Michael Tolliver Lives
Written by Armistead Maupin
Narrated by Armistead Maupin
4/5
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About this audiobook
The seventh novel in the beloved Tales of the City series, Armistead Maupin’s best-selling San Francisco saga.
Inspiration for the Netflix Limited Series, Tales of the City
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.
Armistead Maupin
Armistead Maupin is the author of the Tales of the City series, which includes Tales of the City, More Tales of the City, Further Tales of the City, Babycakes, Significant Others, Sure of You, Michael Tolliver Lives, Mary Ann in Autumn, and The Days of Anna Madrigal. His other books include the memoir Logical Family and the novels Maybe the Moon and The Night Listener. Maupin was the 2012 recipient of the Lambda Literary Foundation’s Pioneer Award. He lives in London with his husband, Christopher Turner.
More audiobooks from Armistead Maupin
Babycakes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Logical Family: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sure of You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Significant Others Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5MAYBE THE MOON Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Tales of the City Audio Collection: Tales of the City, Books 1-6 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Titles in the series (13)
Tales of the City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tales of the City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Further Tales of the City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Further Tales of the City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5More Tales of the City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Significant Others Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5More Tales of the City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babycakes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sure of You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Michael Tolliver Lives Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mary Ann in Autumn: A Tales of the City Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Days of Anna Madrigal: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mona of the Manor: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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Reviews for Michael Tolliver Lives
386 ratings25 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Another of the Tales of the City books. This one set after the turn of the century. This one deal mainly with Michael. We learn about his brother and his ailing mother. As well as bring back Mary Ann from the older books and Brian. Mrs Madrigal is in this one as well and very elderly.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I finally got around to reading this. I avoided it forever when it first came out. I was like, oh no, kaaaant reeeed, will spoil the most important reading experience of my youuuuuth, oh noooo'.
Well, shame on me because I should have listened to myself and not read it because I hated it. I don't know what happened, but this book had none of the things that made me love the Tales of the City series. Very disappointed. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5excellent
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5YES, YES, YES! This is as good as the 1st book in the series.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was a glorious reconnection with characters I have loved since I first met them.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I think I read the first Tales of the City, and Maupin's writing is always a pleasure: it's warm and wry. The first of half of this book though was way too much sexual info for my taste, maybe b/c I wasn't at all expecting it (^^; I don't doubt that this reflects a certain reality, but it wasn't something I was prepared for ^^; But then the second half turned its focus more on relationships with family and friends and community, as well as ageing, and that was quite engaging. So entertaining, but not for people who aren't prepared to delve into a very gay world!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Audiobook read by the author. Eighteen years after “finishing” his Tales of the City Series in 1989, Maupin returned to the beloved characters and gave readers a 7th installment. NOTE: Spoilers ahead if you haven’t read the first six books in the series When the series ended, Michael had been diagnosed as HIV positive. In the ‘80s this was still considered a death sentence, but advances in treatment changed that, hence the title.Michael has a landscaping business and a new husband. He’s dealing with what many middle-aged people face – the decline of our elderly parents. But he moves forward as best he can. Enjoying his work, his life and his friends. Mary Ann and Anna Madrigal make appearances as well, but the focus is really on Michael. I really like the way these characters support and love one another. I’m not easily shocked, and have no illusions about gay sex, but there are a couple of sex scenes that made me a little uncomfortable. If you’re turned off by that, this may not be the book (or series) for you.Maupin read the audiobook himself. He’s not a trained voice artist, but he’s so invested in these characters that I can’t imagine anyone else doing a better job. There’s a bonus interview with the author at the end of the audiobook. Maupin comments that he was “blushing furiously” when reading those aforementioned sex scenes.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Michael Tolliver is a gay man with AIDS who lives in San Francisco. The title refers to the fact that he has not succumbed to the virus. In fact, he is happily married, works as a landscaper and is surrounded by friends. His mother in Florida is dying and she wants Michael to be her medical power of attorney. This is despite the fact that Michael's straight brother and his wife live minutes away and have been looking after her since the death of her husband. Michael's sister-in-law is a born again Christian and believes so strongly in the sanctity of human life that she would oppose disconnecting a ventilator. Michael does not feel much connection to his biological family. Instead his community of friends in SF is his real family, his "logical family" as he calls them. So this request of his mother's catches him off guard but he agrees especially since his husband, Ben, has told his mother that Michael would do it. The book riffs on about Michael's life, his friends and his husband and it is not until the end that you realize the lesson he imparts about friendship applies to everyone. Some people are going to be offended by the references to gay sexuality. I personally could have done with a few less details. Nevertheless I would recommend this book to open-minded straight people and, of course, to anyone gay.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It was tough to reacquaint myself with my favorite Tales of the City characters now that they're in their 50s. But once I adjusted to the reality of aging, the book was really great. A bit less carefree than the earlier books, but the tone matches the series' new adulthood well.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Revisiting on audio 2/2011
This has apparently become one of my go-to audio books.
