tlavideo.com

Review

Have you ever gotten together with old friends you haven't seen in years and it felt like you've never been separated? That's the way I felt as I gleefully turned the pages of "Michael Tolliver Lives". Thank you Armistead Maupin for giving us this sweet present of a book. Maupin won't label this the seventh novel in the "Tales of the City" -- call it what you will -- the novel features not only "Mouse" but also Anna, Brian, Shawna and even Mary Ann Singleton. Settled in on my couch as workmen laid a floor downstairs I spent one of the best afternoons of my life re-immersing myself in these splendid characters and their lives. By the time Mary Ann appeared I was dabbing tears from my cheeks and wishing the book was twice as long!

Michael survived AIDS and he's happily landscaping SF gardens with his lover Ben, twenty years his junior. Brian is still running the nursery with only one woman in his life, his daughter Shawna. Anna has moved into an apartment with all trans neighbors as the climb to 28 Barbary Lane became too steep for the octogenarian lady. The story revolves around the imminent passing of Michael's religious mother. Skeltons come flying out of the closet and the family drama runs thick. The story was never the point of these simple and pure novels, it's the characters we love. I hope we don't have to wait over 10 years for the next visit from our old friends!

 -- Scott Cranin