"In 1985, Yale Tishman is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery where he works. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around ...

Our review of The Great Believers was largely positive, although many of us found flaws with the book -- just not the same ones. What we all agreed about was that as a depiction of the early days of the AIDS crisis, particularly of the ignorance and recklessness of the people living in that moment, was both powerful and true. We really liked the symmetry of book created between the two central traumas of the war of Nora's past and the AIDS epidemic of Yale's present, and the way that both traumas produced the same loss of young men, the same ennui and self-destructive behavior, the same women caretakers and survivors. The parallel of Yale seeing Nora's show and being the only one to understand the history, and Fiona seeing Richard's show and being the only one to understand who those young men of Chicago were, was very elegant. However, the debate about the book revolved around the structure of having the Yale and Fiona stories run side by side. About half of NUBClub liked that structure, and felt that the two stories weaved together well for maximum power and emotional impact. The other half had various issues with this structure. Some people found the integration of the two stories manipulative, in that it allowed Makkai to hide information that characters already knew for the right moment to punch the reader in the heart. This was largely a matter of taste, but many of the elements some found poignant others found cheap. Really, the reckless one survives? Really, Yale's arc? We were split on whether those plots were masterfully weaved or obviously contrived to make you cry. The other main criticism was about the Fiona plot. Defenders felt her story was necessary to show the epidemic from an outside perspective of a straight women and a caretaker, but others felt the subplot of Fiona's daughter was unbelievable. Almost none of found Fiona's daughter Claire sympathetic, and many of us felt Makkai didn't do enough to show how Fiona was a bad mother to take Claire's word for it. Some suggested that the Fiona plot wasn't necessary at all, while others found none of the characters sympathetic. But the majority of NUBClub really liked the novel. It's a painful and punishing story in which you question the decisions and mourn the mistakes of the characters repeatedly, but those who liked it particularly liked the way that the books looked at how people actually live in crises and the mistakes that they make that are perhaps their most human features. In the end, the majority of NUBClub loved the book, although might not recommend something so painful to others to read, and even the members who found it manipulative or in need of a large edit couldn't argue with the optimism and love the book showed in its touching conclusion.