Why a Booktrail?
1970s: The seventh in the tales of the city of San Franscisco
Michael Tolliver Lives: Tales of the City 7
What you need to know before your trail
Michael Tolliver, the sweet-spirited Southerner in Armistead Maupin’s classic Tales of the City series, is arguably the most beloved gay character in fiction. Now, almost twenty years after ending his groundbreaking saga of San Francisco life, Maupin revisits his all-too-human hero, letting the 55-year-old gardener tell his story in his own voice.
Having survived the plague that took so many of his friends and lovers, Michael has learned to embrace the random pleasures of life, the tender alliances that sustain him in the hardest of times, Michael Tolliver Lives follows its protagonist as he finds love with a younger man, attends to his dying fundamentalist mother in Florida, and finally reaffirms his allegiance to a wise octogenarian who was once his landlady.
While Maupin insists that this book is not, strictly speaking, a continuation of Tales of the City, a reassuring number of familiar faces appear along the way. As usual, the author’s mordant wit and ear for pitch-perfect dialogue serve every aspect of the story– from the bawdy to the bittersweet. Michael Tolliver Lives is a novel about the act of growing older joyfully and the everyday miracles that somehow make that possible.
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: de Young Museum
- America/ USA - FL
- G: Orlovista
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.”
de Young Museum
50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive
“Its contorted rectilinear tower — ‘Road Warrior’ by way of the Mayans–rises above the park like a mystery begging to be solved.”
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Michael Tolliver Lives: Tales of the City 7
Destination : San Francisco, Florida Author/Guide: Armistead Maupin Departure Time: 1970s
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