Have you ever read a book that you valued but did not necessarily enjoy? Well, that‘s how I feel about this book. To say I enjoyed it would be wildly incorrect. I‘m not sure we are meant to “enjoy” it, in the true sense of that word. Enjoy means to take delight or pleasure in. And in this book, the characters are too selfish, the situation is too raw, too painful, too REAL. But I appreciate it for the complex and literary piece of work that it is.

Bernadette, you are quirky, witty, loving, and weird. I must say, I loved every page of this book. It is satire at its finest - a commentary on the wealthy, the “worldly”, the self-delusional, the tech obsessed, the mommy gossipers, and the spiritually empty. But at its heart, it is a story about a mother and a daughter who love each other fiercely and go to the ends of the earth for one another - literally, they go to Antarctica. Highly recommend

“I‘d have made a great Hamlet. But what a burden. To be Horatio. To be the one with the memory.”

The Great Believers is one of the best books I‘ve ever read. It ripped me in half. I felt a part of Yale‘s relationship with Charlie, of his friend group, of the devastation that tracks them all. I felt like Fiona‘s best friend, a party to her grief. But Makkai also writes about the human experience in a way so obvious, yet so rarely articulable. And on top of it all, it is an enjoyable read - the characters are delightful, funny, and relatable.