Tales of the City

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1st US edition cover of the first book in the Tales of the City series
1st US edition cover of the first book in the Tales of the City series

This article is about the novel series; see also Tales of the City (novel) and Tales of the City (miniseries)

Tales of the City is a series of seven books written by San Francisco novelist Armistead Maupin. Tales of the City is also the name of the first book in the series. The first four books in the series were originally serialized in the San Francisco Chronicle while the fifth book was serialized in the San Francisco Examiner.

The series is a vivid depiction of San Franciscan life from the mid-70s to late 80s, with the latest book providing a mid-2000s update. The books span classes, sexual orientations, genders, and transgenders in comedic prose. The lives and careers of a group of people who met when they lived at 28 Barbary Lane are tracked, with humor resulting from the unexpected crossing of plotlines in unexpected places. This storytelling style, with a focus on the era's socio-sexual climate, has been compared to the writings of Honoré de Balzac.[citation needed]

In 1993 the first book was made into a television miniseries, Tales of the City, produced by Channel 4 in the UK and screened by PBS in the U.S. in 1994. The second and third books in the series made their television debuts in 1998 and 2001. In a public reading at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London in July 2007, Maupin indicated that it is unlikely that there will be any further mini-series or films made.

As well as the novels, Maupin has collaborated on several Tales-themed musical projects. Anna Madrigal Remembers was a musical work composed by Jake Heggie and performed by choir Chanticleer and mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade on 6 August 1999, for which Maupin provided a new libretto. He also participated in a concert series with Seattle Men's Chorus entitled Tunes From Tales (Music for Mouse), which included readings from his books and music from the era.[1]

In 2007, 18 years after the sixth novel in the series, Sure of You, Maupin released the novel Michael Tolliver Lives. Maupin originally stated that this novel is "NOT a sequel to Tales [of the City] and it's certainly not Book 7 in the series" [2], however he later conceded that "I’ve stopped denying that this is book seven in Tales of the City, as it clearly is ... I suppose I didn’t want people to be thrown by the change in the format, as this is a first person novel unlike the third person format of the Tales of the City books and it’s about one character who interrelates with other characters. Having said that, it is still very much a continuation of the saga and I think I realised it was very much time for me to come back to this territory." [3]

Maupin has indicated he is now working on a new novel about the Tales of the City characters, commenting that "Whatever I have to offer seems to come through those characters, and I see no reason to abandon them." [4]

Contents

[edit] Core characters

The series opens with the arrival of Mary Ann Singleton, a naive young woman from Cleveland, Ohio. She finds an apartment at 28 Barbary Lane, the domain of the eccentric marijuana-growing landlady Anna Madrigal. Mary Ann becomes friends with the other tenants of the building: the hippyish bisexual Mona Ramsey (who, though a central character, is not in all of the books); straight lothario Brian Hawkins; the sinister and cagey roof tenant Norman Neal Williams; and Michael Tolliver, a sweet and personable gay man known to friends as Mouse (as in Mickey Mouse), who becomes central to the series. Beyond the house, lovers and friends guide Mary Ann through her San Franciscan adventures. Mona's ex-lover D'orothea Wilson, returns from a modelling assignment in New York, while Michael's lover and DeDe's gynecologist Jon Fielding graduates into the social circle. Edgar Halcyon, Mary Ann's and Mona's boss, Edgar's socialite daughter DeDe Halcyon-Day, and her scheming bisexual husband Beauchamp Day all provide a glimpse into a more affluent Californian class, while Mrs. Madrigal's mother and owner of the Blue Moon Lodge brothel, Mother Mucca, brings mystery and comic relief. In the last two books, Thack Sweeney becomes Michael's lover. Real life people such as Jim Jones and a thinly veiled Elizabeth Taylor make appearances in the story lines.

[edit] Realism in Tales

Macondray Lane, recast in the series as the fictional Barbary Lane
Macondray Lane, recast in the series as the fictional Barbary Lane

The Tales of the City series is lauded for being accurate in its portrait of a time and place in San Francisco's history.[citation needed] Because installments were published so soon after Maupin wrote them, he was able to incorporate many current events into the plot of the series, as well as gauge reader response and modify the story accordingly. At one point Maupin received a letter from a reader who pointed out that one of the character's names was an anagram, providing Maupin with one of the more memorable and surprising plot twists in the book.[5] Maupin's books are also some of the first to deal with the AIDS epidemic.

[edit] The complete series

Sure of You and Michael Tolliver Lives are the only works to have been created solely as novels; the earlier books comprise writings that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle prior to novelization.

Characters from the Tales of the City series have appeared in supporting roles in Maupin's later novels Maybe The Moon and The Night Listener.

[edit] Musical adaptation

With Maupin's cooperation, Tony Award-winning Avenue Q co-writer Jeff Whitty, Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears, and Sisters tour keyboardist John "JJ" Garden are writing a musical stage adaptation they hope to have ready for the 2009-2010 Broadway theatre season.[6][7]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Seattle Men's Chorus welcomes Armistead Maupin to Benaroya Hall" - Seattle Gay News Online
  2. ^ Michael Tolliver Lives - BarnesandNoble.com
  3. ^ "I might well come back to Mr Tolliver one more time" - PinkPaper.com Issue 929, 28 June 2007
  4. ^ "Tolliver's Travels" - EntertainmentWeekly.com from Issue #939, retrieved 7 June 2007
  5. ^ "ALL ABOUT ARMISTEAD" - SFGate.com from 19 September 2000, retrieved 23 February 2008
  6. ^ "Tales of the City Heads to the Great White Way," by Adam B. Vary, Entertainment Weekly, March 28, 2008
  7. ^ "Tales of the City" heads to the stage. gay.com (14th March, 2008). Retrieved on 2008-03-27.

[edit] External links

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