- Michael Tolliver Lives
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Michael Tolliver Lives 
US 1st edition coverAuthor(s) Armistead Maupin Country United States Language English Series Tales of the Cityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Michael_Tolliver_Lives&action=edit Genre(s) Novel Publisher HarperCollins Publication date June 2007 Media type Hardback Pages 288 ISBN 0-060-76135-0 OCLC Number 76939926 Dewey Decimal 813/.54 22 LC Classification PS3563.A878 M53 2007 Preceded by Sure of You Followed by Mary Ann in Autumn Michael Tolliver Lives is a 2007 novel by Armistead Maupin.
Contents
Plot summary
The novel represents Maupin's return to the Tales of the City characters some eighteen years after the sixth book in the series was published. As well as further developing familiar characters, it explores the differences between the San Francisco of the 1980s, bearing the brunt of the developing AIDS crisis, and the city in the first decade of the new millennium. The realities of aging, both distressing and graceful, is a major theme of the book — as well as the generation gap between gays from the 1970s and gays from the 2000s.
In a departure from the third-person style of the original Tales sequence, Michael Tolliver Lives is narrated in the first person by the title character. In the book's opening pages, Michael encounters a half-remembered old flame, prompting him to reflect on his status as a survivor of both the HIV epidemic (which killed many of his peers in the 1980s and 1990s but is now a more treatable chronic illness thanks in part to better medication) and of a San Francisco that has transformed due in large part to the dot com boom. Characters from the original series include Anna Madrigal, the one-time landlady of 28 Barbary Lane; Brian Hawkins and his now-adult daughter Shawna, a pansexual aspiring writer; and Brian's ex-wife Mary Ann Singleton. New characters include Michael's much younger partner Ben and his transgendered co-worker Jake Greenleaf.
Much of the plot's tension derives from the impending death of Michael's elderly mother in Florida, a test case of changes in attitude since she refused to accept Michael's homosexuality in the second Tales book. Several chapters involve a secondary plot thread concerning Michael's relationship with his brother Irwin. Eventually Michael finds himself forced to choose between being present for his mother's last days and attending to an aging Anna, described in the book as part of his "logical" (as opposed to "biological") family.
Author's comments
Although Maupin originally stated that this novel was "NOT a sequel to Tales [of the City] and it's certainly not Book 7 in the series,"[1] he later conceded that "I’ve stopped denying that this is book seven in Tales of the City, as it clearly is ... I suppose I didn’t want people to be thrown by the change in the format, as this is a first person novel unlike the third person format of the Tales of the City books and it’s about one character who interrelates with other characters. Having said that, it is still very much a continuation of the saga and I think I realised it was very much time for me to come back to this territory."[2]
In a June 2007 Entertainment Weekly article, Maupin said, "I was interested in pursuing the life of an aging gay man, and Michael was the perfect vehicle ... However, as soon as I started writing, I found that, one by one, all the other characters stepped forward and asked to be present. It felt natural, so I went with it."[3]
Maupin calls the book "a smaller, more personal novel than I've written in the past," noting that "I've tried to focus on the dailiness of life — which I think is very interesting. The small details that add up to our lives, and how people who thought they were going to be dead 20 years ago are facing mortality by natural causes."[4]
Critical reception
Philip Mayard of KQED, the San Francisco Bay Area PBS affiliate, said, "[I]t's a genuine thrill to find out what's been going on in the lives of these and all of Maupin's other relentlessly loveable characters. Even if you've never read any of Armistead's books, Michael Tolliver Lives is still a fabulous read ... This book is Armistead at his very best. In this humble scribe's opinion, there isn't an author around that can, with so few words, capture the essence of a character like Maupin."[5]
David Leavitt of the New York Times observed, "Like its predecessors, Michael Tolliver Lives is a novel only in the loosest sense of the term. The chapters are independent yet interdependent, flowing into one another gracefully while remaining very much singular entities ... All this is rendered with balance, good humor and compassion. And indeed, if I have a complaint about Michael Tolliver Lives, it may be that for all the pleasure it takes in its own transgressiveness, it comes off as a little too nice ... Despite this, the book is great fun to read. Maupin is a master at sustained and sustaining comic turns."[6]
David L. Ulin of the Los Angeles Times said, "Here, we get a glimpse of what Maupin, at his best, has always done: linked the individual and the collective story, unfolded his narrative against the backdrop of larger events. It's the novel as social history, an aesthetic reminiscent of Balzac, and if Maupin doesn't write with that degree of depth, he does know how to seed a story ... Unfortunately ... the novel remains flat in some essential way ... it's hard to escape the feeling that Maupin is drifting across the surface, letting our familiarity with Michael do much of the narrative work ... Maupin goes out of his way to bring back the original Tales of the City characters along with their respective partners and progeny ... Yet, if for longtime readers these interactions add an air of comfort, they also seem vestigial, even forced. This is particularly true of Mary Ann, who centered the original series and broke up the band, as it were, when she left for New York at the end of Sure of You. Her cameo here feels unlikely, gratuitous even, a tacked-on bit of resolution in a narrative universe that has always thrived on an open-ended edge of possibility."[7]
Philip Hensher of The Observer said, "Michael Tolliver Lives is a sad spectacle; the sight of a novelist who remembers that he used to be lovable and trying to remember how he did it ... The charm of the series was always one of escape; in this sad and unappealingly thin book, what we discover is that the pleasures of Arcadia are pretty much like the pleasures of Clapham. That's honestly not what anyone wants to hear."[8]
Selected Annotations
Chapter 1
Page 1
- Castro Street
- Located at the heart of San Francisco, the Castro District (or the Castro) is a neighborhood in the Eureka Valley that is noted for its LGBT scene. It is widely considered America’s first gay neighborhood and is currently the largest and best known. In 1973, the famous gay activist Harvey Milk opened a camera store and began his political involvement. Now, the Castro District is a popular gay destination and has many famous attractions such as the Castro Theater, GLBT History Museum, and Twin Peaks—the first gay bar in the city and possibly in the United States. Rainbow flags, which are commonly associated with gay pride, are often hung as banners along the road.
