Coming of Age | Book Chatter

The Great Believers
By Rebecca Makkai
Penguin, 9780735223530, June 2019, 448pp.

The Short of It:

A wide, expansive novel.

The Rest of It:

“A dazzling novel of friendship and redemption in the face of tragedy and loss set in 1980s Chicago and contemporary Paris

In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying and after his friend Nico’s funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico’s little sister.” ~ the publisher

This novel encompasses so much. Yale is on the cusp of acquiring an art collection that would really put his name on the map, but there are complications. The current owner of the pieces, an elderly lady by the name of Nora, has specific desires for each piece, and her family, doesn’t approve of any of it. True, it would leave them without the inheritance but it’s art, beautiful art and meant to be enjoyed in a gallery.

Alternating between moments of beauty, there is the AIDS epidemic of the 80s. We find these characters just at the beginning of the downward spiral. Nico, is the first to be lost. Leaving a behind a handful of loyal friends who don’t really know how to go on without his constant presence.

Chicago’s gay pride scene is just starting to ramp up, along with the number of people stricken with this terrible disease. Medications are not readily available or even invented yet and the ones that do exist are too costly for the average Joe to afford. That part, has not changed has it?

Yale and his friends do their best to support the ones that get hit with the virus, but isn’t it only a matter of time before they are all affected by it in some way, directly or indirectly. They are terrified and often find themselves hopeless so this art collection is really the only thing holding Yale together.

In addition to these very serious issues, Fiona is searching desperately for her adult daughter and her grand-daughter who left the states for Paris with absolutely no trace at all. Fiona is going mad trying to find them and enlists the help of friends.

This is a beautiful, yet sad novel about friendships, love, art, everything. As depressing as the storyline is, I found myself looking forward to reading it. It seemed very hopeful in places and I appreciated those moments. We picked this for our book club pick this month and it will get a lot of discussion I think.

I will say, that as I read this book, I kept searching through my blog to see if I had read it before. According to my blog and GoodReads, no. I’ve not read it before but it felt very familiar. It did remind me a little bit of A Little Life. The Great Believers doesn’t deliver the gut punch that A Little Life did, but the tone and the friendships are similar.

I highly recommend this one. The art bits are lovely and the relationships are strong.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

Of Human Bondage
By W. Somerset Maugham
Vintage, 9780593687680, August 2024, 688pp.

The Short of It:

Happiness is an elusive thing.

The Rest of It:

If you’ve been following along then you know that I chose Of Human Bondage for an October read-along. It’s a book that has long been on my radar but it never seemed like the right time to read it. While I was in the hospital after brain surgery, I began to think about all the books that I haven’t gotten to, so once I was well enough, I promised myself to get to it. Boy, am I glad I did.

Philip is orphaned at a fairly young age. He is sent to live with his Uncle and Aunt, the Uncle is a Vicar so religion plays a huge role in the first half of the book. There, for only a short while really, he comes off as difficult and can be mean-spirited to his Aunt who truly seems to only want the best for him. So off Philip goes to a prep school.

There, he meets an interesting cast of characters, both classmates and professors but he is relentlessly bullied for the club foot he was born with. Not able to play sports, not able to wear regular shoes, as soon as anyone becomes cross with him the insults fly out of their mouths, always targeting his foot. This often leaves Philip isolated and alone.

The book chronicles Philip’s poor choices. He has many grand ideas but they often come to him on a whim and are poorly executed. Money, poverty really becomes a struggle as does his desire to be important and to be happy but what does that even mean?

Philip wants to go into religion, then business, then art and the bits of him in Paris are quite good. He does all of this to avoid the inevitable, him going to med school, like his father did. Surprisingly, he ends up seeing value in medicine and perhaps learns a thing or two while pursuing that.

The story sounds rather basic but it’s made much more complicated by certain characters. Mildred for one. She is a horrible, shrew of a person and Philip’s obsession. No matter what she does, and she does plenty, he cannot for the life of him figure out a way to live without her.

She is a villain if there ever was one. In the first movie version of this book she was played by Bette Davis. Accurate casting if I do say so.

The book feels very “Dickensian” and Philip reminded me a lot of Holden from Catcher in the Rye. As long as this book is, nearly 700 pages, I never once felt it a chore to read. I enjoyed picking it up. I had to know how Philip ended up. Did he ever obtain that elusive happiness? Read it and find out! It will be on my faves list at the end of the year. I usually don’t place classics on that list but I did enjoy it quite a bit. Such a character study.

Here are the weekly read-along recaps:

Of Human Bondage – Week 1
Of Human Bondage – Week 2
Of Human Bondage – Week 3
Of Human Bondage – Week 4
Of Human Bondage – Week 5

Source: Purchased
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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