pithypants reviewed The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
Review of 'The Great Believers' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
This book paints a compelling picture of Chicago in the 1980s as AIDS ravaged the gay community. In some ways, it reminded me of A Little Life, though it wasn't as jarring or sensational.
This story had the feeling of a train running the tracks – I knew where it was headed from the opening pages, and yet, despite its predictability, the ride still showed me thing I hadn't considered before. It's easy now, in 2020, to forget what it was like when HIV arrived on the scene. And since I was still in middle school when it really wrecked havoc, I didn't have any solid first-hand sense of the experience. So it was interesting to re-live the 80s, but through the perspective of young gay men who went from having it all to watching their friends die terrible, inexplicable deaths.
Anyway. I'm giving this three stars because it was well written and an interesting read, but I'm probably unfairly comparing it to A Little Life and deducting a few stars because I didn't become as attached to the characters. Definitely worth reading.