'The Great Believers' Author Rebecca Makkai Headlines One Book Event

Speaker 1: 00:00 One book, one San Diego is a partnership between KPBS and 80 libraries across the county. The idea is to bring the community together by reading and discussing the same book this year is one book selection for adult readers is the great believers. The novel is set in Chicago and the 80s at the height of the AIDS crisis. It's a story of friendship and redemption in the face of tragedy and loss. Here's the author Rebecca MCI speaking with KPBS Evening Edition Anchor Ebony Monet. So what compelled you to write this? Speaker 2: 00:34 I started off trying to just tell a story. There's a thread of the book that is about the art world of Paris in the 20s and it grew from that into a story about the eighties as well. This woman looking back from the end of her life and I realized when I had a story set in the 80s that it was an opportunity to write about the aids epidemic, which is an epidemic I came of age with. I was born in 1978 and it's something that has been an interest of mine throughout my life. Speaker 1: 01:02 And so born in 1978 you would have been very young during this time. What did it take to research the subject matter? Speaker 2: 01:09 Because I was writing about Chicago in specific rather than New York or San Francisco. Um, I wasn't able to just go get books about I should be, it's America's third largest city. Right. But I wasn't able to go check out books about AIDS in Chicago. They don't exist. I had to for the Chicago Parts, dig into archival research. Um, I read back issues of our gay weeklies for instance. But most importantly, I spoke to people. I had interviews, um, friends of friends. I came vouched for by the last person I'd spoken to. And I ended up speaking to doctors, nurses, lawyers, journalists, activists, historians and survivors who shared their stories. They were incredibly generous with me. Um, and it would not have been able to write a book with this texture and this level of detail and I wouldn't have been able to get it right on the broader points either without their help. Speaker 1: 02:00 And as you've mentioned, part of this book is based in Chicago, which is your hometown. What were some of the added benefits or obstacles of writing a novel set in your own town? Speaker 2: 02:11 Right. Well, they thought it would be easier because here's one thing I don't have to research, but in fact, because you know, I know Chicago, but I didn't know my parents weren't taking me to gay bars when I was seven years old. Sadly. Um, I, I had to dig back. I had to really talk to people. And the great joy for me in that though was walking through a city that was really transformed for me by the stories I heard. I wasn't basing my characters on real people, but there are real events. There was a major national act up demonstration in Chicago in April of 1990 um, where these men got out on the ledge of the county building with this banner and it's a building I've driven past many times and now when I drive past, I feel like I'm passing historical site, which I really am. Speaker 2: 02:54 The neighborhood boys town, where much of the book takes place has been transformed for me by the true stories I heard and by my own imagination as my characters became very real to me too. And you reference the great believers who are the great believers, right? It's from a quote that I use in the epigraph by f Scott Fitzgerald. He was talking about his generation, which is, it struck me as odd because that's the generation we think of as the lost generation, right? These jaded young men going to Paris after the war. But he was talking about his generation before the war. And I started thinking about the parallels there. This generation, especially the visual artists that I'm writing about, a bit in the book who went to Paris before world war one found chosen families, found each other, found happiness, and then world war one and the influenza of 1918 rolled through and decimated that generation, largely of its young able bodied men. And it's in the aftermath of that, that Gertrude sign says to Hemingway, you're all a lost generation. The parallels between that scenario and the AIDS generation of a city like Chicago were so striking to me. The people who got to Chicago, it's post stonewall things were as good as they've ever been. They have each other and then this plague descends and we're 30 years into relative aftermath even as it's still an ongoing crisis in our country and in the world. Speaker 1: 04:13 And this book is getting a positive response. Um, publisher's weekly calls it a striking emotional journey. The New York Times called it a page Turner, one that conveys the terrorists and tragedies of the [inaudible] Speaker 2: 04:27 early years. What do you hope people get from this book? Ultimately as a novelist, my primary job is to tell you a story and hopefully you get more than that along the way. But if I don't capture you with a story, I never have your ear. Right. And I think there's something that fiction can do with empathy, bringing people close to events, to characters, to problems, to ideas that nonfiction doesn't quite do. And I, my hope is that I'm reaching people with this book, starting conversations with people who might not have picked up a nonfiction book about AIDS, might not have watched a documentary about it. But Mike, get to know this time and this, these people through my characters. Speaker 1: 05:11 One book, one San Diego is launching on Thursday at Balboa Theater. Tell us about it. Speaker 2: 05:17 Yeah, it's at 7:00 PM. It's free to the public. Um, we are going to have the San Diego gay men's chorus there, which I'm thrilled about. Um, before I speak, Terry Cunningham, who's a local aids activist of long time will be speaking and talking about the history of AIDS in San Diego. And I'm so thrilled to be part of that conversation. Those conversations that might start about what happened here and what's still happening here. Not New York, Not San Francisco, and separate from Chicago, so I cannot wait. Speaker 1: 05:47 That was Rebecca MCI, author of our one book selection, the Greek believers speaking with evening edition Anchor Ebony Monet.