Book Review: "Tales of the City" by Armistead Maupin

You can read some more of my reviews on the books of Armistead Maupin below:

Tales of the City is the first instalment in the series so I'm glad to say I've gone right back to the beginning and yes, I am planning to read them all in order, which means a reread of Babycakes and Mona of the Manor eventually. I've managed to find used copies of them and in this first novel, we are introduced to Mary Ann Singleton who has disappointed her parents for calling and telling them that she won't ever be returning home. Her trip to San Francisco was only supposed to be a vacation but Mary Ann has moved there permanently. Living on her own might be a change but she's managed to meet up with Connie - a freer spirit who tells her that the city may loosen her up. I am hooked from page one and absolutely ready for what is to come...

After a while though, Mary Ann meets a landlady who is both eccentric and beautiful named Anna Madrigal who grows marijuana in her garden. The atmosphere is warm and kind, there is something very together about it. Mary Ann's situation means that she needs more friends after leaving where she came from (Ohio) for good and so, she invests in a friendship with the willing bohemian, Mona Ramsey. Yes, I know we have finally met Mona in all of this. She also meets other characters including a lawyer named Brian Hawkins, a man named Michael Tolliver and the isolated Norman Williams. It would also be Mona who would help Mary Ann get a job so that she can get off her feet. I'm not going to lie, but nobody quite does a comedy of manners like Armistead Maupin and that is the best way I can describe it. The whole host of different characters just makes me feel all kinds of awesome feelings. I just want to be friends with Mona Ramsey so bad, I love her.

The place where Mary Ann gets a job is owned by a man named Edgar Halcyon who is secretly dying and forms a late-stage romance with Anna Madrigal. Unfortunately, Mary Ann's romantic life is not as peachy - it's actually rather abusive and Beauchamp Day is just all kinds of messed up. Oh, and he's married. Oh, and he's married to Edgar's daughter - DeDe. So as we can see, the more conventionally rich, white and straight and narrow the characters are the more arrogant they come across. I love the fact that we are seeing this stuff from the marginalised point of view - there's a clear perspective that is being constantly referenced and yet, this is still a story with so many different characters that at the end of the day, everyone is flawed.

At 28 Barbary Lane there's a ton of things to be discovered but when pasts are being threatened to be released, we get our host of characters exposing their faults at alarming rates. Norman seems to be the most problematic seeing as he is also a recluse. There's something about him that isn't quite right and always rubbed me up the wrong way and honestly, when we get the dynamics he has with Anna we can see why. I'm not going to say anything because it will kind of ruin the story for you. But the climax comes to a point at a party on Christmas Eve, where things actually begin to unravel and then we get this line of tragedies. Intoxication releases the truth from the mouths of people and thus, things get heated in moments following, death comes swiftly to some.

Armistead Maupin's book is filled with things that will make you laugh and cry. The characters established are some of the more endearing characters in modern literature. His writing is brilliant, the short chapters give us almost episodes and flashes of life as Mary Ann tries to navigate a whole different series of events. She comes from a quiet life in Ohio where her parents shout at the television, but in San Francisco, there's more waiting for her. She wants to grow up but in some respects, she's going to have to grow up pretty quickly. At least she has Mona with her!