i really don't get what all the fuss is about. this is some kind of modern classic? the writing is so pedestrian, it's like i fell into a deep sleep and somehow continued reading.

B-O-R-I-N-G ... P-R-O-S-E

still, an extra star because of the surprisingly intricate narrative.

and that said, i think the miniseries was far more distinctive and interesting.

BBC Blurb: It's 1976 - San Francisco . Mary Ann Singleton arrives from Cleveland for a vacation . She'shoping for adventure. Decising to stay she needs to find a home and a job .

Directed by Susan Roberts

Set in 1976 in San Francisco, Tales of the City is the first of a sequence of novels about the denizens of the mythic apartment house at 28 Barbary Lane; Tales is both a sparkling comedy of manners and a portrait of a free and easy era with the drug and sex counter-culture in full swing.

Mary Ann More...

Obviously a re-read! Having recently read the latest in the series, Mary Ann in Autumn, I wanted to re-read the entire series. Unfortunately, I am so familiar with the first three books, which were also made into TV adaptations, that I know the stories and most of the dialogue off by heart, so I can't get the same, mind-blowing enjoyment that I did on my first reading. (Although that is one of the pleasures of reading, for instance, Michael Tolliver Lives, where past events are mentioned and you More...

Tales of the City is not great literature. That's not what Maupin's aiming for. In what is the first and best book in a six-part series constructed from a serial column in the San Francisco Chronicle, Tales of the City is smart, guilty entertainment at its best. It's a soap opera. But like, say, Six Feet Under, Tales of the City purports to be little more than a creative and intelligent soap opera. Taken as such, it is a delight. Vivid characters. A setting -- San Francisco -- that Maupin gives More...

I had heard of this book for a while, it seems to be quite famous. Especially given that I live in San Francisco its as though I cannot turn my head without the book being referenced in some form or another.

So when I finally got around to reading it I was disappointed. I was dismayed that the book is a glorified soap opera. For some reason I thought it was solid literature, but no, soap opera all the way.

It is an entertaining read. But I felt like I was eating popcorn or cereal. All fluff, no su More...

"I think about [marriage] every time I see a new face. I got married four times today on the 41 Union bus."

This book is only the second one I read in english, therefore I have to admit that it wasn't one of the easiest reading to "start" with (especially after The Perks of Being a Wallflower , who was purely delightful to read as it was an accessible prose). Nevertheless, Tales of the City was enriching and I had a great time reading it. The plots were amazingly well tied up and the characters w More...

Back in 1994 I first heard of 28 Barbary Lane due to the PBS mini series. Still in the closet and living with the folks it wasn't something I would feel comfortable watching. But still it peaked my interest.

A few years later while dog sitting for my brother in Boston I went into a quaint little book store that is no longer and found the hardcover '28 Barbary Lane' containing the first three 'Tales' books and bought it. Later on, back in Boston for another dog sitting weekend that quaint book sto More...

I didn't actually read this book, but it was rather read to me, and the person who did the reading truly brought it to life - I don't think I would have loved this book so much if I had read it on my own.

I've always loved books with complicated, multi-layered, engaging characters and this one definitely offers that. Their philosophy on life radically different from the next person - they laugh and love and hurt, and their stories intertwine unexpectedly and excitedly beneath the San Francisco sk More...

Watched the mini-series from this on PBS when it first aired -- fell in love with the whole thing and found three (at least) of my all-time favorite actors in roles within this series. THEN I went out and read the book the first time -- revisiting it was just as much fun as watching the Tales unfold week by week on TV all those years ago. NOW I'm going to do what I've alway intended to do since then -- I'm going to read the whole series of books -- one after the other like Sandy Duncan consumed More...

this was a pretty easy read. it was a fine tale of intertwining lives of motley characters living in san francisco in the 70s...it's dated but it's meant to be. it feels like a game of 'spot the landmark', and makes me miss living in san francisco, though it's just been a few weeks since i left. the stories were not overlty compelling or even incredibly interesting since the edginess of the text has probably softened immeasurably over the years. also, the end feels a bit rushed and almost absurd More...

