Further Tales Of The City - Armistead Maupin (1994)

3rd Installment of the Series
Started: 3/27/2008

Ended: 4/15/2008

Synopsis:

In Further Tales of the City, Mary Ann has landed a job at a local TV station and finds a story that might make her a reporter; Frannie mourns the apparent loss of her daughter DeDe and grandchildren in the tragedy at Jonestown, until she makes a shocking discovery; Michael dates several men, including a cop, a cowboy, and a movie star; and Prue falls in a love with a mysterious stranger living in a shack in Golden Gate Park. This novel picks up five years after "More Tales of the City".

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Characters:

Mona Ramsey: Moved to Seattle, WA the previous year because it was "The 80's"; only mentioned but does not appear in book

Mary Ann Singleton: Cleveland transplant, who is about to turn 30 y/o; host of "Bargain Matinee", a 5 minute spot during the daily movie matinee, giving consumer tips; yearns to be an investigative reporter for the evening news; dating Brian; sporting a new, shorter hair style now; invited by Frannie over to Halcyon Hill for Memorial Day and offered a PR position for the Halcyon family for 1 month; during this time, she must keep all information revealed to her a secret and will be paid $1K per week for the month; at the end of the month she will have an exclusive to the story; becomes engaged to Brian and they marry at the end of the book

Michael Tolliver (aka Mouse): Mary Ann's best friend; proficiently confidant, 31 y/o out & proud gay man, that has a sweet disposition and genuine compassion; 5'9 and not circumcised; from Orlando, Florida; manager of a nursery in the Richmond District called God's Green Earth for the last 3 years; member of the SF Gay Men's Chorus (GMC); broke up with Jon Fielding because they just did not have much in common and could not agree on anything; travels over to Hollywood when one of Ned's famous, closeted, actor friends (---- ------) invites them over for an "All Boys" weekend; ends up fucking ---- ------; after they get back to SF, both friends go on tour with the GMC; becomes involved with holding Bambi captive; both him & Brian are brutally attacked for being "faggots"; recovers and seems to reconcile with Jon at the end of the book; also I want to make note that the famous actor not named in the book (---- ------) was rumored to have been Rock Hudson and also rumored to have been lovers with Maupin

Anna Madrigal: Transsexual landlady of 28 Barbary Lane; 60 y/o; exotically - if not off-puttingly - regal, Anna fosters a maternal relationship with each of her tenants and calls the tenants her "children"; held Bambi captive in her basement for 3 days for Mary Ann

Brian Hawkins: Still a waiter at Perry's restaurant; dating Mary Ann; contemplating taking The Bar again to regain his status as lawyer; going through a mid-life crisis of sorts; becomes engaged to Mary Ann; both him & Michael are brutally attacked for being "faggots"; stabbed 3 times but recovers; marries Mary Ann in his hospital room that has been decorated as a garden

Jon Fielding:Gynecologist; lean with blond hair and blue eyes; down-to-earth and loving man; 33 y/o; lived with Michael for almost 3 years before they broke up; left SF and became the ship's doctor for the Sagafjord (Norwegian Cruise Line); after his latest cruise takes port in SF's harbor, he goes and visits Mrs. Madgrial at 28 Barbary Lane; Mrs. Madrigal notes he seems thinner, a little haggard even but still very handsome; visits with Michael as well and is invited to Mary Ann & Brain's wedding (which is planned to be held in the courtyard of Barbary Lane); at the end of the book - appears to reconcile with Michael

Ned Lockwood: Mouse's best friend; owner of God's Green Earth nursery; bald & brawny 42 y/o; fucked mouse twice back in '77 but just friends now; member of the SF Gay Men's Chorus; ex-lover is a famous closeted actor, ---- ------; helps Michael decorate Brian's hospital room as a garden for his wedding to Mary Ann

Archibald Anson Gidde: Realtor, one of the A-Gay's; broke up with Richard Evan Hampton who got their servant, Harold, in the divorce; has a new man-servant, Cleavon; tries to pick up Mouse at the nursery

