Fiona Marcus' life spans the AIDS crisis as it hits Chicago in the late 1980's and her attempts to reconcile with her daughter in Paris in 2015. Fiona is the younger sister of Nico Marcus, a young man who leaves his suburban home in his late teens to live in Chicago's Boystown neighborhood. Fiona visits him regularly and becomes friends with her brother's circle of friends. As the friends lives are changed by the devastation wrought by the early days of the HIV virus, they struggle with their feelings, their sexuality, their relationships, their jobs.
Fiona's brother Nico dies in the early pages of the book. We follow the story of Yale Tishman, the development director for an art museum at Northwestern University. As Yale navigates the donation of some undocumented works of art from 1920's Paris, art that is owned by the great-aunt of Nico and Fiona, he faces changes in his personal life and challenges to his career.
Fiona holds Power of Attorney for Nico's partner Terrence and later for Yale. Her love for her brother drives her to hold the lives of his friends with more regard than her family. At least that's what we hear from Claire who is in Paris after disappearing three years earlier to join a religious movement in Colorado. When Fiona finds Claire - and explains that she is staying with Richard Campo - a photographer friend from the 1980/90's in Chicago - Claire refers to her mother as St. Fiona - referring to the time in her life when Fiona was "mothering" many of her brother's friends.
The book references many events from Chicago in the early days of AIDS activism - the debates over testing - the early days of the gay press - the protests for more beds in the Cook County Hospital - protests for better care for those dying of complications from AIDS. We follow Yale's life through two negative tests - the loss of his partner Charlie to a break-up and then to death - Yale's work trauma - to a positive test and Yale's eventual death.
But as Julian Ames said when he appears in Paris in 2015 - he was able to hang on until the 90's when "the good drugs" came out.
I wasn't sure I was going to like the juxtaposition of the gay community in Chicago in the '80s with a mother searching for her adult daughter in Paris in 2015 - but Makkai made it work. I finished the book on World AIDS Day - and had trouble sleeping that night for thoughts of the what-ifs for the characters in the book - and thoughts of the bravery it took to face the uncertainty, the confusion and the anger of the times. Those feelings coming not just from within your own community - but also from people who didn't understand the virus and it's impact - and the people who refused to accept homosexuality.
Makkai interviewed some of these brave souls for her book - I am inspired by their tireless efforts at fighting this beast of HIV - and the fight is not over.