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Significant Others
by Armistead Maupin
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$13.95 |
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$13.67 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. |
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Paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Tranquillity reigns in the ancient redwood forest until a women-only music festival sets up camp downriver from an all-male retreat for the ruling class. Among those entangled in the ensuing mayhem are a lovesick nurseryman, a panic-stricken philanderer, and the world's most beautiful fat woman. Significant Others is Armistead Maupin's cunningly observed meditation on marriage, friendship, and sexual nostalgia.
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| Summer camp |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Armistead Maupin is a famously misplaced Southern writer. Mary Ann is a talk show hostess. Brian Hawkins is her husband. The couple and their daughter, Shawna, have moved from Anna Madrigal's 28 Barbary Lane rental to the Summit.
Brian asks Mrs. Madrigal if his nephew Jed may stay in his old apartment. Wren Douglas feels that hotel rooms are the best part of a book tour. The fat woman, Wren Douglas, is to be a guest on Mary Ann's show. (One of the segments of the show is called Latchkey Kitchen.) Brian's nephew Jed is careerist. Brian sees that in twenty years things have changed radically.
DeDe's twins are called Edgar and Anna. She wants to take them to Wimminwood, a women's festival. Her mother's husband is going to Bohemian Grove at the same time. This is very much a case of writing about an ensemble. In addition to Mrs. Madrigal, Michael Tolliver, a character from the earlier books in the series appears.
One of the employees of Michael's nursery business, Polly, attends Wimminwood and runs into DeDe there. In another instance Michael and Wren are described talking about DeDe's stepfather, Booter Manigault. Michael tells Wren that his friend delivered DeDe's children, Booter's step grandchildren. DeDe tells Polly that she had been someone who joined the People's Temple in Guyana. One farcical scene ensues after Booter's canoe drifts over to the other camp, Wimminwood.
The beauty of the books in this series is that with some rough, deft, and astute strokes setting out the characters the author is able to portray the humor incident to their clash of interests and wills.
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| I Only Wish It Were Longer |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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I've loved all of Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City" books, but this one holds a special place in my heart because of the wonderful juxtoposition of the Bohemian Grove and the Wimmin's Music Weekend.
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| Different Time...different people. |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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When I first started reading Significant Others, I didn't think I would like it. First off, two of the residents of Barbary Lane moved to another place, which kind of broke up the family feel of the story. The time is supposed to be either '85 or '86 and there is one main character who seems to be regulated to the background (I'm not talking about Mona).
But as I kept on reading, the story lines sucked me back in. Maupin is a great story teller that keeps the reader hooked, even though the time is different, places are different, and the beloved characters are different. Remember, the story takes place nine or ten years after we've been introduced to the Barbary Lane family, and they're not the same people they were in '76.
I'm not going to give away any secrets from SO. Just know that although the story and characters have evolved, Barbary Lane retains that human interaction/warmth(?) element, which seems to be the thread linking all of the Tales of the City books together.
But on the other hand, SO does feel like a "darker" book. Perhaps it's because the characters have grown up. Maybe it's because they've become cynical. Maybe it was the disease that was devouring the city. Or maybe, I feel that SO is darker because I know it's the second to the last of the TOTC series...and the realization that nothing lasts forever, finally hit me.
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| A lyrical account of gay San Francisco |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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This was the one that tackled the effect of AIDS on the gay community in San Francisco. When Dr. John Fielding dies it was a significant marker to the era that San Francisco became renowned for. Still comedic but always heart endearing ... Maupin makes anyone yearn for the City by the Bay.
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| Oh dear. |
| Customer Rating: 1 out of 5 |
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What a shame - more wonderful characters either being under-used or over-abused. I really wish I hadn't read this book.
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