Prue Giroux: Society columnist for Western Gentry; got the job after the previous columnist, Carson Callas, was arrested and convicted for indecent exposure charges; divorced; continues to receive alimony from her multi-millionaire ex-husband; blonde; approached by Frannie who believes her daughter is still alive and wants Prue to write about it; referred to as "Prudy Sue" by her closest friends; falls in love with Luke and is able to talk him into a cruise where they run into Frannie and her "orphan twins"; after Luke disappears with the twins, comes back to SF heartbroken; goes back to Luke's abandoned shack to search for clues and runs into him with the twins; Luke asks her to run away with "their family" and she agrees (only to placate him because she realizes how fucking crazy he is and wants to get the twins away from him); later that night after Luke leaves to go to Halcyon Hill, she takes the twins and escapes the shack; calls Emma to warn them that Luke is on his way over

Vuitton: Prue's 3 y/o Russian wolfhound; missing for nearly a week; takes up a temporary residence with Luke

Luke (aka Jim Jones, aka Mark): DEAD: Derelict living in a make-shift shaft in Golden Gate Park; Prue runs into him while searching for her missing dog; calls Vuitton, his new roommate, "Whitey"; has high cheekbones, a strong jawline, unusual amber-colored skin & longish dark hair; late 40's; invites Prue in to have some coffee; in tune with the environment and animals; has 3 chipmunks that live under his bed (Chipper, Jack & Dusty); revealed to Prue that he once had a congregation (but they left him) and before that was an investment banker; wants Prue to get back in touch with God; begins fucking Prue on a regular basis; Prue talks him into accompanying her on a cruise to Alaska; after a head to toe make-over with help from Father Paddy Starr, looks quite debonair; on the cruise has taken the name of Sean Starr and offers to babysit the twins for Frannie; during a shore excursion, ditches Prue and kidnaps the twins; kills two rabbits and skins them for their pelts which he gives to the twins to play with; goes to Halcyon Hill to "tie up loose ends" and is shot between the eyes by Emma; his body is buried by DeDe and Mary Ann in the backyard

Frannie Halcyon: Matriarch of Halcyon Hill; 64 y/o; mourns the deaths of her family(Edgar, Beauchamp, DeDe, Faust and her 2 grandchildren); partial to Mai Tais; after seeing a psychic (Miss Moonmeadow), believes DeDe is still alive and living in a small village in South America; while watching TV, notices Mary Ann and seeks her out to help find her daughter; one day when she is contemplating suicide by Vitamin Q & Mai Tai overdose, she receives a call from her daughter, who is alive; DeDe lets her know that she and her babies were still alive and being held by the government in Arkansas; invites Mary Ann over to Halcyon Hill on Memorial Day and offers her a PR position for the Halcyon family on a short-term basis (1 month); unsettled to learn that her daughter is gay but happy to have her home and alive and to have her grandchildren around (both 4 years of age now); DeDe urges her mother to take the twins on a two-week cruise to Alaska while she goes public with her story; during the cruise she not only runs into Prue and her gentlemen escort but into the ship's doctor, Jon Fielding; on the night that Luke visits Halcyon Hill, had taken several Quaaludes and passed out; unaware of what transpired in her own backyard; does not even realize she has a dead body buried in her garden

DeDe Halcyon: After giving birth to her half-Chinese twins, she fled to Guyana with D'orothea; became involved in the Jonestown Massacre and was believed dead; actually alive and held at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas by the government at a settlement camp for gay Cuban refugees; calls her mother and lets her know that not only is she and her babies alive but that she was gay; after traveling back to California, moves in with her mother at Halcyon Hill; requests that Mary Ann be brought to the house and offered a job to help DeDe tell her story; now slender, wiry and tanned with long, sun-bleached hair that flows down her back; tells Mary Ann that she, D'orothea & the twins joined The Temple in Guyana in 1977; Jones (aka Dad) had assigned her as a procurement officer for Jonestown and she would travel to neighboring cities to buy food and supplies; Jones also became obsessed with her twins, referring to them as his "third world wonders"; on one of her trips, the captain of the shrimp boat she used regularly told her about the 100 lb drum of potassium cyanide he had on board for Jones; later she and D'orothea planned their escape with the twins; they traveled to Havana, where they lived & worked for 2 & 1/2 years, until their lesbian relationship was made public and DeDe was shipped off to Fort Chaffee; has nightmares about Jim Jones; reveals to Mary Ann that she was raped by Jones and the reason she wanted to wait a month before going public was that she was trying to prove conclusively that Jones was really dead; after learning that her babies have been kidnapped, she & Mary Ann fly to Alaska to try and track them down; refuses to get the authorities involved because she fears that the twins will be harmed if not killed; finds evidence that Luke is heading to The Diomedes Islands and when they travel to both islands (Little & Big), they find no sign of Luke and the twins and head back to SF; after Luke had been killed; asks Mary Ann not to go public with the whole story, but to leave out the part that Jim Jones had actually lived and had come to SF; Mary Ann agrees and they bury Luke's body in the backyard gardenD'orothea Wilson: Choose to stay in Havana to act as a Socialist; at the end of the book, she calls DeDe from Miami and tells her that she is coming back to SF to be with her and the twins

