Armistead Maupin

Tales of the City

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We have an exciting gang of people, a zesty buzz to their interactions – and I just want to know what happens next…

More Tales of the City

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Maupin is providing us with a Soap Opera, which I don’t see as a negative comment. Our mainstream Soap Operas have in recent years explored a range of stories drawing on the experiences of LGBT+ people and in some ways I think it is important to remember how different the context in which Maupin was writing was. This volume published in 1980, perhaps a high water mark for movements of liberation started in the 1960s before the crisis of Aids and right-wing retrenchment took hold.

These stories remain very fresh, young people testing their identities – those across the generations wrestling with social expectations – all of them struggling, at some level, to be comfortable in their own bodies, in their own lives.

The is a comedy to many of the situations, not because they are played for laughs but because quite often life is fairly ridiculous.

Further Tales of the City 

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Within the delightful dramas of this instalment of the Tales it is Michael Tolliver ongoing struggles with love and identity which perhaps have the greatest power – it is a theme that feels so fresh. There is an exploration of ways in which Michael finds self-acceptance as a gay man a particular challenge – he has internalised some of society’s negative assumptions and can’t let himself embrace the love that is there to surround him.

Babycakes 

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There is a warmth in encountering the cast of characters again, they are becoming old friends… The situations have perhaps been pushed even further yet there is such life to them that they become believable.

Michael Tolliver’s visit to London is a window to the past of the City, especially the gay past of the City, that feels more remote that the years would suggest.

Significant Others

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The unfolding of the AIDS crisis increasingly dominates this tale and Michael Tolliver’s loneliness.

As usual there are powerful ideas explored within the comedy to the situations that play out – weaving the two together – for example towards the end DeDe and D’Or share moment of mutual confession and forgiveness which is captured “In a burst of hideous insight, DeDe realized the depth of her commitment to this marriage. She had just traded adultery for a cheeseburger and an order of french fries.”

At one point Michael reflects that “nothing would ever happen, no one would ever care until straight people started getting it.” - that AIDS was just a gay problem and therefore for not worth worrying about – I think Diana played a big part in changing that for us, but we need to be constantly watchful for those things that impact the lives of the marginalised and minorities which we allow ourselves, as “normal” people, to ignore.

Sure of You 

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This is the final of the first run of novels although it doesn’t read as a finale, so I am glad to know that this are more books for me to go on a read.

I think reading this directly after Black Deutschland set a context, both being set in a similar time, but I am not sure exactly what that context was…

There is a domesticity to this episode, the nesting of Michael and Thack had an echo of Hide by Matthew Griffin but it is there too, in a funny sort of way, in Brian and Mary-Ann’s break up. A particular ache and intensity of love in the ordinary not the Rom-Com soft focus fluff.

The shadow that HIV/AIDS hangs over Michael made me almost weepy – the fear about getting ill but also the stigma – we are still not over that, the dragging of heels to make PREP freely available is the currently playing out of the stigma, in not so subtle ways it reinforces our belief that gay men are dirty and should know better. It makes me feel sad and tired. We snatch space of our love, we can’t take it for granted.

Reading it in Gran Canaria I was mindful that staying in hotel where around a third of guests were same-sex couples you start to feel normalised in a way that you are not in day to day life, however much we have formal equality, and the chance to be in such space is a privilege. 

 

Maybe the Moon

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This is not part of the “Tales of the City” but it is a close relation. Cady has a view of Hollywood based on being on the margins, because of her size, which perhaps allows the holding up of a mirror in a way a true “insider” could not do.

Maupin gives Cady the dignity of her sexuality, something that society struggles to do for people whose bodies do not fit the “norm”. In his playfulness he is able to explore “issues” without ever preaching at you.

Writing in 1992 a major part of the plot is closeted existence of a young gay actor – sadly this aspect does not feel as dated as it really should – there is some space for openly gay people within Hollywood but it feels like it is still a limited and contested space. 

 

The Night Listener

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This is something of a Russian doll, storytelling within storytelling within storytelling, and the sense of nothing being as it seems is an unsettling delight.

There is something warm and reassuring about a Maupin book – surprising but familiar territory. I think it is enjoyable to read about the dysfunctional lives of people who happen to be gay. Being gay is not the root of the dysfunction – they have difficult relationships with lovers, with parents, but so do most straight people. It is a world complete in itself.

Michael Tolliver Lives

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This return to the Tales of The City clearly carried risks, the best part of 20 years had pasted between the publication of Sure of You and Michael Tolliver Lives – years when the world of gay men in liberal western cities was remade, 2007 may have been something of a high point (LGBTQ+ life seemed to be getting ever better, the pathway to full inclusion seemed inevitable in ways that now feel, frankly, naive) – it was a moment when it could almost have felt like there was nothing left to say.

But it deals with being a middle aged gay man – and I have to put my hand up and accept that I am perhaps reading this as the sweet spot in terms of my own life – lots of things drive the “Peter Pan” mentality of so many gay men, in this novel Armistead helps us let that all go and be ourselves.

There is also a little bit of a flavour of a greatest hits album, all the old characters are name checked in ways that give the faithful reader a warm glow but would be lost on anyone starting their journey here. 

 

Mary Ann in Autumn

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Once again we have the familiar cast, and as with Michael Tolliver Lives it is an exploration of middle aged lives – how have the twists and turns shaped these people, how have they found happiness, how have they ended up still searching for it?

While it was an enjoyable read there was a moment about two thirds of the way through when I saw what the classic Maupin plot twist was going to be, how the seemingly unconnected parts of the narrative were going to turn out to be inextricably tied together – and I felt a little flat when the big reveal finally came as I tried to politely muster my surprised face…