Tales of the City

Tales of the City is a series of six books, originally serialized in the San Francisco Chronicle, written by San Francisco novelist Armistead Maupin. Tales of the City is also the title of the first book in that series.

The series is a vivid depiction of San Franciscan life from the mid-70s to the late 80s, spanning classes, sexual orientations, genders, and transgenders in comedic prose. The residents' lives and careers at 28 Barbary Lane are tracked, with humor resulting from the unexpected crossing of plotlines in unexpected places, like a lesbian summer camp. This storytelling style, with a focus on the era's socio-sexual climate, has been compared to the writings of Honoré de Balzac.^{[citation needed]}

Tales started as a serialized feature in a now-defunct San Francisco area newspaper, The Pacific Sun. The paper published five installments of the serial before it folded. In 1976, Maupin pitched a daily serial to the editors of the San Francisco Chronicle, and when they agreed, he drew from the same batch of characters.

in 1994 the first book was made into PBS television miniseries, Tales of the City. The second and third books in the series made their television debut in, 1998 and 2001.

Core characters

The series opens with the arrival of Mary Ann Singleton, a naive young woman from Cleveland, Ohio. She finds an apartment at 28 Barbary Lane, the domain of the eccentric marijuana-growing landlady Anna Madrigal. Mary Ann becomes friends with the other tenants of the building: the hippyish bisexual Mona Ramsey (who, though a central character, is not in all of the books); straight lothario Brian Hawkins (later Mary Ann's husband); the sinister and cagey roof tenant Norman Neal Williams; and Michael Tolliver, a sweet and personable gay man known to friends as Mouse (as in Mickey Mouse), who becomes central to the series. Beyond the house, lovers and friends guide Mary Ann through her San Franciscan adventures. Mona's ex-lover D'orothea Wilson, returns from a modelling assignment in New York, while Michael's lover and DeDe's gynecologist Jon Fielding graduates into the social circle. Edgar Halcyon, Mary Ann's and Mona's boss, Edgar's socialite daughter DeDe Halcyon-Day, and her scheming bisexual husband Beauchamp Day all provide a glimpse into a more affluent Californian class, while Mrs. Madrigal's mother and owner of the Blue Moon Lodge brothel, Mother Mucca, brings mystery and comic relief. In the last two books, Thack Sweeney becomes Michael's lover. Real life people such as Jim Jones and a thinly veiled Elizabeth Taylor make appearances in the story lines.

Realism in Tales

The Tales of the City series is lauded for being accurate in its portrait of a time and place in San Francisco's history. Because it was written so close to when it was published, it was able to incorporate many current events into the plot of the story. Maupin was also able to gauge reader response and modify the story accordingly. Maupin received a letter from a reader who pointed out that one of the character's names was an anagram. The anagram provided Maupin with one of the more memorable and surprising plot twists in the book. Maupin's books are also some of the first to deal with the AIDS epidemic.

The complete series

• Tales of the City (1978)
• More Tales of the City (1980)
• Further Tales of the City (1982)
• Babycakes (1984)
• Significant Others (1987)
• Sure of You (1989)

Sure of You is the only work to have been created solely as a book; the other books are comprised of writings that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle prior to novelization.

Characters from the Tales of the City series have appeared in supporting roles in Maupin's later novels Maybe The Moon and The Night Listener.

In a post on his web site, Maupin confirmed that his next novel, to be published in summer 2007, will be Michael Tolliver Lives. The book focuses on Michael, now in his fifties; Maupin emphasized that, although readers may see Michael cross paths with some Tales characters, this would not be a "reunion" book.

See also

• Tales of the City miniseries

Wikipedia information about Tales of the City This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Tales of the City". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.