The Great Believers

In a phone conversation with the Sharps, Yale reveals that he has no place to stay. The Sharps kindly offer to let him stay in their Marina Towers condo while they spend the winter in Colorado.

One evening, Yale sees Julian at the grocery store. Julian confides that Teddy is “suffocating him” (263) and asks if he can move in with Yale. Julian explains that he only needs somewhere to stay for a few days while he plans a long-term move to someplace warm where no one knows him.

After he moves in, Julian tells Yale the story of his move to Chicago from a small town in Georgia. When he was in high school, his class took an overnight Grad Trip to Disney World, meeting up with many other high school students from around the area. On one of the rides, an attractive boy with an earring went down on Julian for the first time in his life. The encounter cemented Julian’s feeling that there were “good places and bad places in the world” (265), and that the further he moved from his hometown, the safer he’d be.

Yale talks with Fiona about his situation, and Fiona admits that she never liked Charlie. She always felt he was superficial and controlling of Yale’s behavior. In the midst of the conversation, he asks about Nico’s cat, Roscoe (assuming that Fiona took him in when Terrence died). In a moment of panic, Fiona and Yale realize that Roscoe is still in Terrence’s house, and no one has been feeding him for two weeks. They rush to the apartment and eventually find him: sick, thin, and weak, but still alive.

They take Roscoe to the vet. In the waiting room, Fiona suggests that Yale go to see Dr. Cheng, Nico’s former doctor. Yale finds the idea of getting the test from Dr. Cheng fitting and comforting.

Dr. Cheng gives Yale the ELISA test. He tells Yale that he can’t promise he’ll call with the test results because he is concerned about what Yale might do if he doesn’t get the call.

Fiona goes to see Claire at the bar where she works. Claire is cordial, but controlled, keeping the conversation short and to-the-point. She shows Fiona pictures of her daughter, Nicolette, and Fiona is again struck by her resemblance to Nico. Fiona wonders if the name choice—a female version of Nico—was a conscious act on Claire’s part.

Claire explains that she and Kurt had to leave the cult when she became sick and bled profusely while giving birth. Against the cult’s wishes, Kurt stole their van and drove Claire to the hospital. They fled before they could be forced to pay the bill, and moved to Paris so no one would track them down. After they moved to Paris, she got a job working at an art store. She broke up with Kurt when he was arrested for stealing from the store (and she was fired as a result).

When Fiona asks why Claire never contacted her, Claire replies that she occasionally uses Google for info on Fiona’s shop, and on her father to see which university classes he’s teaching. She remarks that they both seemed fine, suggesting that she sees no need for any deeper emotional attachment.

Fiona asks Claire to come back to Chicago, but Claire refuses. She also refuses Fiona’s request for her number, but permits her to come by the bar again in two days.

Julian books a flight to Puerto Rico. He spends the days leading up to his flight numbly watching TV. Fiona also brings Roscoe to stay with Yale, and the cat proves to be a comforting companion.

Yale asks Julian if he had sex with Charlie prior to the night after Nico’s funeral. Julian says that there was one other occasion where Charlie gave him a blow job. Julian reports, however, that Charlie was “definitely getting around” (287). He explains that Charlie practiced many unsafe sexual behaviors, meeting “commuter gays” in public restrooms for casual, anonymous sex. The two of them speculate that this behavior was born of a deep sense of shame.

Soon after, Yale hears from Dr. Cheng, who gleefully tells him, “I lied, about not calling you for the ELISA test. You’re negative” (290). He tells Yale to come in for another test in three months. Yale feels simultaneously relieved and guilty, an internally conflicted survivor.

Julian packs for his trip, giving Yale several belongings he doesn’t need, including his dental floss. Every day after Julian leaves, Yale ritualistically tears off a piece of the dental floss, uses it, and throws it away.

The anticipated day of reckoning with Chuck Donovan comes, fueled by the $2 million value of Nora’s art that Yale unthinkingly admitted to Debra. Yale takes the fall, and he is fired from his job.

Before Yale is formally dismissed, he goes for one last visit to Wisconsin to pin down the timeline of Nora’s art. He brings Fiona along with Roman, hoping to use her as a neutralizing presence. When they arrive, Nora is in a wheelchair pulled up to the dining room table with shoeboxes full of letters. Fiona jokes about kidnapping Nora and wheeling her through the gallery. Yale reflects on his longing to wheel Nora through the gallery before she dies.

Nora describes what it was like to be Modigliani’s model. It involved “a lot of cocaine” (308), tempestuous rages (fueled by his tuberculosis and drinking), and occasional sex. Eventually, Modigliani took Nora to a gathering, and they came face to face with Ranko. Ranko was furiously jealous. Nora also observed that Ranko’s right hand was badly damaged after the war: A nerve issue that may have been psychological.

