Reviews

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

Only show reviews with written explanations

kitkatsbookden's review against another edition

3.0

This one didn’t work for me. I was into it at the beginning but I kept waiting for something “big” to happen. Not that there weren’t some major events in the book but they felt really predictable.

I did like the duel timelines and the ending, but the character of Claire and her family could’ve been delved into a bit more.

Not upset I read it, but definitely felt like trudging through towards the end.

acsaper's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

A heartbreakingly beautiful work. Or beautifully heartbreaking work. Or beautiful. And heartbreaking. And warming, and compelling, and terrifying, and enriching, all at the same time. Makkai rips open our hearts with a deep dive into Chicago's gay scene during the height of the AIDS crisis in the mid-1980's. In parallel stories she transports readers across the ocean to Paris, both post 9/11 and in the 1920's. Art, beauty, love, loss, parenthood, childhood, loyalty, integrity, ethics, pain, suffering, joy, and sentiment make up the yarns that hold the tales together, spinning ever more tightly towards their inevitable core. The young men she describes live a beautiful yet tragic life of love and exploration and anger and frustration and trying to cope with a world in which it seems as though they are being slaughtered and left to their own devices to deal with it. And, so much more. A wonderful book. Highly recommended. So glad I found it.