30 Mar Tales of the City

For Christmas I was gifted the first four books in Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City series. As she had read them a while back, my Mum gave them to me after hearing how much I was enjoying my time here in SF.

The series is set in San Francisco and follows the adventures of the characters living at 28 Barbary Lane. Okay, so Barbary Lane does not actually exist but Maupin took inspiration from the real Macondray Lane in Russian Hill.

I cannot explain how much I connected with these books. As I read through their adventures the characters enjoyed parts of the city that I too enjoy regularly. They visited bars and clubs that I go to. They pass comment on the nature of this fine city and the inhabitants. The central characters are an array of eclectic personalities – much like the people who make up the population of SF. As I read along I could picture exactly who they were, where they were and what they were doing.

Now, I have only had the chance to read the first two books (hey, there’s a lot of reading to be done when you’re a student) but they are perfect. The first was written in 1978 and it honestly hasn’t dated a day. I see a lot of my own adventures in these stories. Heck, I can even draw parallels to my own friendship group here – we pretty much all live in the same building too. Maupin is from San Francisco and boy does he embody that in his writing. However, his locality does me hoping that I bump into him every time I leave my apartment. I’ve seen a few look-a-likes but never the real deal.

If, like me, you love this city then I 100% recommend this series. My one piece of advice would be to read them before you leave. I can already see myself re-reading this series back in grey, rainy London with an overwhelming sense of nostalgia and love for my own tales in this city.