When I was 18, my mother gave me a book to read. I’d seen it sitting on one of the shelves in our house for years and it had previously gone unnoticed. “Read it” she said, “It was very special to me, it’s an important book”.
Quite simply, that was how I was introduced to Tales Of The City – a series of eight captivating books written by the almost-mythical Armistead Maupin. It is a series which has spanned three decades, spread across several generations -mention it in conversation and you’ll find it holds a special place for many people.
The books are largely based around the lives of a few central characters; Michael Tolliver – or “Mouse” as he is affectionately nicknamed by the other characters, his best friend Marry-Anne and the landlady-come-surrogate mother we all wish we knew, Anna Madrigal. Each novel gives an interesting insight into life in San Francisco, starting from the late 1970’s in the first book, up until the 21st century in the latest one.
Due to originally being serialised in The San Francisco Chronicle, the novels scan at a swift pace, which means whether you’ve only got time for a short read or can hunker down for longer, each time you feel genuinely fed by the book – albeit desperately wanting to happen next.
As highly-charged emotional books, they take in real-life places and occurrences which lend them the feeling of a personal diary. From a (fictional) first hand-account of a survivor of the infamous Jonestown Massacre to the journey of a man scared for his life, who heartbreakingly looses his lover to the Aids crisis which ravaged San Francisco.
While the books are fictional, and the central characters are fabricated, what is perhaps so engaging about them is that we all know the characters in our own lives. We’ve all met a Mouse and a Marry-Anne, some of us are lucky enough to find our own John (Mouse’s perfect lover all too-soon taken from him). But what’s more – in a strange way – they allow us to see an emotional side of our history as an LGBT community. Through these books, we are able to see the change in society, growing tolerances and changes in attitudes.
What ever you do, read these stories; they might break your heart and you will fall in love with characters who cannot love you back, but it’s worth it.
We discussed Armistead Maupin as part of our My LGBT Hero series.
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