Book 73: Further Tales of the City – Armistead Maupin

Are you sick of the Tales of the City reviews yet? I hope not! I’m just finishing up Babycakes and should have a post for Monday. Then you get a brief break while I reread Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle in time for the November 8th release of the fourth and final novel, Inheritance.

I read Further Tales of the City before deciding to go back and restart the series. Thus, I’m posting out-of-order, which is a big hypothetical no-no in my blog mind, but I didn’t want to start posting with book three so I made an exception as I enjoyed this novel so much! It didn’t hurt that a very dapper older gentleman on the bus one morning told me that he loves these novels and that they’re well worth the read. When I told him I was reading them out-of-order he looked shocked and told me I HAD to read/re-read all of them.

As mentioned in the previous posts, Maupin’s Tales of the City series is quirky, classic, and enchantingly amusing. Book three, Further Tales of the City, was a fascinating read and probably my favorite so far in the series. It was clearly dated with references to Jonestown and references to the turn of the decade, but it once again highlighted the awesome up-to-the-moment of serialization and the unique perspective it allowed Maupin to incorporate.

The 1980s are alive and well in this novel which takes place about 4 years after Further Tales of the City. We are once again in San Francisco with the misfits who all live at 28 Barbary Lane or those living there. Without giving too much away, suffice to say it’s a swift moving novel and the last 40-50 pages are the most exciting and you will hold your breath. Michael is no longer with Jon (although Babycakes raises other questions), Mary Ann and Bryan are now officially dating, Mona is MIA, Mrs. Madrigal is as effervescent as ever and the main story revolves around DeDe Halycon and D’orthea.

At the end of More Tales of the City, Maupin hints to where Dede, D’orthea and the twins run off to and it is the main story line in Further Tales of the City. They have spent the last few years living in the infamous Jamestown and Communist Cuba. And rather than leaving it at that, Maupin masterminds the dark twist in this novel. I won’t say exactly what it is, but I had suspicions half-way through the novel.

Recommendation: READ THEM!!!!!