old lady with a large art collection, to donate some of her art pieces to the gallery where he works. During this time, Yale becomes invested in the story behind these art pieces, as told by Nora who, at the time, was a young woman, living in France, and working in the art world herself. She tells how she fell in love with an artist who, at the start of the First World War, like many other young men, went off to fight and never returned. This situation cleverly parallels that of the gay community in Chicago, at a time when whole sections of the community were lost to AIDS. It is also, incidentally, where the whole idea for the book started!   

The second narrator in the book is Fiona, Nico’s sister, who grows up an outspoken ally of the gay community and becomes a main carer for many of those in Yale and Nico’s friendship group. She watches as all those she loves slowly disappear and the community she loves is ravaged. And then she has to pick herself up and carry on living, after losing so much. In Fiona’s story, she is also searching for her missing daughter, who has run away to join a cult and then disappeared. Fiona follows clues to Paris where she stays with one of the few remaining members of her old life in Chicago, Richard Campo, a photographer.

Whilst I see what Makkai was trying to do with Fiona’s part of the tale and I found her sections to be interesting, certainly at the beginning, the mother-daughter rift seemed somewhat tenuous. This is a shame because I think Fiona’s narrative was intended to illustrate the passage of time and how, through her search for her daughter, she comes to realise how much the AIDS epidemic has truly affected her. Being surrounded by the ghosts of her old friends, through Richard’s photographs, she is finally able to start coming to terms with her traumatic early life – and begins to see how much she has personally felt the effects of the epidemic. Although this story is tenuous in parts, it effectively links the passages of time and provides a beautiful ending to the story… but I will not give any spoilers here!

This book makes for an intense read. It was a book that I could not put down until I had read it fully to the end and you can really tell how much research Makkai put into writing it. When she initially began to research the topic, she found surprisingly few non-fiction books about the early part of the AIDS crisis, so ended up reaching out and talking extensively with large numbers of people who were alive during the time, and based in Chicago, where her story is set. As a result, the content is heavily influenced by those who lived through the events about which she talks and went to the places she mentions in her book. This is evident when you see the life-like characters she has created and how they bring the whole story alive.

To end this review, I wanted to write a little about AIDS in the modern era. Although medicine has come a long way, and there are more laws protecting people living with it, HIV has not gone away. In certain areas of the world, it is still a huge issue, and even in those places where medical treatment is more accessible, there is a huge stigma associated with having AIDS, and discrimination against those living with the condition. AIDS still disproportionately affects the LGBTQ+ community, and is rife in many parts of gay society, yet it is often low down on the agenda of LGBTQ+ rights organisations with money – ranked below more tokenistic fights.

I suspect that few people realise how prevalent HIV/AIDS actually is, so – as it is HIV/AIDS awareness day today – I urge you to look into the modern day consequences of the AIDS epidemic, and learn something about its history. This is an epidemic that is not talked about often nor enough.

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