Musical Wanderer

Almost 30 years ago, I read the first Tales of the City book.   Today I just finished the eighth book. If you don't know the Tales books by Armistead Maupin, read them, in order.  I don't know anyone who has said after reading one "Well, that sucked."  He wrote the first six books about the lives of the residents of 28 Barbary Lane in San Francisco beginning in 1978 and every two years to 1989, chronicling in fiction life in the city from the wild living of the 1970s  through the AIDS-tempered days of the 1980s.  With the exception of their landlady/mother figure, Mrs. Madrigal, the main characters were in the midst of their youth in the first six books.  He wrote an update to their lives after 20 years in 2007, Michael Tolliver Lives,  and the eighth book in the series, Mary Ann in Autumn  in 2010. The characters in this last book, once young adults in their twenties like me when I first read about their lives, are now middle-aged,...

Since the early 80s I've been reading and rereading the Tales of the City books by Armistead Maupin. Left on the formica topped dining room table in our group house that one housemate grew up with back in PA--we joked that she was born and, when we were very drunk, even conceived on the very table--I picked the first book and found it a page turner, as it was written as a serial in a newspaper. Lots of drugs, sex, witty characters. We devoured the books because they were fun and, living in a group house in DC, reminded us of our paths in some ways.  People in DC are always from somewhere else (well, except for me, a native). They come for careers often, but sometimes just to get away from the provincial mores and intellects of their hometowns. Reading stories of the occupants of 28 Barbary Lane reminded us of our own departures from home and finding new friends in a new city. Over the years I read and reread them, particularly the first one. Ten years after...