MICHAEL TOLLIVER LIVES
Armistead Maupin
Harper Perennial
Fiction
Hardcover: 0060761350
Paperback: 9780060761363

Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City novels have achieved a kind of infamy since their original publication as serialized fiction in the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper. Spanning the freewheeling, sexually open 1970s and extending into the more sober 1980s, with that decade's awakening to the realities of the AIDS crisis, the series was later turned into a miniseries that was banned on many PBS channels due to its nudity. Indeed, the series's frankness about sex, and its openness about gay sex in particular, is part of what fueled its initial popularity.

But beyond its risqué subplots and often over-the-top storylines, the series's popularity could also be explained by its realistic portrayal of a group of close-knit friends living in the relaxed, permissive society of San Francisco in the 1970s. Readers who came to know Mona, Mrs. Madrigal, Brian, Mary Ann and the rest of the inhabitants of 28 Barbary Lane were inevitably drawn into their joys and sorrows, particularly when later books in the series took on a more somber tone.

Almost everyone's favorite character in the books is Michael "Mouse" Tolliver, a young gay man from Florida who has moved to San Francisco to escape his fundamentalist roots. Over the course of the first six books in the series, Michael entered a jockey shorts dance contest, fell in love (and lust) more than once, came out to his parents, lost his lover to AIDS and discovered that he himself was HIV-positive.

Fast forward to the 2000s, when, thanks to powerful drug cocktails, Michael has come to terms with his HIV status and is not just surviving but flourishing. The novel's first-person narration gives this book an autobiographical feeling, especially for those readers familiar with Maupin's own biography. United in a City Hall marriage to Ben, a man 20 years his junior, Michael has finally discovered the kind of stable, long-term relationship that has eluded him most of his life. Sure, he has doubts about how his young husband will handle the future effects of aging on Viagra-popping Michael. But, for now, he is content with his marriage, with his friends and with his work as a gardener.

Among those friends are some who will be familiar to readers who have been frequent visitors to 28 Barbary Lane --- particularly Brian and Mrs. Madrigal (who no longer resides at that legendary address but who has found a way to surround herself with a new sort of community) --- as well as some new faces. Readers will particularly delight in former ladies' man Brian's relationship with his daughter, a young journalist whose experiential examination of the city's sexual diversity has her father feeling like an old fuddy-duddy. There are some surprises --- happy and sad --- about these old friends, too.

Michael's biggest crisis in this new novel is the impending death of his mother, terminally ill with emphysema in a Florida nursing home. Michael's homosexuality has been the source of contention in their relationship, and his mother's illness causes Michael to reflect on his relationship with his parents and with his brother Irwin. Daring to take Ben along on a final visit to Florida, Michael confronts many of the skeletons in his family's closet --- and unclothes a few new ones as well.

MICHAEL TOLLIVER LIVES has a finality about it, especially when Michael loses the person who has always felt like his real mother. But this ending, like Michael's life, turns out to be neither somber nor tragic --- instead, older, wiser and very much alive, Michael's story brings a note of hopeful optimism to the culmination of this beloved series.

   --- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.

© Copyright 1996-2008, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.

Back to top.