A long time coming but well worth the wait Tales of the City are my favourite series of books ever, in the whole world. Maupin takes an excruciatingly long time to write novels and this is only his third since he 'ended' the Tales of The City series all those years ago. Luckily for us, he felt the need to update us on the doings of Michael Tolliver, or Mouse as he is affectionately known in the books. It is no good starting this book if you've never read the others, as the story and characters are as comfortable as an old pair of slippers and you... more info
Trip down memory lane! I, too, bought this book and then put it on the shelf for a few weeks. I was afraid that it wouldn't do justice to my memories of Tales Of The City. Then one night I picked it up and read it, cover to cover, in 4 hours. The minute I started to read, Michael had a voice. I could hear it in my head - the voice of Marcus D'Amico, who played Mouse in the original mini series. He was my narrator through the entire book and it was wonderful to pick up the threads from years ago. Granted, some of those threads... more info
Tying up the loose ends For me this is definitely a new Tales of the City book. Maupin writes with his usually flowing and easy to read style, concentrating on the late middle aged Michael Tolliver and the aging Anna Madrigal. Though the Mouse Tolliver of earlier books seems to have morphed into Maupin himself more than I would have liked, the plots surrounding the characters are bound to change as their increasing age dictates. For me that is one of the stronger points of the book - Maupin manages to let us know what's been... more info
Enjoyable, but not Tales of the City The other reviewers are right - this definitely is not a Tales of the City book. In terms of structure it is much, much closer to Maupin's later works "Maybe The Moon" and "The Night Listener". I say this because unlike the other Tales books there is a single narrative, instead of a collection of sub-stories going on all at once. Personally, I enjoyed this book, but then I also enjoyed the two books mentioned above. Yes, I missed the excitement of following several intertwining stories that I so... more info
