I cried my way through the final quarter of this book. But I still wholeheartedly recommend it!
Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City books were originally a serial in a San Francisco newspaper and centre around a group of housemates, friends and co-workers in San Francisco starting in the 70s and continuing through to the 1980s. As a child of the 80s, some references sailed past me but a few have introduced me to some wonderful films, books and TV programmes from those years. Michael Tolliver Lives shows what has happened to the best-loved character in the series, who is now heading towards 60.
Finding out what has happened in the intervening years to characters who I have known and loved was quite a bizarre experience. Obviously people change and Maupin is to be commended in that he hasn't kept the characters the same personality-wise as before but it can be a little unsettling. His bravery extended to killing off my namesake (boo! and sob!) but not to killing off the octagenarian transsexual landlady who, to be honest, I'm amazed was still alive at the end. It was a good ending but I hope that there are no more - after all, one wouldn't expect a character with HIV to make it to 60, never mind beyond.
If you've read the Night Watcher roman a clef, you'll find more than a few similarities which slightly ticked me off (£13-worth of ticking off!).
I couldn't make it to the book signing in Edinburgh but in a way, I am glad. Meeting one's heroes may turn out to be very anti-climactic!
