Michael Tolliver Lives: A Novel (Tales of the City, 7)

When I first heard that Armistead Maupin was writing MICHAEL TOLLIVER LIVES, I wasn't sure I wanted to read it. Maupin would say time and again that MTL was not going to be a "Tales of the City" number 7, and I was not happy about that. Reading and enjoying all six TALES OF THE CITY books (1-3 being my favorites), I wanted more! Well I decided to give MTL a chance, and I'm glad I did. I LOVED it! Although it isn't a TOTC #7 book, there are enough appearances from familiar characters of "Tales..." that would keep even the most die hard fan satisfied. And these appearances are not random, gratuitous pop-ups; they push the story along and allow the reader to reconnect with the characters, particularly Michael Tolliver. The story begins in the current day--some 18 years after we last heard from the people of "Barbary Lane"--and gives us a sense of how much the world has changed, how much these characters have changed, and how much we have changed, ourselves. I'm not going to give out the plot, but in the last book (SURE OF YOU) Michael Tolliver he was preparing to die from AIDS. And since that didn't happen, he now has to face life like any other person getting older...finding a way to grow old gracefully. The MTL book ties up any loose ends that might have left readers hanging from TOTC book #6, SURE OF YOU. And it does so very nicely. Unlike the "Tales..." books, MTL revolves around the main character Michael Tolliver and is written in first person. Action follows a…

Maupin's "Tales of the City" novels had an undeniable impact on my life. I was a closeted college sophomore when I checked the first three books out of the Springfield, MA library in the Fall of 1990. I had a feeling I was coming late to the "Tales" party at that point but was instantly taken with 28 Barbary lane and its inhabitants. I was so square at 19 that the thought of a pot smoking landlady made me vaguely uncomfortable; I don't miss those days or my old rigid self. At the age of 22, the landmark PBS miniseries had me spending my tax refund check on a ten day vacation to San Francisco so that I could check out the city Maupin immortalized on my own. Any misgivings about a pot smoking landlady were gone. So now, thirteen years after I read the last book in the series, I was over the moon to see "Michael Tolliver Lives." But after reading two negative critic reviews, I was worried. Could this book measure up to my memories? Yes, and then some. "Michael Tolliver Lives" is different than the previous novels in the "Tales" series; this is one man's, first person narrative, unlike the multi-character structure of the other "Tales" books. But "Michael Tolliver Lives" is as wonderful, moving and beautiful as anything Maupin's ever written (quick plug for "Maybe the Moon.") Here are the characters we know and love. Times have changed, but Mouse and Brian and Anna Madrigal, the pot smoking landlady (and some others, but that'd be ruining the surprise) are here and take no time…

Even with moments of contentment and bliss with family, it's not easy to become old, and more awful still to know that if you leave the place you love you can never return. Those seem to be the recurring themes of "Michael Tolliver Lives!" People expecting a trip back to the Barbary Lane of the 1980s are going to have an experience similar to bumping into an old friend from that period - everything's changed and both of you aren't quite comfortable with how the other one (and how you!) looks. Maupin did a wonderful job of planting our feet firmly in the early years of 21st century America, and San Francisco in general, in MTL. He's seen enough in the past 20 years (read or see "The Night Listener") to let us off with sweetness and light in this novel. MTL is not a three-kleenex read - far from it! His returning characters have depth and perspective and help Michael through the storyline with style. His new characters are drawn with love - generally toward Michael, but certainly shared among one another. There's a lot of humor, almost to the point where the book should have a public transit/restaurant/breakroom advisory stating "This book will make you laugh out loud at inopportune moments". And then there are tears, followed by a re-cementing of the bonds of the narrator's invented family, both biological and created over time. What I most like about Maupin is how good-natured he seems to be. He demonstrates in his writing that he knows his audience. While the academics…

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Michael Tollier is back and we Maupin fans welcome his return with open arms. He is now fifty-five, a long-time surviver of HIV because of the drug cocktail-- his former lover Jon was not so lucky and died several years ago-- and has a much younger lover Ben whom he first ran across via the internet, one of the best ways to meet men in the new millennium. He is in fact Ben's husband since they were married at City Hall in San Francisco. All the characteristics of Maupin's fiction that we adore are here: his ability to take the mundane and give it meaning; his making exotic characters (tran- and pansexuals, for example) representatives of all of us; his making us smile at the foibles of both gay and straight characters and then gently sending us a little bombshell-- fundamentalism eats on itself, homophobia is wrong, and our families are those we chose, not the ones from which we sprang. Maupin embeds his characters in the here and now with references to Netflix, "The Passion of the Christ," Peter, Paul and Mary, Terri Schiavo, the Promise Keepers-- and I kid you not-- the transexual porn star, Buck Angel. And, yes, Virginia, there really is a funeral wreath with plastic flowers of course with a telephone attached and a banner that reads, "Jesus Called." I have seen one with my own eyes. Mr. Maupin gives enough background about the previous lives of Michael and his friends-- some are gone and some are missing-- to inform a whole new generation of fans and to convince them…