12 August 2007
A fun read, a recommendation from Cherie. Very amusing and mostly light hearted, with some serious themes thrown in, but Maupin doesn't do it in a way that is over bearing. {And I love Michael Mouse too, Cherie!!} I like how Maupin connects all of the characters lives in subtle and not so subtle ways, aside from the obvious connections that come out in the beginning of the book. And he reveals lots of fun and not so fun surprises throughout, that perhaps you will be able to catch i More...

A friend recommended this book and I got hooked on the quirky characters of Barberry Lane. Entertaining and engaging. I read the 6 books in the original series one after the other. You do want to read them in order as the relationships between these friends, lovers, spouses, build through the series. Some implausible plotting as the series progressed and I got tired of them. The first two are the best.


Date read reflects when I finished the first book, but I had read all six within a couple of m More...

3.5 stars

This review originally appeared at www.readinasinglesitting.com.

Melbourne is a city of serendipity and chance meetings, and I rather suspect that if Kevin Bacon lived in Melbourne I suspect that he would know everyone. I met my husband by chance–twice in one night at two different venues, in fact, but that’s a story for a forthcoming review–but continue to be astonished by just how much our social circles overlap. We went to brother and sister high schools; his sister was the year ahead More...

Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin

This was suggested by Berni, who chose it for my now defunct book club, but I'm glad I got this out of it as the very least.

I'm amazed this book was written in 1978! It's a perfect depiction of life in the 70s. That kind of perfection written about a certain time in a certain decade usually doesn't come until the decade is well over and well reviewed, and well thought out, and well deciphered. I was continually impressed by Maupin's ability to put you right t More...

'Tales of the City' is an interesting mixture of frothy and very dark. It reminded me at various points of 'The Edible Woman' by Margaret Atwood (the central character, Mary-Ann), the film 'Shame' (the character Brian), and 'Atomised' by Michel Houellebecq (some of the attitudes to sex and death). On the other hand, it also reminded me at times of cheery American TV sitcoms, with a side order of soapy melodrama.

I was impressed by the complexity and tightness of the plotting, as the huge cast of More...

Wow, I haven't hated characters this much since the last thing I saw by Nicole Holofcener. During my trip to San Francisco, I kept thinking, "If I see any of the characters, I will kick them in the nuts."
I'm missing a lot because I didn't read this in 1978, when having half the characters be gay was revolutionary. Maupin was a pioneer of his day, but it's no fun to read about pioneers of the internal worlds of sexuality, drug use, purpose, and social awareness. External pioneers like Lewis and More...

Tales of the City is delightful collection of tales about a number of characters connected to varying extents with a San Francisco rooming house. It was written in the mid 70s and paints a rich picture of the city in that period. It was originally published as a serial in the San Francisco Chronicle. Each installment advances the story of one or a few of the characters, and the patchwork nature of the narrative lends as much to the work as the content itself.

The story reaches into many corners o More...

It's pretty silly, shameless, and sometimes downright gaudy, but I love it. The Tales of the City series might be one of the closest texts my community has to a biblical/historical record: those characters can still be found in San Francisco, so reading about them makes me nostalgic all the time. The fact that somebody was writing all of this from the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s HIV/AIDS epidemic in the city is mind-blowing; as you read the books, you get the sense that you're witnessing More...

I’d put off reading this for fear of conforming to gay stereotype, but once I started I couldn’t help but be hooked.
It’s clear where the tone and structure of equally addictive television shows such as Sex and the City have taken inspiration. And it’s clear from where Maupin took his.
I only wish I’d been living in San Francisco at the time of these stories’ publication as daily newspaper columns. It must have been thrilling. Just as audiences years before must have waited with baited breath for More...

One of the most overrated authors of all time. Not surprisingly the fact that this series of amateurish daytime soap-opera novellas were adapted for TV meant it was one of those rare instances in which the TV adaptation was actually better than the books. Okay, to be fair, I only read the first book. I slogged through the whole thing, and i absolutely hated it. But, this much i know. The reader could not possibly relate to the San Francisco backdrop unless he had actually spent quite a bit of ti More...

