Their tale is truly their own, but the reader should also see how these characters’ struggles resonate with our own troubles and times as we travel back to theirs. The Great Believers is no different in its detailed consideration of the past as she focuses on several groups who view themselves as outsiders and protesters. Makkai’s attention to time in this story demonstrates the effects of trauma, the joys of the fanciful, and the ways that we endure. Makkai has long accomplished such adroit work in her previous novels, short story collection, and common appearances in The Best American Short Stories, including one of my favorite stories where a tiny Johann Sebastian Bach appears in the apartment of a woman who lived through 9/11. These words point to the way that Makkai powerfully moves the reader through several periods in our history to reveal what we can learn from the “time travel” of memory. “Time travel is so easy! It’s devastatingly easy! All you have to do is live long enough!” These are the words of Nora, one of the characters in Rebecca Makkai’s latest novel, The Great Believers.
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