MARY ANN AUTUMN Paperback – September 15, 2011

I was totally absorbed into the Tales of The City when Armisted first released his series of books about 28 Barbary Lane. I got to know the family that surrounded Anna Madrigal and of course the leading man in in Michael (Mouse) Tolliver. The adventures, the lives, the personalities all came to life and jumped clear off the page into one's imagination. We visited the "family" on six different occasions and loved and cared for each of the people we knew. Michael's love life was of particular resonance to me as a gay man in a similar age group to him. Then we got to see Michael in later life in Michael Tolliver Lives. Again we fell for the easy going romantic that is Mouse. Now we have a chance to engage with him again. This time with his love Ben and the quirky and slightly mixed up Mary Anne. This time Mary Anne is in the spotlight as she struggles with her fight with cancer and the departure from her marriage with what appears a slightly abusive man.We feel for Mary Anne as she rediscovers some of the friends she knew in San Francisco. Michael, the ever loyal friend just picks her up and provides her with the safety she so needs at this time. We find out that DeDe Halcion is now happily married to the woman she has made her life partner. No longer the flightly socialite, but a more grounded and mature friend to Mary Anne.We also meet some of the "off-spring" from the heady days of the 70s in Barbary Lane. In particular Shawna the estranged daughter that Mary Anne had lost all contact with and Jake, a transgender gardener that works with Michael. Jake desperately wants to prove himself to be a man, and goes through the very familiar struggles to come to grips with his own sexuality. Anna Madrigal remains the empress of the causes for freedom, even though she faces the frailties of getting old.This book is like taking a personal journey back to San Francisco and catching up with close friends that we had fallen for over twenty five years ago. The characters remain strong and lively even though we feel their growth and maturity. I sigh with relief to find that the characters are still around. They still feel like best friends. They still have the three dimensions to them that we total engaged with all those years ago.It is a fantastic read, and Armisted's style just draws you in and immerses you in his world. He has always been a splendid writer, whos'e style and flow are of a nature that you just want to go on reading and finding out what happens around the next corner or next page. I hope we continue to be able to visit the folk from Barbary Lane into the future, even though I suspect it may be a vist that means saying goodbye to some of the best loved characters in fiction.

Somehow I missed this book - read all the others. Loved being with the old gang again. Feel like I know them all. Great story. Loved how it all came full circle!

This novel further extends the Tales of The City story line and characters into the present day. It is an easy and engaging read that demands little of the reader. The characters are strong from years of development through out the series.This novel is a chance for the author to bring together some loose ends in a somewhat predictable and melodramatic way. If you have read the whole series and enjoyed it, you will enjoy this book. If you are new to Armistead Maupin's work, don't start here.

The first time i read the Tales of the City books was back in 1984 when I went to San Francisco the first time on a business trip. One of my co-workers told me about the books and I started to read the second book first because the airport bookstore was out of the first one. I started reading it on my way back home and became hooked. The characters, energy, humor and mystery were wonderful, as were the dialogue and descriptions. I was very sorry when i finished the last book. Although I enjoyed Maybe the Moon, The Night Listener (very creepy) and Michael Tolliver Lives, I really missed the original style of Maupin's books and the intricacy of the plot lines. Mary Ann in Autumn has brought all that back and I was so pleased that I read the book in two days. Many of the characters are back and have aged as we all do, but their personalities remain essentially the same. Ther new additions to the Barberry Lane Family are also interesting and fun. There are also enough dangling plot lines at the end that there will (hopefully) be yet another book in the series.

Once I started reading Mary Ann in Autumn, I devoured it in two days, because I was hungry, starving in fact for Maupin's genius for making his characters and plot come to life. As part of the Tales Of the City series of novels, many characters were old friends I'd met before each with their on charming quirks that made them so human. With this novel and the sequels that preceded it in this series, Maupin has given authenticity to the lives of characters who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered as well as to those who are their allies. The heroine of this piece is one of those allies, Mary Ann Singleton, who has been a fixture in these novels from the beginning. We haven't seen or heard from her in awhile, but she comes roaring back and wins our hearts all over again.The plot of Mary Ann in Autumn has everything, mystery, intrigue, romance. Maupin is a master at writing conversations. The conversations in fact often take the most mundane of incidents and transform them into the deepest and most touching moments. If you've read all of the other books in the series, your enjoyment of the mystery and intrigue you find in this new installment will only be enhanced, but if Mary Ann in Autumn is your introduction to the Tales, don't worry. You'll be sitting on the edge of your seat in anticipation of what is going to happen next just like the rest of us. Another thing that endears the reader to the characters you meet here is that Maupin endows each of them with their own individual and unique flaws just like in real life.. They are nowhere near perfect but that seems to only make you love them that much more because of it.The Tales have always been about alternative lifestyles and this piece is no exception. But over the years with each installment, those lifestyles seem more and more legitimate. They don't seem anywhere near as shocking as they were thirty some years ago when Mary Ann first came to 28 Barbary Lane. Let's hope there are many more installments and when people are finally judged for the content of their character rather than for who shares their beds or for their choice of gender, much of the credit will belong to Armistead Maupin.

Revisiting these characters later in their lives is wonderful

Mary Ann in Autumn ist ein super Nachfolger der "Tales of the City"! I read them all - Pageturner- couldn't stop reading.

If you loved the others "Tales of the City", you'll love that one. It's maybe not as good as the first ones but still, we are gathered again with Mary Ann and Michael so I loved it!! I missed a bit Ms Madrigal whom is not a central character in this book as she used to be in the others books.

I am a big fan of the whole "San Francisco Chronicles" serie, so I was thrilled when this book firstly appear on Amazon. Unfortunately that's the most disappointing one, without even a trace of humor and happiness. If you like Maupin, never read this book.

I read Mary Ann in Autumn, back to back with Michael Tolliver Lives. Although I much enjoyed MTL and getting reacquainted with most of the Barbary Lane gang, old friends from the earlier series of Tales of the City, I truly felt back at home as soon as I started reading Mary Ann.Even though she was not playing a prominent role, Anna Madrigal is still the linchpin of her extended family and I was happy that she had made a good recovery from her near fatal illness in the MTL book.Other reviewers have covered the storyline, so I won't repeat it here. Armistead Maupin's writing style flows easily. At times, I had to force myself, not very successfully, to read more slowly, because I knew I did not want to finish the book too soon and have to say goodbye (or hopefully, Mr Maupin, au revoir) to these old friends. He has the power to throw short sentences at you, out of the blue, which makes you laugh out loud and, others bringing a tear to the eye.Mary Ann's reunion with Anna takes place well into the book and, the end of that chapter was, for me, one of those teary moments.I had a suspicion that one of the storyline strands would take us right back to Mary Ann in the early series. When it did, the "I knew it" feeling was one of satisfaction rather than one of anticlimax. Anticlimax it certainly wasn't.I have read somewhere that a further book is in the works, entitled The Days of Anna Madrigal. Please, please, let it be so Mr Maupin.