- In the 1980s, the area was hit hard by the AIDS/HIV crisis, which is what hit Michael Tolliver as well. City officials soon launched initiatives to prevent the spread of AIDS in 1984, and kiosks on Market Street and Castro Street now have posters promoting safe sex and testing.
- Gayberry
- A small town in which people are familiar with one another, in contrast with the city life, where everyone is essentially anonymous.
- A gayberry can also refer to a blackberry for gay, traditionally covered in a purple, pink, leopard, or neon yellow case.[9]
Page 2
- Gay Games
- In the book, it refers to the second Gay Games in San Francisco in 1986. The Gay Games, organized once every four years, is the world’s largest sporting and cultural events for the LGBT community. The first Gay Games was in 1982 and also took place in San Francisco.
Page 4
- Tacoma
- The Toyota Tacoma is one of the best-selling pickup trucks in the U.S.
- Queer As Folks
- Queer as Folks is an American and Canadian television series co-production, produced by Showtime and Temple Street Productions. The series was primarily targeted at gay male audiences and follows the lives of five gay men living in Pittsburgh, PA, and a lesbian couple. The series explored controversial themes such as coming-out, same-sex marriage, and HIV-positive status. The first episode of Queer as Folk also contains the first simulated explicit sex scene between two men shown on American television
- F Line
- The F-Market and Wharves historic streetcar line. It runs six miles each way between Fisherman’s Wharf and the Castro District. In 1982, when the last of the surface streetcars pulled into the barn, a coalition of downtown business, Upper Market merchants, and Castro residents, put together the Historic Trolley Festival, in which vintage streetcars from around the world were operated on the Market Street tracks as a “substitute attraction” for the cable cars, then being rebuilt. Although this streetcar line was supposed to a temporary attraction, its popularity and success led to the construction of the F-line, which opened in 1995.[10]
- Out
- A popular monthly entertainment magazine for gay people.
Page 5
- The 1906 Disaster
- Referring to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake that happened on April 18, 1906. It had a moment magnitude of around 8, and the estimated death toll was around 3000. It is said to be one of the worst natural disasters in United States.
Page 7
- Steamworks
- A 24-hour private men’s gym, sauna and bathhouse.
Page 9
- Norman Rockwell
- Norman Rockwell is a popular 20th-century American painter and illustrator who is most famous for his cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening Post.
Chapter 2
Page 11
- Paris Hilton’s Dog
- Paris Hilton has more than ten small “accessory” dogs at all times, and each live in a separate deluxe doggie mansion in Beverley Hills. She also created an apparel line for dogs called Little Lily by Paris Hilton.
- Jim Palmer
- Jim Palmer is a former Major League Baseball pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles (1965-1984). Palmer became a spokesman and underwear model for Jockey in the late 1970s.
Chapter 3
Page 19
- The Valley of the Shadow
- Probably a reference to “the valley of the shadow of death” in Psalm 23, which is often taken as an allusion to the eternal life given by Jesus. It may also be a reference to the title of an episode of the American television series The Twilight Zone. Mama is perhaps likening living with the HIV virus to living in a restricted zone of no escape.
Page 27
- Abu Ghraib
- Referring to the Abu Ghraib prison. The prison gained notoriety for allegations of torture and abuses by members of the United States Army Reserve.
References
- ^ Michael Tolliver Lives at BarnesandNoble.com
- ^ PinkPaper.com, June 28, 2007
- ^ "Golden (Gate) Oldie," Entertainment Weekly #939, page 82. June 15, 2007.
- ^ "Armistead Maupin talks!" ~ Advocate.com August 4, 2006.
- ^ KQED review
- ^ New York Times review
- ^ Los Angeles Times review
- ^ The Observer review
- ^ http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Gayberry
- ^ "Error: no
|title=specified when using {{Cite web}}". Market Railway Blog. http://www.streetcar.org/blog/2001/04/historic-transit-heartland.html. Retrieved 5/2/2011.
External links
Works by Armistead Maupin Tales of the City novels Tales of the City · More Tales of the City · Further Tales of the City · Babycakes · Significant Others · Sure of You · Michael Tolliver Lives · Mary Ann in AutumnOther novels Screenplays Film and television adaptations Categories:- 2007 novels
- American novels
- Sequel novels
- Novels by Armistead Maupin
- Tales of the City
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