Better than your in real life friends

I’m an adult. But my inner child has a group of imaginary friends. They visit me in the bathtub. When I am feeling low they cheer me up. One is named Mouse. They all do drugs. One is stuck up, but is a really nice person underneath. One is waiter but I’ve never been to his restaurant. They all live in this one house and know everything about each other and I know everything about them. I’ve known them for a long time and they visit me regularly. They live in San Francisco but I don’t.


Sounds a little cult like huh?

Well start reading (not watching the mini-series) Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City and you too will begin a friendship with a group of characters that transcends the six-book series. These folks have kept me company when my partner is traveling; I never feel lonely knowing that I can pick up any of the books, though most especially the this first installment and refresh the friendship again.

What makes a book a companion? Well first off, Tales is an easy read. The soap-opera like stories are written in short chapters and each one concludes with a bit of satisfaction or an unanswered question that makes you go one for three or four more chapters. More importantly, each character is just a person. Someone you know, or even better, each one is a small part of you. We all have secrets, so does Mrs. Madrigal. We all want love, so does Michael (AKA Mouse, the lead protagonist in the series). We all long to understand ourselves and figure out where we belong, so does Mona. We all long to change our lives, so does Mary Ann. We all wish we lived the sexual seventies the way Brian did.

Now that you got the general lay of the land, let’s talk about the plot. Seemingly, at the start, there isn’t one. Clevelander Mary Ann Singleton comes to San Francisco for a vacation. She does not seem to be having a stellar time, just your average vacation. But like a virus, that’s how San Francisco gets you. You just know you belong there from the moment you arrive. She calls her mother and tells she isn’t coming home. And so begins our adventure into the Babylon by the Bay in the 70s. I wish I could be Mary Ann, at every stage of my life.

Much is made of Tales being a gay story. I think now, some 20 years after it’s first telling as a series of columns in the San Francisco Chronicle, society as whole is more gay integrated and less sex-phobic than it was during the writing. Armistead was ahead of his time by living in a place that was leading the nation into a future it wasn’t sure it was going to like.

In this trip back in time there are wonderful vignettes of the 70s that those of us over 40 will remember. Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, pet rocks, Love Is greeting cards are all here. All the comforts of the days we remember. The innocence of Disco combined with the optimism of your 20s. That time where we all live in our hearts and measure ourselves against.

I’m NOT talking about the plot. I refuse to take the joy out of it for you. The plot is secondary and aside from the mysterious roof tenant and the Big Secret, it’s not very exciting when you describe it to others.

OK, we do have to be gay here a bit so let’s talk about Mouse. He is the Gay-Everyman. He is the cutest guy on earth who can’t find a lover. He goes to the gym and cruises with an innocence but still can’t find the right man. Every time he comes close, it falls apart. It’s a universal story, not a gay one, it’s your story. Here in lies another reason why these folks have come our long term friends. As we change, we realize that our past has influenced us in ways we are just now realizing.

Mona is the lost part of us all. Always searching, seemingly on an endless mixture of Quaaludes and PMS. The part of us that is over it all and needs to run to something else. The part of us that is here and wishes we were there.

Mrs. Madrigal has a secret. She is just lovely, but oh so weird. You have to come to love her. You’re scared about her at first. By the end you are in love with the essence of a self fulfilled life. Goodness. I can’t tell you too much about her or you’ll know too much.

OH--and you are not allowed to watch the mini-series or listen to the audio book untill you read the book....or there will be no sex or drugs for you!

Just go read it and email me.

Have a fabu day.