More Tales of the City – Armistead Maupin
Dec. 15th, 2009 01:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skyringSecond book in the Tales of the City series. Armistead Maupin is hitting his stride with this one. He spins his little plots, teasing the reader along, sucking them in, until somehow, we’re edging ourselves along a catwalk high above a startled crowd and the horrific secret is revealed.
This book sparkles like the waters of the Bay or the beaches of Acapulco. Romance aboard the Love Boat, lovers and spouses reunited, deaths and disasters.
There’s a wheelchair and a whip encountered along the way. And every step of the path involves Armistead having fun with the reader.
He’s got a skilled touch with dialogue. We’re teasing the straight couple at breakfast. We’re as catty as can be with the A-Gays. We’re janing with the sexagenarians of the Pinus Club. And we’re hooting with laughter every time a chapter closes.
It must have been sheer torture for the readers of this serial novel, having to wait for a new day and a new edition of the Chronicle. Me, I can turn to the next page to see what happens next, but the original readership must have been lining up at midnight to satisfy themselves with the early edition.
I loved it. I loved the first book, I loved this one, I’m loving the third in the series, abandoned for a moment to write this review.
And I loved the inspiration. As the ridiculous plot unfolded, the solution to the mystery of my next novel sprang into my head. For four years, I’ve wondered what Ann Ounce was doing in Texas. Now I know. Now I know how Memphis and San Francisco tie into the tale. Dear reader, you’ll have to wait a while for my early edition. And read it one chapter at a time.
But you’ll hoot with laughter.
In the meantime, join me in consuming these delicious snippets of San Francisco’s behind the scenes under the covers up the shady lanes hidden tales of the city.
More Tales of the City (Showtime Tie-In Edition)
This book sparkles like the waters of the Bay or the beaches of Acapulco. Romance aboard the Love Boat, lovers and spouses reunited, deaths and disasters.
There’s a wheelchair and a whip encountered along the way. And every step of the path involves Armistead having fun with the reader.
He’s got a skilled touch with dialogue. We’re teasing the straight couple at breakfast. We’re as catty as can be with the A-Gays. We’re janing with the sexagenarians of the Pinus Club. And we’re hooting with laughter every time a chapter closes.
It must have been sheer torture for the readers of this serial novel, having to wait for a new day and a new edition of the Chronicle. Me, I can turn to the next page to see what happens next, but the original readership must have been lining up at midnight to satisfy themselves with the early edition.
I loved it. I loved the first book, I loved this one, I’m loving the third in the series, abandoned for a moment to write this review.
And I loved the inspiration. As the ridiculous plot unfolded, the solution to the mystery of my next novel sprang into my head. For four years, I’ve wondered what Ann Ounce was doing in Texas. Now I know. Now I know how Memphis and San Francisco tie into the tale. Dear reader, you’ll have to wait a while for my early edition. And read it one chapter at a time.
But you’ll hoot with laughter.
In the meantime, join me in consuming these delicious snippets of San Francisco’s behind the scenes under the covers up the shady lanes hidden tales of the city.
More Tales of the City (Showtime Tie-In Edition)
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no subject
Date: 2009-12-15 02:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-15 02:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-15 07:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-15 07:28 pm (UTC)No need to explain yourself to me, I regularly read the ending of a novel way before I finish the book. In fact, as soon as I get an overview of the main characters, I turn to the last pages and read the last 10 to 20. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2009-12-15 08:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-15 09:06 pm (UTC)