2023 book 159

 Rebecca Makkai's The Great Believers

I wanted to reread this, so obviously I made it this month's book club pick. And as I texted to Christina, who was ahead of me on her reread, “I remembered it was gutting but didn’t remember it was GUTTING.” Absolutely beautiful book but, yeah, kind of gutting! There are two storylines—one focuses on a group of gay men (and one's little sister) in 1980s Chicago, as they’re being decimated by AIDS, and the other features the little sister thirty years later, in Paris looking for the daughter she hasn’t seen in years. I am still a little weepy so I’m going to wrap this up now.