Fri i 70'erne : roman (1978)

I, too was sucked in by the PBS American Playhouse presentation of "Tales of the City". After watching, I had to run out and get my hands on the book, right away.

I read this series during the winter, many years ago. Very lively, light, entertaining reading, best for people with active imaginations, because the reader must be able to follow where Maupin leads.

The characters are very endearing; I love the scope of the personalities involved in the storyline.

I have recommended this book to the wrong people in the past. ( )

First published in 1978, Tales eventually would become a series of 9 books, the first 4 were originally written as part of a newspaper series and the last 5 written as novels.

The city is San Francisco and the time the 1970s. When a young woman comes for vacation from Cleveland and decides to stay, she winds up in an apartment house at 28 Barbary Lane. Other tenants include a sweet gay man, a secretive man living in a very small apartment on the rooftop, a pot growing landlord who seems to have special powers, as well others, all searching for love and acceptance. Issues of the time swirl though the short chapters including abortion, sexual orientation and the poor treatment of women in the workplace. One review said that opening this book is like opening a time capsule and for those of us that were young adults during that time I think it's true, but I also think it's relevant today.

The Tales series have had several movies and TV series made from them over the years, including adaptations by PBS and Netflix. ( )

I still love it--I've loved it since it was lent to me in 1988--but some of it hasn't aged particularly well. That's okay with me; one of its best qualities is its very firm place in time, and the subsequent books carry that on. But I wonder if new readers will get out of it the same things I do just because I remember the 70s pretty well.

One thing I noticed this time is that Mary Ann is set up from the very beginning to be exactly who she turns out to be in Sure of You, which I haven't read since it was first published because... well... I hated who she turned out to be. I didn't remember until I got there how it ended, but now I remember that the last time I read it this bothered me too--does Mary Ann feel absolutely no responsibility to tell the authorities and get some help for Lexy (the little girl), even if it means she'll have to answer uncomfortable questions? Ugh. Even for the one of the Me Generation in the Me Decade, that seems pretty callous.

Anyway, even by the time I read it in 1988, it was pretty difficult to imagine moving to San Francisco and finding a place of your own. The people I knew who were moving out there then had multiple roommates and *still* paid more rent than I could even imagine affording. So even by the time I first read it, it had a nostalgic feel. Now, of course, it feels like (and is) a gentle, distant past that will never come around again. But I love to visit it from time to time in these books. ( )

WOW! Recommended by a friend. I put off reading this book because it seemed like such a commitment to read the entire series. What a shame that it took me this long to read. Mr. Maupin makes the characters come alive and I feel as though I am in San Francisco living out their days with them. I could not put this book down and finished in 2 days. ( )

delicious satire on hetero & homosexual lifestyles in 70s