Ian Johnson, Out Now
June 26, 2007
Once upon a time there was a nice little newspaper column in the San Francisco Chronicle that was read by many readers - from Nob Hill matrons to Castro community tribes.
The author was one Armistead Maupin, and his unassuming newspaper column - Tales of the City - that started life in the post-Vietnam Hippy era, soon took on a life of its own.
The publication of Maupin's daily newspaper columns in book form since 1976, filled as they were with a seductive melange of local news, gossip, innuendo and flat-out good writing, saw Armistead Maupin's column become increasingly popular.
Maupin also started to see the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender characters take over the narrative - something his growing readership heartily approved of.
That led to publication of a series of six books, three of which were also made into TV dramas - 'Tales of the City'.
In fact our Australian office, Significant Others, takes its name from the fifth book in the series - a fact Armistead expressed pleasure with when I mentioned it to him.
Now after an almost twenty year gap since the final in the sextet - 'Sure of You' was published way back in 1989 - Armistead Maupin has just released a new novel.
'Michael Tolliver Lives' - is a new Maupin book about one of the central characters of the Tales of the City series, a character we last saw facing an uncertain and assumed shortened future as he faced death from HIV / AIDS in the 1989 instalment.
Fast forward to 2007, and we discover Michael Tolliver alive, well, and thriving in a post-hippie, post dot-com San Francisco. San Francisco is a truly great gay travel destination, and reading Maupin's lovingly crafted portrait - where San Francisco really is a central character - only serves to reinforce the desire to visit.
Maupin cliams that 'Michael Tolliver Lives' is not a seventh in the Tales of the City series - but I am not buying his argument. The new book, although written in first person from Tolliver's view, is a clear updating of the Tales of the City stories.
It is not a perfect novel by any means, but for many people like myself - who enjoyed and treasure the 'Tales of the City' series of novels - the release of 'Michael Tolliver Lives' is a very sweet moment indeed.
Maybe it will even help some of its readers live just that little bit more happily ever after.
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