Tales of the City (novel)


Tales of the City is the first book in the Tales of the City series by American novelist Armistead Maupin, originally serialized in the San Francisco Chronicle. Set in 1970s San Francisco, it follows the residents of a small apartment complex at 28 Barbary Lane, including the eccentric landlady, Anna Madrigal.

Background

Tales of the City was originally serialized in the Pacific Sun and then the San Francisco Chronicle. Maupin said that early on he kept gay character Michael "low-key", feeling that the newspaper would "say no if they saw what I was up to". He was more comfortable bringing gay characters in when the column gained a solid following. His editors were still squeamish, and one kept a character chart which Maupin said was intended to ensure "that the homo characters didn't suddenly outnumber the hetero ones and thereby undermine the natural order of civilization."
To produce the novel, Maupin assembled and reimagined his first year of columns while staying at Rock Hudson's house in Bermuda Dunes, California.

Plot

In 1976, secretary Mary Ann Singleton visits San Francisco from Cleveland, Ohio, and impulsively decides to stay. She finds an apartment at 28 Barbary Lane, a small complex owned by the eccentric, marijuana-growing Anna Madrigal. Mary Ann befriends the other tenants of the building: hippyish, bisexual Mona Ramsey; heterosexual lothario Brian Hawkins; Michael Tolliver, a sweet and personable gay man known to friends as "Mouse"; and Norman Neal Williams, the tenant of the rooftop shed. Mary Ann gets a job as secretary to Edgar Halcyon, the abrasive, wealthy owner of the advertising agency where Mona works as a copywriter. Mary Ann finally gives in to the advances of ad exec Beauchamp Day, who is unhappily married to Edgar's socialite daughter DeDe, but he is unable to perform when in bed with Mary Ann. Edgar is dying, but has not told his family; he meets Anna in the park and they begin an extramarital romance. Beauchamp deliberately leaves Mary Ann's scarf in his car to be found by an attention-starved DeDe, who has sex with Lionel Wong, an 18-year-old delivery boy. Mouse meets handsome gynecologist Jon Fielding, and finds that he does not want to engage in casual sex with anyone else. He wins $100 in an underwear dance contest, but loses Jon over it. Jon confirms DeDe's suspicion that she is pregnant. Black model D'orothea Wilson arrives from New York, hoping to resume her romance with Mona; Anna is heartbroken when Mona moves in with D'orothea without saying goodbye. Norman is secretly investigating Anna on behalf of Mona's mother. Columnist Carson Callas blackmails DeDe into sleeping with him, in exchange for which he will not reveal her pregnancy. Beauchamp's renewed attentiveness to DeDe wanes, and she decides to keep her baby. At the baths, Jon has sex with a man he has not met before—Beauchamp. Mona discovers that D'orothea is really Caucasian, and has been darkening her skin to help her modeling career. As Edgar is dying at home, DeDe and Beauchamp tell him he is going to be a grandfather. Mary Ann has been spending time with Norman, but discovers that he is a child pornographer. When she confronts him, he slips and falls off a cliff. Mary Ann finds his file on Anna, and destroys it.

Characters