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Nabaza.net-The MarketPlace - Michael Tolliver Lives (P.S.)
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List Price: $13.95
Our Price: $9.47
Your Save: $ 4.48 ( 32% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780060761363
ISBN: 0060761369
Label: Harper Perennial
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: 2008-06-01
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Release Date: 2008-05-20
Studio: Harper Perennial
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Editorial Reviews:
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Nearly two decades after ending his groundbreaking Tales of the City saga of San Francisco life, Armistead Maupin revisits his all-too-human hero Michael Tolliver—the fifty-five-year-old sweet-spirited gardener and survivor of the plague that took so many of his friends and lovers—for a single day at once mundane and extraordinary . . . and filled with the everyday miracles of living.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Michael Tolliver Lives
Comment: This was a real romp down memory lane, and I really enjoyed it. Having lived in San Francisco when "Tales of the City" was being written, I have always enjoyed the series. However, after the first couple of books the plot line became too far fetched for me. Reading "Michael Tolliver Lives", brought back so many places and events that I hadn't thought about in years. As I continued reading, I felt like I was back in 'The City' catching up with old friends.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Aging, but still vital!
Comment: "Michael Tolliver Lives" is essentially about a miracle. That HIV-inflicted Michael is still alive after twenty years, not to mention being happy and productive, is reason enough to celebrate. I've always admired Maupin's literate humor and crisp characterizations, and even with his newly elegiac tone, the novel is upbeat and daring. Anna Madrigal is still lovingly depicted as the engaging, eccentric "logical" mother, and we're sad when she begins her inevitable decline. Though very much of another era, the old "Tales of the City" gang unites with its eye on the future. This is done with deceptive ease. A new era is previewed while not quite slamming the door on the old one. Michael Tolliver lives, and so do his cohorts. That bodes well for Maupin devotees as well!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Loved it...
Comment: Yes, Michael is different than he was back in the day but aren't we all? This book was sweet and funny and reminded me why I love Armistead Maupin so much. I hope that some of the people writing the critical reviews do not expect to be the same as they grow older. We all evolve--it is what is wonderful about life.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Tolliver, sadly, Lives Maupin's Boring Life
Comment: I eagerly awaited the release of this latest addition to the Tales of the City series. I was sadly disappointed. Michael Tolliver Lives should have been entitled Michael Tolliver Lives Armistead Maupin's Boring Life. The transparency of this book simply being a recounting of Maupin's life in San Francisco, (his latest romance, his need for testosterone injections, etc) is a sad, obvious piece of writing. I find myself wondering if this book wasn't written simply as a response to a need for money. The fact that, unlike the original series, Tolliver Lives is written in the first person simply increases the confusion over whether of not we are hearing Tolliver's voice or Maupin's. To add insult, the book is a short, simple read written at a seventh grade level. In fact, I read over half of it while waiting for the the author to appear at his signing. My greatest disappointment was the lack of Maupin's trademark use of clever crossed paths, a style device that in the past had drawn comparison to Charles Dickens. No one would make that comparison here.
Customer Rating:
Summary: More shocking, less clever
Comment: I fell in love so much with the Tales of the City series (which I recently discovered) that I preordered this book. I read it the same day that the book arrived pretty much in one sitting. It's definitely Maupin's voice coming through but something just seemed off in this book. Maybe it's the twenty years or so since he last visited them... maybe it's the modern world being reflected in his current book. Whatever the case may be I thought this book was shallow and smutty.
What I loved about the original Tales books is that he treated subjects that could so easily be smutty, with clever and witty insight. He left the reader laughing... not squirming. Frankly this book made me squirm. Maybe that was the objective. Maybe this is the way Maupin always wanted to write but couldn't or wouldn't. Maupin can certainly write however he wishes but this is not a book I would recommend to anyone but die hard Maupin fans... and even then I would recommend it with some hesitation.
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