Title:Tales of the City Authors: Armistead Maupin Year: 1978 Publisher: HarperCollins Price: $12.00 US (paperback) Review by: Janet Daly Tripod Rating (out of four): 4

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What a dishy, fabulous read! Twenty years ago, Armistead Maupin's "Tales" appeared in the "San Francisco Chronicle" as a serial. Week by week, readers would be introduced to the new and veteran residents of 28 Barbary Lane, including an innocent Cleveland transplant (Mary Ann); a cynical, chemically-sustained copywriter (Mona); her delightful, hopeless romantic gay best friend Michael, nicknamed Mouse (more like the mouse that roared); an oversexed straight ex-lawyer who waits tables (Brian); and their omniscient, cannabiphile landlady Anna Madrigal. Throughout their lives run threads of SF high society (closeted and otherwise), coed bath houses, common employers, faith healers, p.i.'s and child pornographers. I can imagine the anticipation readers must have felt to get the next installment, read the next plot twist and unravel the latest interconnection.

After this first collection of adventures was compiled, the characters went on to thrive through more adventures in five additional volumes, each with real human characters -- lovable and occasionally annoying protagonists and somewhat sympathetic antagonists. I devoured the first two books in six hours and felt as though I was catching up with old friends, but with a catch.

He sat down on a bench in Washington Square. Next to him was a woman who was roughly his age. She was wearing wool slacks and a paisley smock. She was reading the Bhagavad Gita.
"Is that the answer?" asked Edgar, nodding at the book.
"What's the question?" asked the woman.
Edgar grinned. "Gertrude Stein."
"I don't think she said it, do you? No one's that clever on a deathbed."
There it was again.
He felt a surge of recklessness. "What would you say?"
"About what?"
"The end. Your last words. If you could choose."
The woman studied his face for a moment. Then she said: "How about..'Oh, Shit!'"
His laughter was cathartic, an animal yelp that brought tears to his eyes. The woman watched him benignly, detached, but somehow gentle.
It was almost as if she knew.
p.62

Twenty years ago, there was no talk of AIDS, or of "Just Say No," and the San Franciscans in Maupin's "Tales" clearly say Yes to everything. Which is part of what makes these books so remarkable -- the literature gives honest, positive but whole portrayals of gay and straight people, living together and making constructive, open connections -- not to mention the vitamin-like dosing of Quaaludes, pot and coke. It's definitely a period piece: a cultural marker.

And it's not a happy-go-lucky world: the residents of 28 Barbary Street have their own share of secrets, intrigue and exposures of the despicable. But they do have each other, as well as the divine Mrs. Madrigal, which is more than most city dwellers know now in the 90s. So come on, visit the San Fran that lonely old Dirty Harry must have longed for, and say Yes to one, two, or all the volumes.

N.B. N.B. "Tales of the City" is available on the Web in paperback from amazon.com.

The book was also made into a critically acclaimed series on PBS. Catch it if you can.

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Tripod members give this book 3.9 wrenches so far.

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