Every now and then one’s reading life, a person discovers a
series of books that, simply, makes them happy. Even looking at these books on
the shelf can be cause for a smile and reading them again is like hanging out
with old friends. The discoveries of these special stories are more valuable
because of their rareness and, for this particular reader, they are cherished
and loved and sometimes feel more real than people who are actually living.
Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City is one of those series
for me. It opens with the story of Mary Ann, a woman from Cleveland who arrives
in San Francisco and loves it so much she impulsively move there. She moves
into the house of the mysterious Anna Madrigal on Barbary Lane, where a bunch
of other interesting characters live, including Michael (Mouse), Mona and Brian
among many, many more. The books don’t focus on any one character – the
narration shifts between many different stories in what this reviewer calls a “third-person
kaleidoscope narrative”. This is a huge part of both the series’ appeal and the
skill of Maupin’s storytelling – each of the points of view shown to the reader
feels real (with a few minor exceptions, like that of Queen Elizabeth II in Babycakes) and the relationships, loves
and heartbreak ring true.
I discovered the series when I was an undergrad on the
recommendation of a friend and I have retained my love of the series although
the friendship has long faded (does anyone ever has as many friends as one has
when one is an undergraduate? Why am I continually referring to myself as “one”
in this review?). One of the things I loved most about these books was how they
represented gayness. In Tales in the City,
being gay was just one part of a character’s personality. It was of bigger or
smaller importance depending on the person but it was never anyone’s defining
characteristic – they were “a best friend who was gay” rather than “a gay best
friend”. This was true to my real-life experience with friends who were gay
and, to find out that it was possible to write gayness like this was honestly revelatory
for me. Looking at how many facets of the media still struggle with their
representation of homosexuality today (Hollywood, I’m looking at you) make me
appreciate how truly groundbreaking Tales
really was.
The final book in the Tales
series, The Days of Anna Madrigal, has
been released. I haven’t read it yet because I’m not quite ready to let these characters
go. I don’t want to read a new one knowing there will be no more so, to delay
the final sad moment, I have collected the entire series so far and read the
first six. I’d never read them all in sequence before and it was fascinating to
watch the changing fashions and cultural mores from the ‘70s until the late
1980s of Sure of You. The city of San
Francisco is a character in these novels and it to changes and develops along
with everyone else. After one weekend binge Tales
session I also realised that these books are much kinder to their male
characters than the female ones (the most appealing female character in the
book was, in fact, born a man) but you can’t have everything and I love Mouse
enough to make up for it.
If you haven’t, please read these books. They are a delight
and a treasure and I love them.
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