Emma Ravenel: Frannie's maid/house servant; elderly, black and rail-thin; has worked for Frannie for years; shoots Luke between the eyes when he tries to enter Halcyon Hill

Larry Kenan: Asshole news director; won't allow Mary Ann to jump from daytime to evening television; rumored to be fucking Bambi

Bambi Kanetaka: Mary Ann's arch rival at the news studio; rumored to be fucking Larry; after Mary Ann runs out of the studio to fly to Alaska with DeDe, she finds her notes about DeDe and Jonestown; threatens to go public with the story, but Mary Ann is able to talk her into meeting with her at 28 Barbary Lane; once there she is held captive in the basement by Mrs. Madrigal, Michael & Brian (and later-Jon); once released, Mary Ann gives her the ultimatum that she either keeps her mouth shut about her kidnapping and they share the story or she takes it to another station by herself; agrees to keep her mouth shut

Victoria Lynch: Kindred spirits with Prue; engaged to the ex-husband of the woman engaged to Prue's ex-husband; in the process of organizing the world's 1st society wax museum in SF

Father Paddy Starr: Priest; friends with Prue; also works at the studio Mary Ann works at; hosts a late-night show, Honest To God; closeted gay; hangs out in the park cruising for cock; at the end of the book, Prue runs into him in the park, oblivious to his just consummated "activities" with Bill Rivera

Helena Parrish: Proprietress of Pinus; supplies Frannie with "Vitamin Q" (aka Quaaludes-downers)

Andrew Burke: Mentioned that he was now an associate editor at New York magazine

Guido: ---- ------'s houseman; diminutive, jockey-like man in his mid-sixties

Jennifer Rabinowitz: Ex-fuck buddy of Brian's; has huge breasts; fucks a mysterious man who calls himself John Smith

Bill Rivera: Cop that Mouse picks up at the Twin Peaks bar; built Latino with a large mustache and smoldering brown eyes; lives in a tiny studio that is blandly furnished; fucks Mouse; doesn't like people to sleep over; Mouse accepts and realizes that they are just fuck buddies and nothing more; neither one has anything in common with the other-except great sex; startles Prue inside the abandoned shack (she was searching for clues on where Luke might have run off too) in Golden Gate Park; refers to Luke as Mark; cruises for cock in the park and hooks-up with Father Paddy Star

The Imposter: Former Temple member who lived in SF; one of Jones' most devoted disciples; had serious mental problems; so serious that even Jones had refused him permission to participate in Jonestown; bore a really freaky resemblance to Jones and wanted to be him; one could barely tell the two men apart; when Jones became deathly ill (emphysema), his wife, Marceline, traveled to SF and begged for him to come and impersonate Jones; while Jones was away seeking medical treatment, he could maintain harmony and loyalty with the Temple members; DeDe escaped days before the mass suicide at Jonestown and is unsure whether the real Jones or his impostor committed suicide with the other Temple members

Claire McAllister: Fellow cruise-mate of Frannie; an ex-chorine of indeterminate age, with a chronic weakness for double entendres and racy jokes; has black hair and was involved in show business; currently married to the 3rd richest man in Oklahoma ( Jimbo)

Lionel: Biological father of DeDe's twins; now owns the grocery store where he used to be the delivery boy; only mentioned but does not appear in book

Willie Omiak: Eskimo bush pilot; flies Mary Ann & DeDe to Ingalu (a village in Little Diomedes) in his Cessna

Andy: Willie's cousin; served for the past 4 years as a National Guardsman (aka Eskimo Scout) on Little Diomedes; watches the border between Little (US) & Big Diomedes (Russia)

My Review: I immensely enjoyed this book and thought it was the best of the series so far. Further Tales Of The City was much darker than the last two installments, but I found the plot lines less far-fetched and more believable. Maupin's wild and wacky sense of humor, the preposterous interweaving of the lives of these people, and his overwhelming love for nearly every character is evident on each page.I honestly have grown quite attached and fond of these characters and can't wait to continue my journey with this series. Next up: Babycakes!

Book Score: 9/10