http://www.armisteadmaupin.com/ - What a great book to start off 2008! I forget how I first stumbled upon Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series, but I know it was sometime in college. After reading the first book (Tales of the City - published in 1978), I was hooked. The series is set in San Francisco and tells the story of Michael Tolliver, a gay man, and the colorful people who surround his life. It's a literary soap opera with every imaginable twist, turn, and shocking coincidence. After the first book, I quickly moved on to: More Tales of the City, Further Tales of the City, Babycakes, Significant Others and Sure of You. I was sad to reach the end of the line, and moved on to other Maupin novels, The Night Listener and Maybe the Moon, very enjoyable, but no Tales of the City. The first three books were also turned into a television mini-series staring Olympia Dukakis and Laura Linney. In 2007, 18 years after the publication of Sure of You, Maupin returned to his beloved series with Michael Tolliver Lives. This is a fast read, and it's no literary masterpiece, but it is brilliant storytelling with loveable characters dealing with difficult life issues in always humorous ways. I don't want to give away any of the plot for folks who might want to start the series from the beginning, but I found myself crying at the end of the book -- I'm not sure if it was at the thought of the series finally really being over, or because it was all just so sentimental and real. Either way, I was very satisfied with where Maupin chose to take his characters, and I'm still holding out hope that Michael Tolliver will be back for yet another installment. Hopefully, we won't have to wait another 18 years.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Michael Tolliver Lives - Armistead Maupin
http://www.armisteadmaupin.com/ - What a great book to start off 2008! I forget how I first stumbled upon Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series, but I know it was sometime in college. After reading the first book (Tales of the City - published in 1978), I was hooked. The series is set in San Francisco and tells the story of Michael Tolliver, a gay man, and the colorful people who surround his life. It's a literary soap opera with every imaginable twist, turn, and shocking coincidence. After the first book, I quickly moved on to: More Tales of the City, Further Tales of the City, Babycakes, Significant Others and Sure of You. I was sad to reach the end of the line, and moved on to other Maupin novels, The Night Listener and Maybe the Moon, very enjoyable, but no Tales of the City. The first three books were also turned into a television mini-series staring Olympia Dukakis and Laura Linney. In 2007, 18 years after the publication of Sure of You, Maupin returned to his beloved series with Michael Tolliver Lives. This is a fast read, and it's no literary masterpiece, but it is brilliant storytelling with loveable characters dealing with difficult life issues in always humorous ways. I don't want to give away any of the plot for folks who might want to start the series from the beginning, but I found myself crying at the end of the book -- I'm not sure if it was at the thought of the series finally really being over, or because it was all just so sentimental and real. Either way, I was very satisfied with where Maupin chose to take his characters, and I'm still holding out hope that Michael Tolliver will be back for yet another installment. Hopefully, we won't have to wait another 18 years.
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Wow! I had completely forgotten about this series. I loved the books so much. Now I wish I could remember how I first heard about them. I was reading them while living in San Jose and carefully followed them in chronological order. Now I want to go back and read them all over again and finish with the latest. What a trip! Thanks for bringing the memories back. Do you remember when we went to see Carmen Miranda in San Francisco? I think that was inspired by reading about it in the series.
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