Tales of the City

Tales of the City is a series of six books, originally serialized in the San Francisco Chronicle, written by San Francisco novelist Armistead Maupin. Tales of the City is also the title of the first book in that series.

Realism in "Tales"

The "Tales of the City" series is lauded for being accurate in its portrait of a time and place in San Francisco's history. Because of the fact it was written so close to publication, it was able to incorporate many current events into the plot of the story. Maupin was also able to gauge reader response and modify the story accordingly. Maupin received a letter from a reader who pointed out that one of the character's names was an anagram. The anagram provided Maupin with one of the more memorable and suprising plot twists in the book.

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The books of the series are:

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• Tales of the City (1978)
• More Tales of the City (1980)
• Further Tales of the City (1982)
• Babycakes (1984)
• Significant Others (1987)
• Sure of You (1989)

"Sure of You" is the only work to have been created solely as a book; the other books are comprised of writings that appeared prior to novelization in the San Francisco Chronicle.

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Characters from the Tales of the City series have appeared in supporting roles in Maupin's subsequent novels Maybe The Moon and The Night Listener. His next novel will be Michael Tolliver Lives, featuring the beloved character in a more central role. It is due to be published in late 2006.

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The first three books have been made into television miniseries, the first airing in the US on PBS, and the second and third running on Showtime, starring Laura Linney as Mary Ann Singleton, and Academy Award-winning actress Olympia Dukakis as Anna Madrigal.

Related Topics:
Television - Miniseries - PBS - Showtime - Laura Linney - Olympia Dukakis

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