Tales of the city

Select an Action

Tales of the city

Title:

Tales of the city

Author:

Maupin, Armistead, author.

Series:

Tales of the city ;

Series Number:

Summary:

The lives of the people living at 28 Barbary Lane, in San Francisco, during the 1970s, demonstrate a brave new urban world with funny, absurd and agonizing twists of fate. Social and sexual barriers are broken as their stories unfold.

Physical Description:

373 p. ; 21 cm.

Genre:

Humorous fiction.

Subject Term:

City and town life -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

San Francisco (Calif.) -- Fiction.

Publisher:

HarperPerennial,

Publication Date:

1996

ISBN:

9780060964047

Publication Information:

New York : HarperPerennial, c1996.

Call Number:

MAUPIN

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607002553553	Adult Fiction	MAUPIN	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City has blazed a singular trail through popular culture -- from a groundbreaking newspaper serial to a classic novel to a television event that entranced millions around the world. The first of six novels about the denizens of the mythic apartment house at 28 Barbary Lane, Tales is both a wry comedy of manners and a deeply involving portrait of a vanished era.

Author Notes

Armistead Maupin was born in Washington D.C. on May 13, 1944. He received a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He served as a naval officer in the Mediterranean and with the River Patrol Force in Vietnam.

He worked as a reporter for a newspaper in Charleston, South Carolina, before being assigned to the San Francisco bureau of the Associated Press in 1971. In 1976, he launched his groundbreaking Tales of the City serial in the San Francisco Chronicle. The series describes a group of characters that live together in a boarding house in San Francisco. Eventually, these Tales were collected into a series of six novels. In 1993, the British Broadcasting Company adapted them for a television series that aired on PBS in 1994.

His other works include Maybe the Moon, Michael Tolliver Lives, and The Days of Anna Madrigal. The Night Listener was adapted into a movie starring Robin Williams and Toni Collette.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Bauthian and Revel (Glenn Gould) take on Maupin's classic story of queer folks and alternate lifestyles in 1970s San Francisco in this lush graphic adaptation. Mary Ann Singleton, freshly transplanted from Cleveland, Ohio, moves into eccentric Anna Madrigal's boarding house. She lands a job as a secretary for stern Edgar Halcyon, head of the advertising firm where her neighbor, Mona Ramsey, works. Edgar, terminally ill, launches an extramarital affair with Anna while Mary Ann becomes involved with Edgar's son-in-law. Another neighbor, Michael, dates a closeted gynecologist who chafes at Michael's more open sexuality. Mona leaves the boarding house after her model ex-girlfriend arrives from New York to rekindle their romance. The comics bring the entangled ensemble to life through their shifting relationships, growing secrets, and painful moments, all the way to the melancholic but hopeful climax. Those unfamiliar with the original may miss some key elements in the condensed version, though Bauthian maintains the novel's slice-of-life feel. Revel's art carries the softness of pastels but with clean outlines, and her artistic color choices add appealing layers. Whether an old fan or newcomer to Maupin's characters, readers will be hooked on the drama, even if they might go back to the original to fill in more details. (Mar.)