Tales of the City is a series by Armistead Maupin. It was originally published serially in the SF Chronicle, and the series starts in the 1970s in the Bay Area and trundles on through today. Gay life, transfolk in the 70s, the start of AIDS -- all done in a remarkably light-hearted way with really compelling characters. I'd heard of one of the big characters -- Michael "Mouse" Tolliver -- for years before actually reading the books. I adored all the historical notes -- pop culture things I recognized from my childhood, news items I remembered from my junior high years (like Jamestown). I expect that someone living in the Bay Area might find it even more fun.
He makes some interesting comments on racism, though he doesn't have many COCs. (One note: there's a storyline that involves one of the white characters having a fling with a Chinese delivery boy and getting pregnant. I think that, for writing in the 1970s-1980s, Maupin handled it all right: we see the whole thing through the point of view of some privileged white folks, and he's showing their intolerance in a very nonsympathetic light.) The only thing he doesn't really handle particularly well are lesbians, alas. There's one book I haven't dared read because it involves a women's music festival and, eurgh, I'm a little worried about how a gay man who already has some issues with dykes will present such an animal.
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Mon, Jan. 10th, 2011 02:13 pm (UTC)He makes some interesting comments on racism, though he doesn't have many COCs. (One note: there's a storyline that involves one of the white characters having a fling with a Chinese delivery boy and getting pregnant. I think that, for writing in the 1970s-1980s, Maupin handled it all right: we see the whole thing through the point of view of some privileged white folks, and he's showing their intolerance in a very nonsympathetic light.) The only thing he doesn't really handle particularly well are lesbians, alas. There's one book I haven't dared read because it involves a women's music festival and, eurgh, I'm a little worried about how a gay man who already has some issues with dykes will present such an animal.