The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 6 June 2011
by Armistead Maupin
In 2007, after a gap of many years, Armistead Maupin returned to his beloved characters in Michael Tolliver Lives, characters first introduced in the Tales of the City newspaper serials in the late 1970s. But, no doubt, his readers yearned to know what was happening with Mary Ann Singleton, his wide-eyed midwestern transplant to a San Francisco scene rife with sexual exploration and personal freedom. Last we heard from her, she had flown from San Francisco to New York to take a job as a television host, leaving behind a husband and adopted daughter, Shawna. Now, it is the first decade of the twenty-first century. The world, and life in the city, is very different from that Mary Ann found decades ago. She flies in, bringing with her several layers life-changing events. And it is to Michael "Mouse" Tolliver that she brings them. Her job didn't pan out as she expected, and her suburban Connecticut lifestyle is not satisfying. It helps that her husband is having a fling with her life coach. There is other more dire news she shares in the comforting arms of her adopted family in San Francisco, with Michael and Anna Madrigal. They all have so much history behind them, days long gone that they wax nostalgic over, and which, no doubt, many of Maupin's readers also fondly look back upon. But, despite how Maupin's earlier works have gained a sheen of rosy nostalgia, they were always immediate stories, and this book is no exception. The author explores the new social landscape in the City through his younger characters: Shawna, who runs a sex blog; Ben, Michael's much younger husband; and Jake, in the throes of changing his gender. All of this ties together fairly tightly, as spectres from Mary Ann's past arise in a fashion typical of Maupin's gift for serendipity. All of it serves his larger purpose, too, of guiding readers to think of what love means to us, its treacherous paths and its refusal to fit into any narrowly confined mold. Maupin is repelled by those who would seek to legislate the complexities of the human heart. His adoring, loving, forgiving and giving family of characters are ready, always, to illustrate love's basic vitality and beauty. Overall, a loose and entertaining read, full of engaging characters and the peculiar appeal of San Francisco, then and now.
(The first three Tales of the City novels have now been combined in a stage musical recently premiered in San Francisco.)
Also by Maupin: [Tales of the City]
[More Tales of the City]
[Further Tales of the City]
[Babycakes]
[Significant Others]
[Sure of You]
[Michael Tolliver Lives]
See also: [Armistead Maupin by Patrick Gale]