Kevin Howell

TALES OF THE CITY lives!
March 30, 2007

On June 12, fans of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City novels will rejoice over the publication of Michael Tolliver Lives (HarperCollins, $25.95; 978-0-06-076135-6; unabridged HarperAudio read by Maupin, $34.95; 978-0-06-125641-7), which marks the return of Anna Madrigal, Michael "Mouse" Tolliver and other residents of 28 Barbary Lane for the first time since Sure of You in 1989.

Since reading the advance galley, I’ve been wondering why Maupin has stated several times that this "is not a sequel to 'Tales' and it's certainly not Book 7 in the series." Perhaps its because the characters are no longer living under one roof on Barbary Lane or because Maupin chose not to stop time and has instead set the novel in the present, which means Michael is now 55 and Mrs. Madrigal is nearing 90.

Make no mistake, Michael Tolliver Lives certainly is part of the Tales of the City saga and it will not disappoint longtime fans. In fact, it’s one of the richest novels Maupin has written: effortlessly funny, wonderfully moving and thoughtful and still filled with surprises after all these years.

Peeking back into the lives of characters you loved after an 18-year gap can be tricky. Remember when Mary Tyler Moore and Valerie Harper were going to update their Mary Tyler Moore Show characters for a new TV series a few years back? Instead they wisely opted for a one-time TV movie, Mary & Rhoda, because so many of the characters' dynamics had to be changed when altering them from single gals pushing 40 to widowed and divorced at 60.

Rejoining Mouse and his friends after almost two decades proves surprisingly easy. These are fully-formed characters that Maupin has been living with since 1974 when he created a newspaper serial that was picked up by the San Francisco Chronicle in 1976. Those columns (that ran five days a week) were turned into five novels (Tales of the City, More Tales of the City, Further Tales of the City, Baby Cakes and Significant Others) and one wholly original novel published after the columns had ended (Sure of You). With a sure hand, Maupin creates a tale that could stand on its own--it could easily be enjoyed by someone who has never read any of the other books in the series.

Michael Tolliver Lives is the first Tales novel told in the first person. No one is more surprised to find himself still alive in a post 9/11 world than Michael Tolliver. His HIV+ status is no longer the death sentence he thought it was two decades back. He muses: "I'm still in the Valley of the Shadow--as Mama would put it--but at least its a bigger valley these days, and the scenery has improved considerably. My life, whatever its duration, is still a lurching, lopsided contraption held together by chewing gum and baling wire."

Michael is happily married to his younger partner, Ben. ("Ben is twenty-one years younger than I am--an entire adult younger, if you insist on looking at it that way. But I haven't really made a habit of this.") The drama of this novel is Michael being drawn back into his biological family (verses the "logical" family he's created around him in San Francisco) when he learns that his mother is in failing health. Michael and Ben travel to Orlando and learn some startling family secrets.

I love the fact that Maupin hasn't mellowed with age. With three of his Tales novels having already been made into TV mini-series, his books are more popular than ever. It would be understandable if Maupin had geared his latest installment toward a broader audience and wrote a feel-good novel that was just-this-side of naughty so it was palatable for all book clubs. But, at 63, Maupin isn't growing milder. On the first page, Michael runs into a man on the street he hasn't seen in almost two decades. He doesn’t remember the man's face. "What I remembered--all I remembered after nineteen years--was his dick. I remembered how its less-than-average length was made irrelevant by its girth. It was one of the thickest I'd ever seen, with a head that flared like a caveman's club. Remembering him was a good deal harder. Nineteen years is too long a time to remember a face." Yes, Maupin isn't writing in the hopes of being Starbucks's next selection. He's writing the same brilliant social commentary wrapped in engaging prose and served in cliffhanger chapters. And whether Maupin will admit it or not, the Tales of the City novels are back! 

Posted by Kevin Howell on March 30, 2007 | Comments (7)