At Last... Even More Tales of the City!

Well, not exactly. But it IS the book that thousands of 'TOTC' fans have been waiting 19 years for!

Armistead Maupin seems quite adamant in claiming that this is NOT a sequel, which seems odd as it certainly doesn't stand as a novel in its own right. The plot is fairly thin, and the remeniscences wouldn't mean much to anyone who wasn't familiar with the six books already in the series. It would be a little like going to a school reunion at a school you never went to!

That said, what he does do is neatly wrap and tie up all the loose ends of our old friends lives, as prettily as a Selfridges assistant at Christmas!

The biggest difference about this new addition is that it's written in first-person, it's Michael 'Mouse' Tollivers' story this time. He welcomes you personally into his life, introduces you to his friends, never assuming you may already know some of them but instead giving you a potted history of each one, how they met and where they've been together. Yes, you do find out what's happened to everyone, but I'm not going to spoil it for you here!

We meet many new characters; his gorgeous new, younger husband, and his new 'ftm' transexual gardening assistant. We also get to know his family properly at last, which is where the bulk of the plot lies. When eventually he has to make a choice between biological and 'logical' family, it's obvious which way he'll side.

It's a lovely book, showing real growth of the central character who's aged and grown wiser along with the rest of us and the wearying world around him. It's full of hope; hope that there's always a chance.

Glad to see you again Michael!