Mary Ann in Autumn
Ratings9
Average rating4
A hilarious and touching new installment of Armistead Maupin's beloved Tales of the City series 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 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 reengage with life, only to confront fresh terrors when her checkered past comes back to haunt her in a way she could never have imagined. After the intimate first-person narrative of Maupin's last novel, Michael Tolliver Lives, Mary Ann in Autumn marks the author's return to the multicharacter plotlines and darkly comic themes of his earlier work. Among those caught in Mary Ann's orbit are her estranged daughter, Shawna, a popular sex blogger; Jake Greenleaf, Michael's transgendered gardening assistant; socialite DeDe Halcyon-Wilson; and the indefatigable Anna Madrigal, Mary Ann's former landlady at 28 Barbary Lane. More than three decades in the making, Armistead Maupin's legendary Tales of the City series rolls into a new age, still sassy, irreverent, and curious, and still exploring the boundaries of the human experience with insight, compassion, and mordant wit.
Series
Featured Series
10 primary books#8 in Tales of the City
Tales of the City is a 10-book series with 10 released primary works first released in 1978 with contributions by Armistead Maupin.
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Les suites récentes des fameuses Chroniques de San Francisco ou Tales of the City en VO n'ont malheureusement pas le charme des premiers volumes, même si c'est toujours sympathique de retrouver de vieilles connaissances, plus par nostalgie que par réel plaisir.
I received this in a Goodreads giveaway, so thanks, Goodreads!
I had not heard of the Tales of the City series before, let alone read them, but I'm so glad to have read this one! At times, I did feel a little out of the loop, but I can't blame that on anyone but myself for reading this one before its prequels. That aside, I really enjoyed this book. The characters are interesting and there is plenty of drama and action to keep the story moving. I had guessed parts of the ending, but I was still sort of blindsided by a lot of it, which is something I LOVE in a book.
If you already love Tales of the City, this is a great addition to the series (I've heard it stays very true to the rest of books). If you haven't, I think it's worth checking out. I'll probably try to read the rest of them (in order!) at some point.
