Why a Booktrail?
1970s: The eighth in the tales of the city of San Franscisco
Mary Ann in Autumn: Tales of the City 8
What you need to know before your trail
Twenty years have passed since Mary Ann Singleton left her husband and child in San Francisco to pursue her dream of a television career in New York. Now, a pair of personal calamities has driven her back to the city of her youth and into the arms of her oldest friend, Michael “Mouse” Tolliver, a gay gardener happily ensconced with his much-younger husband.
Mary Ann finds temporary refuge in the couple’s backyard cottage, where, at the unnerving age of fifty-seven, she licks her wounds and takes stock of her mistakes. Soon, with the help of Facebook and a few old friends, she begins to re-engage with life, only to confront fresh terrors when her speckled past comes back to haunt her in a way she could never have imagined.
Locations
Reset- America/ USA - CA- San Francisco
- A: Macondray Lane
- B: The Endup
- C: Washington Square Park
- D: Jackson Square (area) - Halcyon Communications
- E: Point Bonita Lighthouse
- F: Twin Peaks
Travel Guide
San Franscisco
Macondray Lane
The inspiration for Barbary Lane is Macondray Lane – though the location is not where Armistead describes here though..
“The house was on Barbary Lane, a narrow, wooded walk-way off Leavenworth between Union and Filbert. It was a well-weathered, three-story structure made of brown shingles. It made Mary Ann think of an old bear with bits of foliage caught in its fur. She liked it instantly.”
The Buena Vista
(2765 Hyde Street at Beach)
“She came to the city alone for an eight-day vacation. On the fifth night, she drank three Irish coffees at the Buena Vista, realized that her Mood Ring was blue, and decided to phone her mother in Cleveland.”
Washington Square Park
The location where Anna Madrigal met Edgar Halcyon in the “Tales of the City” Novel.
“He sat down on a bench in Washington Square. Next to him was a woman who was roughly his age. She was wearing wool slacks and a paisley smock. She was reading the Bhagavad Gita.
Did you know? : A time capsule was buried underneath Benjamin Franklin in 1979. It contains a copy of “Tales of the City”
Point Bonita
“The beach at Point Bonita was almost empty. At the north end, a group of teen-agers was flying a huge Mylar kite with a shimmering tail.”
Twin Peaks
Toad Hall and The Midnight Sun were wall-to-wall flannel, as usual. He passed them up for The Twin Peaks, where his crew-neck sweater and corduroy trousers would seem less alien to the environment.
Cruising, he had long ago decided, was a lot like hitch-hiking.
It was best to dress like the people you wanted to pick you up.”
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Mary Ann in Autumn: Tales of the City 8
Destination : San Francisco Author/Guide: Armistead Maupin Departure Time: 1970s
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