The Days of Anna Madrigal: A Novel

There is a "no way!!!" moment at the end of "Mary Ann In Autmn" where the character named Cliff pulls a folded photograph of Mary Ann Singleton from his pocket. Inscribed, "To Cliff: Thanks for the memories! Mary Ann," it sent me scrambling back through the pages of "Sure of You" to be certain I wasn't mistaken, because something in me remembered the exact innocuous moment Mary Ann signed that picture. And, sure enough, there it was, really a throwaway moment in "Sure of You," but one which would come back in a big way. And it was there that I discovered, after years of reading this series of novels, that there is something beyond Maupin's ability to draw amazingly realized characters, settings and themes that attracts me on a deeper level to his writing. That is his penchant for coincidence, or coinkydink, of which he says there is no such thing. And yet, it turns up time and again. And again. And again. The first novels of the series, being published serially, relied on coinkydink to move the stories along. Maupin's later novels are peppered with coinkydink--Ned Lockwood's fate revealed in "Maybe the Moon," Anna Day as Gabriel Noone's bookkeeper in "The Night Listener," Gabriel Noone himself popping up in cameo in "Mary Ann In Autumn," these are all momentary coinkydinks that make the reader feel as if they are in on the joke. And so, here we have "The Days of Anna Madrigal," the supposedly final tale of the city (although, that is probably as much debatable as "Sure of…

Armistead Maupin has written about this core group of characters since the seventies. He put down the pen in 1989 with Sure of You, then magically picked it up again recently with three new novels revisiting San Francisco in the twenty first century. His first novel ran as a serial in a San Francisco newspaper. The three new ones are written in the same style, with a group of compelling characters whose stories weave in and out of each other's in short chapters of continuos narrative. Everyone is here to say goodbye. There is Anna Madrigal, the ninety two year old transgender landlady who revisits the past in mind and body to fight some old demons. Brian is here, traveling in an R.V. He finally marries a character who is also an old friend. Michael is here trying to grow old gracefully as a gay man with a younger husband, we even catch up with Mary Ann in the final act, and spunky lone wolf Shawna wants to have a baby. Maupin is a writer who can be sentimental and nostalgic skillfully, without being overbearing. He keep things topical and fresh always on top of society's latest trends especially those pertinent to San Franciscans. I'm also happy to read such a vivid account of Burning Man without actually going( I am just not good at roughing it). Maupin pioneered the concept of making your own family way before it was an accepted lifestyle(by some anyway. I really think you would like this book even without having read any of the others, and what a treat it would be to…