Tales of the City, Armistead Maupin

Tales of the City is the first of a series of nine novels by Armistead Maupin. The first four novels were originally serialized in the San Francisco Chronicle. The fifth one was serialized in the San Francisco Examiner. The remaining books were written directly as novels.
The book opens with the arrival of Mary Ann Singleton, fresh-faced from Cleveland, in San Francisco. She decides to stay there and look for work. Looking for somewhere to stay she arrives at 28 Barbary Lane, owned by the enigmatic landlady Anna Madrigal. Her tenants are more like her children, she cares about them all. Her moving in gift being some of her own special marijuana. This is San Francisco in the 1970s with its thriving gay culture.

Armistead Maupin and friend posing at San Jose Pride Celebration in the late 1970s, Ted Sahl photographer

The book follows the lives of the tenants of Barbary Lane. There’s the big-hearted and gay Mouse (Michael Tolliver), the free-spirited bisexual Mona Ramsey, the ever so hetero Brian Hawkin and the somewhat sinister Norman Neal Williams. The strength of the book is about just how much you end up caring for these characters. It’s one of those books that seems to define a passage of ones life. For me I remember reading it at a time when I was living with two of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and volunteering at Greenpeace. Of course I was the only one in the flat who hadn’t read the books. It felt like it was being passed on to me, now is your chance.