Maupin's Tribute to San Francisco in the Seventies

Growing up in Northern California in the seventies, I don’t think that I fully appreciated the magnitude of the social changes that were taking place around me. Protestors and picket lines weren’t strange; the longhaired boys and girls that played music in the park while I kicked my legs on the swing set were simply part of the landscape. I was too young to understand anything about sex, drugs, or politics; I merely knew that San Francisco was a magical place, rising impossibly out of the ocean, draped mystically in fog like a fairy tale kingdom. It was a place of dreams… rows of houses painted the colors of Easter Eggs, neighborhoods that seemed as exotic as foreign lands, and blanket-wrapped frigid evenings at The ‘Stick.

But what really made The City interesting was the people. The grown-ups in San Francisco just seemed happier than the adults elsewhere; they seemed younger and filled with life. Their energy swept out across the bay and migrated inland, but the pulsing epicenter was located on that small, crowded peninsula. These are the people that Armistead Maupin managed to capture so eloquently in Tales of the City.

I realize now that San Francisco of the seventies was a unique place at a special time. Whether Maupin knew that when he began the serial in the San Francisco Chronicle that later evolved into Tales of the City, I can’t say. However, I only realized this in hindsight, and regret that I didn’t fix more moments in my memory. From the beautiful boys that walked in pairs to the single young women in business attire, the people exuded energy because they had found a place where they could live their lives on their terms. People were embarking on new roads, and their freedom and happiness filled the city. Later, when friends of the family began falling ill, and then were given squares on the quilt, I would look back on that time and try to remember how it once had been. Armistead Maupin makes that looking back a bit easier.

Since Tales of the City was written initially as a newspaper serial, it’s a more satisfying read if viewed in that context. There are characters that don’t develop fully until later in the series, and plot elements that are left hanging at the end of this book. Some may find this frustrating; I was merely encouraged to move on to More Tales of the City and find out what would transpire with the characters that I had grown to care about.

The story begins as Mary Ann Singleton, a young secretary from Ohio, calls her parents to tell them that she has decided to make San Francisco her home. After five days of vacation, she has been taken in by the city and wants to stay. With nothing but a suitcase, she wanders the city in search of an apartment and ends up finding her future on Barbary Lane. Run by Anna Madrigal, the eccentric, pot-growing landlady who acts as surrogate mother to all of her young tenants, the house on Barbary Lane becomes the center of the world that Maupin creates. Every character is somehow connected to Barbary Lane, and as their lives weave in and out, we are allowed a peek into their joys and sorrows.

Although some viewed the series as scandalous when it was first printed, many viewed it as a groundbreaking look at homosexuality, interracial relationships and independent women. Viewed with a current eye, the story seems fairly mild and not at all graphic by today’s media standards. Maupin did not shy away from possible controversy, and dealt frankly with infidelity, sexual liberation, bisexuality, drug use and transsexuals in his plot lines. On top of it all, he created characters that one can’t help but fall in love with, and he managed to infuse his storylines with humor that will have you laughing out loud.

Tales of the City transpires in the energetic San Francisco of my youth. His later books in this series do tackle the sadness and pain of the eighties. But this book covers the happier days, and cements that moment in time so that everyone can experience a bit of it.

This review is an entry in the Epinions.com National Gay & Lesbian Pride Month Write-Off. Please be certain to read the entries of the other participants: caconti; kurt_messick; mshawpyle; frazzledspice; fdknight; leah; cowboydj; doublecoog; ed_grover; kcfoxy; forkids; caravan70; endora60; arazim; gracef; redlass; jrk; ergopropterhoc; cmuir; stonehousellc; erik_kosberg; elorraine; and jasonkirk.