Book - Michael Tolliver Lives - Armistead Maupin
This is a fantastic read for anyone who’s ever loved the Tales of the City series. After 20 years, we finally get to catch up with some of our favourite characters from 28 Barbary Lane, as well as some charming new additions.
Narrated from the point of view of an older and wiser Mouse, who’s still recognisably worried about doing the right thing by others while still working at being true to himself, this book has a wonderful sense of intimacy and honesty about it.
Having survived the plague that took so many of his friends and lovers, Mouse (Michael Tolliver) 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.
Meanwhile, Maupin’s already sharp writing has become even more finely honed over the years, with the razor wit, brilliant plot twists, canny dialogue and cliff-hanger chapter endings now enlivened by more crazy coincidences, dramatic revelations, incisive observations and actual sex than ever. There is also real heart and soul in this book, and the denoument will leave you in no doubt that the title is not so much a statement of fact as a statement of intent.
This is a warm, wise, witty and life-affirming book. It’s well worth the wait!
Christian Taylor
said ages ago