juliabuj 's review for:

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

5.0

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WOW Big beautiful powerful heavy expansive book. A braid of two stories - one of a friend group in 1980s Chicago during the AIDS epidemic and one in the present day, 2015, Paris as one of men's sisters searches for her estranged daughter. At first I had a hard time being equally drawn to both story lines (and even didn't realize they shared characters at first) but as the characters started to develop more and you began to see their desires and flaws I really couldn't put it down. The historical fiction element deepened the characters for me and made it feel even that more real (because even though it is fiction, these stories are not far off from truth). Also an engaging glimpse into the art world in both story lines was particularly interesting. But what really connected me to this was discussions of community, grief, love, pain, trust... No character was perfect but none were evil. Was hoping the whole read for a happy ending... but that wouldn't have been accurate and that made it hit even harder. Spent the last 50 pages of the book crying and just soaking it in.

My mom said "I like when books stay with you" and this one definitely will.

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"He went back to the kiss in his mind. He could live there a long time. It was warm there, and good."

"But what a burden, to be Horatio. To be the one with the memory."