I think I am either too old or too young to fully appreciate this book. If I were older, I might appreciate the groundbreaking nature of its matter-of-fact approach to a variety of characters of different sexuality and gender at a time when social mores were drastically changing. And if I were younger, I might be totally enchanted by all the entertaining drama, good and bad and self-absorbed, that comes with being young, single and in your twenties in a big city.

But I wasn't able to really conn More...

I picked this up at a used book shop for $1.95 because I was curious. I was not aware that it was part of a serial, and I may not invest in the later novels because it isn't really my thing. I had the impression it was more serious, more literary, so I was a little disappointed by its lack of pretension. There were a few too many coincidences for my taste: housemates, coworkers, and lovers overlap in improbable ways. It seems the author would have us believe that San Francisco is a much smaller More...

I began this book in part because I was curious. Everyone who ever attended SFSU had to read it for some class or other along the way, except I, the lit major. I had an attitude about it then that it must be more from the "pop fiction" angle of things, and so it took the book's clearance price of five dollars at a local bookstore to convince me to give it a go.

I should start by saying that I've lived in SF for nine years now, and would frequently visit in the years leading up to my final move. A More...

I have a bias toward San Francisco. I think it the greatest city in the world. Although I haven't been to many of the great ones. So when I was assigned a book regarding San Francisco in the 70s, I was interested. As my book cover says, this book is indeed a 'love letter' to SF. The book shows that the city by the bay is one like none other. The characters in the book, some new to the city, are free in the city. They aren't prosecuted, aren't frowned upon by their peers, or cast out to dry by so More...

I have this rule about reading a book: I usually give every book a chance of 100 pages. If I still don‘t like it by then I stop reading it. This is what happened with The Tales of the City. I was supposed to read it for my book club meeting but I found out about the book club only a few days before the meeting so I never managed to read the whole book. I managed to read around 80 pages. Nevertheless, I went to the meeting anyway. It was a great evening with lovely people but all they said was co More...

I’d never heard of this book until it started showing up on a lot of author lists of their top 10 favorite books of all time. It’s been described as a gay classic and authentic to San Francisco in the 1970’s. Since this story was first published in the newspaper as a serial in the 1970’s, it has gone on to be a miniseries that garnered several award nominations. Even reading the book today, it remains a whimsical delight that clearly set the stage for many such spin offs in the future. The begin More...

These novels (eight in all as of 12/17/2011) are among my favorites. The characters and I have aged together - we share a common experience (as we have lived at the same time, no doubt). So, to me, these aren't simply characters in a book, but old friends both dear and cherished. Each new book is a welcomed reunion. The stories are always chock full of emotion; they are funny, charming, melancholy, melodramtic and often feature a mystery (of sorts). I find these tales life affirming.

If you're looking for a wonderful trip to a fantasy land, this is the book for you! The good news is that the trip won't end after this book. There are five more books in the series.

I was given this book over twenty years ago and I immediately went out and bought each of the others after I had read the preceding ones. I have read through the entire series at least three times and it has been just as refreshing each time I have done so.

If you're gay, you will love these books. They will take you More...

Welcome to San Francisco, girl! Here's a joint, and to paraphrase Mrs. Madrigal, don't you dare tell your mother!

Basically, all you need to know is that Mary Ann Singleton moves to S.F. and embarks on a wonderful new life with a cast of zany friends. Whenever I'm new to a city (like Mary Ann) I like to read some fiction that's very clearly identified with that place. I read Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy in Brooklyn and several books by Dennis Copper in L.A.. But so far, Armistead Maupin's T More...

As a fun reading "project" for 2013, I have decided to go back and re-read Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series. The plan is to read a new installment of the six-book series approximately every 2 months. Expect a good deal of bias and ratings inflation here, as I have a great deal of affection for these books and characters. I discovered them shortly after making my own solo move cross-country in my early 20s, so much like Mary Ann Singleton -- tho Phoenix in the early 90s was not quite t More...