The terror of the AIDS epidemic as depicted in The Great Believers

Rebecca Makkai's novel The Great Believers (2018) becomes increasingly scary, almost horror-movie like, as we watch the AIDS virus rip through the gay male community in Chicago in 1985/6 - especially scary because at that time there was no known cure, it took a long time after testing to determine whether one was infected or not, many believed the test was inaccurate anyway, and there was even political pressure in the community not to be tested, with the idea, not totally off the wall, that the government would use data on who's been tested to identify gay men with who knows what nefarious intent or purpose. So at about half-way through the novel the main character (of the 1985 narrative), Yale, suspects he might be infected as his partner, Charlie, announces he's been unfaithful and has come down w/ the virus. Yale's world goes into a tailspin, as he leaves their relationship and is essentially homeless - and he goes through a litany of all the men, all the friends, he has lost already, a frightful accounting. As readers, we don't know Yale's fate, although the parallel narrative takes place in 2015, but so far Yale has not been mentioned in that narrative (though several men and women in his acquaintance are part of it); Massai does a good job maintaining the tension, and a particularly good job with the surface narrative of the 1985 story line, as Yale works to secure an large art donation to the museum where he works; that story line is surprisingly interesting (at least to me) and nuanced. Somewhat less successful are the story line involving Yale's long-term relationship with the now-infected Charlie - I just never sensed that there was anything deep or lasting there, in part because Yale's interest often strayed - and the plot line in the 2015 narrative as Fiona, sister of one of Yale's late friends, searches in Paris for her daughter (who'd joined a cult) and grand-daughter (whom she'd never met). That narrative seems more like a typical quest story, one incident or citing or bit of evidence leading her ever closer to her quarry, but without any real tension or drama. Still, overall, the novel maintains its pace and interest level over several hundred pages - a rarity!