Tales Of The City
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By Armistead Maupin
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4 reviews
The first novel in the beloved Tales of the City series, Armistead Maupin’s best-selling San Francisco saga, is an uproariously moving novel and an indelible portrait of cultural change from the seventies.
Named as one of the BBC’s 100 Most Inspiring Novels, a PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick and Britain’s favourite gay/lesbian novel from The Big Gay Read
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Originally serialised in the San Francisco Chronicle in the 1970s, Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City afforded a mainstream audience of millions its first exposure to straight and gay characters experiencing on equal terms the follies of urban life.
Among the cast of this ground-breaking saga are the lovelorn residents of 28 Barbary Lane: the bewildered but aspiring Mary Ann Singleton, the libidinous Brian Hawkins; Mona Ramsey, still in a sixties trance, Michael ‘Mouse’ Tolliver, forever in bright-eyed pursuit of Mr. Right; and their marijuana-growing landlady, the indefatigable Mrs. Madrigal.
Hurdling barriers both social and sexual, Maupin leads them through heartbreak and triumph, through nail-biting terrors and gleeful coincidences. The result is a glittering and addictive comedy of manners that continues to beguile new generations of readers.
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I enjoyed rereading Tales of the City after a gap of nearly 30 years. It reads as a historical novel now, describing an era long passed. A time before Aids, when San Francisco was a mecca for gay men and women. The tales unfold around the guest house at 28 Barbary Lane and the ow enjoyed ner, Mrs Madrigal. The reader is introduced by the story of Mary Ann Singleton from Cleveland, who though inexperienced is helped to find her way in San Francisco by meeting Mrs Madrigal. I enjoyed the joke that it was hard for a young woman to find a decent straight guy! We follow Mary Ann as she finds employment, and nearly falls for the sinister Norman upstairs. Fortunately, she uncovers his terrible secret and incidentally saves Mrs Madrigal too. I like her character. Mary Ann is a plausible, down to earth guide in the frenetic city of SF. I also like Michael Mouse who is such a vulnerable young man. It is funny when his parents come to visit and clearly don’t understand their son, despite wanting the best for him. There is Brian the chauvinist male, who is a cynical player; Mona , who has some interesting connection to Mrs Madrigal but we never find out what exactly, her girlfriend and her close friendship with Michael. Everyone seems a little lost and searching for love even Edgar Halcyon and his daughter DeDe and son in law Beauchamp, the wealthy family who employ Mary Ann and other characters.
The mysterious Mrs Madrigal is the mover and shaker behind the lives of so many of her tenants. I found her an attractive character, even though she remains an enigma. Her relationship with Edgar is very moving. Everyone in this novel is searching for love and a stable relationship , but it is the hardest thing to find, straight or gay, wealthy or broke. But friendships are important too. An enjoyable depiction of the pull of the big city in the 70s, where young people head looking for opportunity and escape. I like the fact that nothing is resolved. San Francisco is a place where people pass through but 28 Barbary Lane is an oasis, a safe place in an otherwise quite dark world.
Methley book group reader
The opening scenes transported me back to 1979 when I stood on the dock of the bay soaking in the marvel that is San Francisco! Unlike Mary Ann I didn't opt to stay, by staying May Ann found her way to 28 Barbary Lane and joined a cast of characters all adrift in the sea of life and hunting a life line and love. It is set (and written around the time) of the full on 70s and covers all the sexual freedom and decadence we read about at the time and believed to be true of all America. The gay scene is truly decadent and the participants extremely promiscuous flitting from one lover to another without (apparent) thought but this was pre AIDS time but they are sad and vulnerable trying to find a way through to 'true' love and the right one, this is particularly true of Michael Mouse but he has a good friend and confidant in Mona and their friendship is a core prop in the stories. The wider cast of characters are equally at sea and trying to find their way in world without clear signposts of what is right and appropriate - just like us all really - and with no-one being honest with each other or themselves. The poor occupants of Barbary Lane are befriended and looked after by a joint making and pot smoking matriarch - Mrs Madrigal but is she or is she not gay? Or a Madam or a good woman! They a contrasted with the weathly and status driven and shallow Halcyons and their circle of friends.
The participants in the disparate worlds collide and intertwine and drive the characters forward but none of them into happiness - thus far! But it is the start of series and I am sure some one sometime will be happy.
It is a lighthearted read and fun at times and has good observations of the trials and tribulations of life and love with some shocking outcomes!
I love this book, a wonderful, wandering tale where the city is as much of a character as the people within it.
The riotous beginning of a manic, colourful, Dickensian chronicle of San Francisco in the 1970s, Tales of the City introduces a headspinning cast of characters you'll want to keep up with for the next eight books.
