Tales of Tales of the City

I've been reading Michael Tolliver Lives by Armistead Maupin the last few days.

The Tales of the City series was one of the many things I read in my holidays during my time at Sheffield, and along with The Crow Road would probably be some of the novels I love the most. There was just something joyful in my discovery at them at just the right time in my life: when I was ready to expand my horizons a little, find out about some other lifestyles I didn't know anything about (I was incredibly innocent and naive at the time) and enjoy reading for the sake of reading for the first time since I was a kid. I just wanted to read novels like I'd never done before!

What I loved about the series at the time was the ease of the style. The original books were compiled from newspaper columns originally published in the San Fransisco Chronicle in the 70s and in many ways this was part of the appeal. The short chapters read like scenes in a soap opera and it was really easy to feel part of the characters' lives very quickly. They weren't all sympathetic, but like friends, the more you got to know them, the more you were able to accept them for all their faults.
Aside from the wonderfully eccentric Anna, the one I liked best was Mouse, Michael Tolliver. He struggled to find love, and often had it cruelly taken away from him. He had parents he felt didn't know him and wouldn't accept his sexuality and he was flawed, but funny and genuine. It seems right that of all the characters in the series that this final novel should be written from his point of view.

I still approached the novel with some trepidation though. After all this time would it feel the same? Would the characters still be recognisable?
The good news is that yes it did feel part of the same series and the continuation of the characters felt right and above all it was joy to find out what had happened to them since Sure of You.
There's tragedy, laughs and families and survival and death. Death hangs over the book the same way that it hangs over Michael. His survival seems to be against all the odds, and yet he's still hanging on, smiling and in love. What a wonderful thing that is to read.
For those who haven't read it and want to, I won't reveal the end, but it made me cry. I just found being back with them all so moving... it sounds silly, but I came to care for the characters a long time ago and sharing a little more of their lives was a wonderful thing.

Highly recommended!