As we begin the final push on Tales of the City, I should point out a few things. As the last third released, I was able to read them as they came out, a luxury I didn't have with the first 6. (The original miniseries on PBS released in 1993. I had the first 3 down by mid 1994, and finished what at the time was the end in 1995.) However, I've only ever read the last third once a piece, and only one was released since I started this blog.
Which brings us to Michael Tolliver Lives, Armistead Maupin's 2007 return to the folks of Barbary Lane. Michael has the odd presentation of being written in First Person, with Michael/Mouse narrating the book in 2007. Oddly, that decision drew a bunch of criticism at the time, as did his claim that it really wasn't part of Tales. The latter he retracted, but most reviews still kvetch about the narrative style. Of course, some of those same reviews also complain that a book narrated by an aging boomer (who technically isn't, but really is) queer who lives north of the Castro is virulently anti-W. Bush.
As we open on Michael, we find that he and Thack are no longer a couple, Thack having moved to Chicago sometime prior. Instead, thanks to the magic of the "dating apps", Michael instead met Ben on a site designed for folks to meet Daddies. We get sordid details of their relationship, from its open nature to getting married at the courthouse during that odd period when San Francisco recognized gay marriage even though no one else really did. (It's kind of odd that so much has changed in 15 years. I had forgotten much of what is contemporary in the book, and I LIVED through it.) Michael sold his half of Plant Parenthood to Brian, who's 61 and looking to retire and drive a Winnebago cross country, even as his daughter Shauna is becoming an internet celebrity. Mrs. Madrigal no longer lives on Barbary Lane, having had a stroke prior to the start. Instead, she lives in a complex with Michael's new business partner, Jake Greenleaf, a female to male transsexual living with two women going the other direction.
We find out Mona died of breast cancer off screen as well, and Mary Ann is seemingly off the radar, mostly retired in Connecticut. But, honestly, most of the regulars aren't the focus until towards the end, as much of this volume concerns Michael's relationship with his mother in Orlando.
Momma, it seems, is in the Gospel Palms nursing home, dying of emphysema. As such, Michael and Ben make a trip back to Orlando, where we get to see his brother and wife and his likely queer grandson. Momma tells Michael a bit about wanting to leave his father, which she did at one point for a 10 day stretch. Michale and his brother don't have much in common, since his brother has evidently embraced Jesus in a big way along with his wife and mother. (The sister-in-law runs a Christian puppet show.) The gays of Orlando aren't particularly as progressive as those in San Fran either, although Michael and Ben do wind up having a menage a trois with Momma's hair dresser, Patreece. Momma, like so many mothers of gay men, has a way of loving her son without really acknowledging who he's sleeping with. Momma does ask Michael to sign her living will, since she has no desire to be kept alive like Terry Schiavo. (In her defense, Momma has come a long way over the series, and honestly, even if it takes Michael time to realize it, she does love him and is proud of him and his husband, even if her framework is a lot different than his.)
Anyway, when Mrs. Madrigal has a heart attack, we get to see Mary Ann again, and we see the renewal of bonds that we thought had ended back in 1989. While she and Brian are not great, and her daughter is a bit off....
By far the thing that sticks with me very hard here is the idea of the logical family vs the biological family, something I also struggle with on occasion. (Boiled down, logical family are the friends who we choose as our own brothers and sisters vs whatever fate has declared to be our blood relatives.) It's obvious Michael and his family have very little in common, but his logical family more than makes up for it in terms of support.
I also find myself saddened by some of the things Michael encounters in the modern era; those that survived the plague now get to balance the possibility of AIDS taking them out, but also old age taking its toll on top of it. We hear bits and pieces of those who, convinced they were going to die, making bad financial decisions and now having to deal with them,; we hear of the dot com bubble and what it did to housing costs in the Bay and how even after the bubble popped, the rent kept on rising.
As much as some people hate this volume, I personally enjoy how it shows how things change over time and how we all progress with the calendar.
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