Eventually, Ranko and Nora made up, and moved into a flat Nora was renting with her female friend. He never managed, however, to fully get over his jealousy related to Nora’s modeling. He tried to use Nora as his surrogate hands, directing her as she painted. In fact, the “self-portrait” of Ranko in Nora’s collection was not painted by Ranko, but by Nora herself. As Yale records this detail, he realizes he will have to delete this portion of the tape, or Bill will remove all of Ranko’s work from the gallery.

Nora explains that Ranko was psychologically damaged by an incident following Modigliani’s death. He and another artist attempted to make a death mask of Modigliani, but the plaster was too strong, and peeled off part of his face when they attempted to remove the mask. The sight of a talented artist turning “into a skeleton before his eyes” (311) was too much to process. Ranko killed himself by swallowing cyanide the day of Modigliani’s funeral.

Nora reflects, “If he’d lived, we’d have parted ways soon enough. He’d have had a life out there in the world, outside my mind. But when someone’s gone and you’re the primary keeper of his memory—letting go would be a kind of murder, wouldn’t it?” (312).

After this final meeting, Roman invites Yale to his motel room. Knowing that Roman’s internship will end soon, and that he will be fired, Yale realizes he has nothing to lose. He walks through Roman’s door like he’s “diving into a sunken ship” (314). 

Corinne’s husband sends Fiona an email with information he found about Ranko Novak. The email contains a group photo from 1911 featuring Ranko. Fiona is struck by how average and unremarkable Ranko looks. Fiona recalls her own affair with her equally average and unremarkable yoga instructor, Dan. On one occasion, Dan reflected that geese were funny because they mate for life even though “they all look exactly the same” (316).

That afternoon, Cecily calls to announce she’s coming to Paris. That evening, news erupts over the terrorist attacks in Paris. Fiona is terrified for Claire, and Serge grimly reflects that because of these attacks, right wing politicians will be elected across Europe: “Everyone acts from fear, the next year, two years. What happens, you think, to people like us?” (318).

Yale engages in a sexual affair with Roman. He isn’t in love with Roman, but they share a strong attraction, and he believes their relationship is “educational” for him.

Yale goes to a gay pride parade with Teddy and Katsu Tatami, a mutual friend who has AIDS. Katsu explains that Asher is helping him in a legal battle as he tries to claim disability benefits and Medicaid. Medicaid is trying to deny that AIDS is a disability, despite the many debilitating day-to-day issues Katsu deals with.

Yale is socked to see Roman with a group of young, well-dressed men at the pride parade. Teddy tells Yale that he knows Roman, and implies that Roman has promiscuous sex in their community. Yale confronts Roman about misrepresenting himself. Roman confesses that he’s had sex with other people, and is still engaging in an affair with Bill. Roman ironically reflects that he was “trying to be monogamous” (329) with Bill, but felt suffocated by the relationship.

Cecily arrives in Paris. She and Fiona commiserate over the attacks. Cecily plans to go to Kurt’s and promises she will tell Fiona if she learns anything.

Damian calls Fiona. He expresses the hope that Claire might move back to Chicago with her as a result of the attacks. Fiona tells him this kind of hope isn’t productive.

Yale tests positive for the virus on July 15th, 1986. This chapter is a montage of day-to-day experiences Yale both cherishes and takes for granted (and will miss as his illness progresses), mimicking the sensation of one’s “life flashing before their eyes” in the wake of traumatic news. These fragments of sensory experience are interspersed with fragments of medical advice from Dr. Cheng, suggesting that Yale is struggling to process his future death.

Fiona desperately follows up with Cecily and Kurt, and eventually obtains Claire’s address from them. Fiona goes to Claire’s apartment. Claire is angry about the intrusion, but reassures her mother that she is safe. Claire refuses to give her mother her phone number, but Fiona gives her own number and urges her to call anytime.

Dr. Cheng advises Yale to take the first job that offers him health insurance, anxious to obtain coverage before his condition worsens. Meanwhile, Katsu’s health has progressed from bad to worse. He was sent to the county hospital after collapsing in the street, but discharged as soon as he was stable. Katsu’s health grew worse and worse at home, but for two weeks, he was told that there were no available beds at the county hospital. By the time the hospital readmitted him, it was “too late to do much good” (341).

Yale goes to see Katsu in the hospital, with the mindset of both caring for his friend and looking into his own possible future (now that he himself has AIDS). The hospital smells like “thirty different stages of death” (343), and Katsu is unable to sleep under the bright fluorescent lights.