TALES OF THE CITY, by Armistead Maupin
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Join us for an in-person conversation about Tales of the City, the first of Armistead Maupin’s ten novels about the colorful denizens of the apartment house at 28 Barbary Lane during San Francisco's cultural revolution in the 1970s. By turns witty, poignant, and outright "gay-larious," the book introduces us to a whole host of characters: gay and straight, cis and trans, bohemian and ultraconservative, and some who might not be exactly who you think they are.
Mary Ann Singleton is a naïve fish out of water who makes the spontaneous decision to move from conservative suburban Cleveland to the big bad "City by the Bay." She takes up residence in a boarding house run by enigmatic, weed-smoking landlady Anna Madrigal. We meet some of the other tenants, too, including Michael ‘Mouse’ Tolliver, a young gay man hoping to meet Mr Right; bisexual hippie Mona Ramsey; heterosexual lothario Brian Hawkins; and Norman Neal Williams, the unassuming occupant of the rooftop shed. There are also characters from the upper echelons of San Francisco society, such as Mary Ann’s boss Edgar Halcyon, his spoiled daughter DeDe, and Dede's philandering husband Beauchamp Day.
Originally published in 1978, Tales of the City is both a sparkling comedy of manners and an indelible portrait of an era that forever changed the way we live.
Book length: 400 pages
TALES OF THE CITY, by Armistead Maupin