1. Background

2. Plot

3. Characters

4. References

Tales of the City (1978) is the first book in the Tales of the City series by American novelist Armistead Maupin, originally serialized in the San Francisco Chronicle. Set in 1970s San Francisco, it follows the residents of a small apartment complex at 28 Barbary Lane, including the eccentric landlady, Anna Madrigal.

Background

To produce the novel, Maupin assembled and reimagined his first year of columns while staying at Rock Hudson's house in Bermuda Dunes, California.^[2]

Plot

In 1976, secretary Mary Ann Singleton visits San Francisco from Cleveland, Ohio, and impulsively decides to stay. She finds an apartment at 28 Barbary Lane, a small complex owned by the eccentric, marijuana-growing Anna Madrigal. Mary Ann befriends the other tenants of the building: hippyish, bisexual Mona Ramsey; heterosexual lothario Brian Hawkins; Michael Tolliver, a sweet and personable gay man known to friends as "Mouse"; and Norman Neal Williams, the tenant of the rooftop shed. Mary Ann gets a job as secretary to Edgar Halcyon, the abrasive, wealthy owner of the advertising agency where Mona works as a copywriter. Mary Ann finally gives in to the advances of ad exec Beauchamp Day, who is unhappily married to Edgar's socialite daughter DeDe, but he is unable to perform when in bed with Mary Ann. Edgar is dying, but has not told his family; he meets Anna in the park and they begin an extramarital romance. Beauchamp deliberately leaves Mary Ann's scarf in his car to be found by an attention-starved DeDe, who has sex with Lionel Wong, an 18-year-old delivery boy. Mouse meets handsome gynecologist Jon Fielding, and finds that he does not want to engage in casual sex with anyone else. He wins $100 in an underwear dance contest, but loses Jon over it. Jon confirms DeDe's suspicion that she is pregnant. Black model D'orothea Wilson arrives from New York, hoping to resume her romance with Mona; Anna is heartbroken when Mona moves in with D'orothea without saying goodbye. Norman is secretly investigating Anna on behalf of Mona's mother. Columnist Carson Callas blackmails DeDe into sleeping with him, in exchange for which he will not reveal her pregnancy. Beauchamp's renewed attentiveness to DeDe wanes, and she decides to keep her baby. At the baths, Jon has sex with a man he has not met before—Beauchamp. Mona discovers that D'orothea is really Caucasian, and has been darkening her skin to help her modeling career. As Edgar is dying at home, DeDe and Beauchamp tell him he is going to be a grandfather. Mary Ann has been spending time with Norman, but discovers that he is a child pornographer. When she confronts him, he slips and falls off a cliff. Mary Ann finds his file on Anna, and destroys it.

Characters

• Mary Ann Singleton, a prudish naïf from Cleveland, Ohio, who impulsively decides to leave her sheltered life and turn a vacation to San Francisco into a new chapter in her life.
• Anna Madrigal is the landlady of 28 Barbary Lane. Anna fosters a maternal relationship with each of her tenants, perhaps most aggressively with Mona Ramsey. In addition to gently encouraging Mary Ann to develop relationships, she begins an affair with Edgar Halcyon, which is threatened by a dark secret that Anna has.
• Mona Ramsey is Mary Ann's spacey, bohemian neighbor. Restless and somewhat melancholic, Mona finds herself unemployed after a particularly self-righteous day at the office. She lets her old friend Mouse stay in her apartment after his male lover ends their relationship, but she moves out to rekindle a relationship with D'orothea Wilson.
• Michael 'Mouse' Tolliver is Mona's best friend and eventual roommate. Mary Ann seems to become most comfortable with him, perhaps because they are both from more conservative parts of the U.S. Mouse is a confident, albeit newly admitted, gay man. He goes to live with Mona after his then-boyfriend ends their relationship, only to begin a new relationship with Jon Fielding, a gynecologist.
• Brian Hawkins is a waiter and ex-lawyer who also lives at 28 Barbary Lane. Considered a womanizer by nearly everyone he knows, he spends much of his time searching nightclubs and taverns for women.
• Norman Neal Williams lives in the rooftop shed at 28 Barbary Lane. A skittish recluse of a man, he is cruelly referred to as Boo Radley by the other tenants. Mary Ann tries to be friendly with him and eventually finds herself beginning a relationship with him. He has some secrets of his own, however, that threaten to change life for Mary Ann and the rest of the tenants at Barbary Lane.
• Jon Fielding is a gynecologist, compared to a Greek god by Mona, and Mouse's boyfriend for a short time. While Jon himself is a down-to-earth and caring man, his main friends are the 'A-Gays', a group of wealthy, snobbish homosexual men who are judgmental of most everyone, including younger effeminate gay men (whom they refer to by the slang term "twinks"), like Mouse who they feel are just useful for random flings. Many of them are also somewhat closeted.
• DeDe Halcyon Day is a socialite well known in San Francisco and the daughter of Edgar Halcyon. She is in an unhappy marriage to Beauchamp Day, who treats her with contempt and admonishes her frequently for her 'puffy' appearance. Aware of her husband's infidelity with Mary Ann, DeDe retreats to an exclusive fitness spa and emerges more confident. Her energized reunion with Beauchamp, however, is spoiled when she realizes that an earlier dalliance with the Chinese grocery boy has left her pregnant. She goes to great lengths to conceal the truth, including sleeping with a particularly grimy gossip columnist.
• Beauchamp Day is DeDe's narcissistic and philandering husband. Aside from currying favor with Edgar—his boss and father-in-law—and deprecating his wife, Beauchamp also finds the time to conduct extramarital affairs with both Mary Ann (who is Edgar's secretary) and Jon.
• Edgar Halcyon is the head of Halcyon Communications. He and his wife Frannie have become less fond of each other and, when he learns that he is dying, begins an affair with Anna Madrigal. Edgar is protective of his daughter DeDe, which strains his relationship with Beauchamp, his son-in-law and employee.
• Frannie Halcyon is Edgar's wife and DeDe's mother. She spends most of her day in an oblivious, alcohol-induced haze. She is partial to mai tais.
• D'orothea Wilson is a successful model who comes back to San Francisco to renew her love affair with Mona. Her race provides a comedic twist to the end of the novel.

References

• Bouncing Stones
• Bouncy ball
• Bouncy castle
• Bouncy Techno
• Bouncy techno
• Bound
• Bound (1996 film)
• Bound and Gagged
• Bound and unbound morphemes
• Boundaries
• Boundary
• Boundary Bay
• Boundary Bay Airport
• Boundary Bend
• Boundary bend
• Boundary Bend, Victoria
• Boundary case
• Boundary Commission for England
• Boundary commissions (United Kingdom)
• Boundary Committee for England
• Boundary component
• Boundary condition
• Boundary Conditions
• Boundary conditions
• Boundary County