Revisiting on audio 9/2010
This has become my favorite of all the Tales of the City books. It's such a lovely meditation on aging and love and one's logical family that it rises above the hijinks of the rest of the series. There's a serious and retrospective note here that brings more gravitas to the words. Beautifully done.
7/2007
Mouse has aged since last I saw him, and I'm reassured to report that he's got many of the same worries I do about the process. Cameos from almost everyone from the Tales of the City series. The meat of the book is about relationships and connections. And looking down to find one's grandparent's hands attached to one's own arms. Delightful, winsome, bittersweet and loving. Highly recommended. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Michael Toliver, the adorable young man from Maupin's Tales of the City, has survived what seemed to be his inevitable doom from the gay plague some twenty years ago and has reached 55 years of age, is fit and living well. Now he speaks for himself, and tells of his life today and reminisces about the past. He has found a much younger man with whom to share his life, Ben, someone who delights in the older man, someone who was happy to marry him. Michael takes us through his day to day life, his concerns for his ailing mother, and we find his life still populated with many of the characters from Tales of the City. We are also updated on many of the events that have befallen these characters since we last encountered them. What shines through this novel, apart from the delightful Michael, is the quality of the writing, Maupin has a way with words that makes you believe, Michael comes across as a real person, not a fictional character. This in no way diminishes the humour, the wit, but certainly adds to the tenderness, the touching quality, the love.Michael Toliver Lives is one of Maupin's best, a gem of a story that can make you laugh out loud as easily as it can move you to tears, an absolutely delightful, positive tale.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is the next to the last book in the Tales of the City series. I was lucky enough to see the serialized TV version of the first three books and this book does not disappoint. I loved catching up on "Mouse" and what he had gone through during the intervening years.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A pleasant reunion with the major characters from Maupin's Tales of the City series. Definitely a much more satisfying ending to the series than Sure of You.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A return, after, what? 20 years? to the world of Barbary Lane, and a chance to catch up with some beloved friends. Anna Madrigal is still with us, and wonderful as ever; Mouse is still surviving, still adorable, and now partnered with a man 20 years his junior; Brian … is still Brian, while Shawna is all grown up and writing a sex blog. Most importantly, this novel rehabilitates Mary-Anne, who I thought Maupin treated thoroughly shabbily in the last couple of books. Warm and cosy as a beloved soft toy; an undemanding comfort read.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5too much sex, too much relationship. would have liked more mrs. madrigal, more family, more mary ann.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not bad, but not great, either. This book is set in the present, many years on from the end of the Tales of the City series. Michael "Mouse" Tolliver lives, although some other people don't. There are a few new characters - Shawna is all grown up, Michael has a new lover, and a new staff member in his gardening business, and we meet more of his alarming Florida Christian family.It's delightful to catch up with the old characters, but I found the style a little disappointing. After the quick pace and sharp wit of the Tales of the City series, this is much less biting, and often melancholic. Perhaps too much of it is about aging and death; some more comic subplots would have been nice. More of Shawna and Jake, perhaps. But being told strictly from Michael's point of view, that's not really possible. Maupin's earlier format worked much better for the city vignettes, and I missed that.I wouldn't have missed it, but it lacks the sparkle of the original.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Timeless—or perhaps timely—Tales of my CityI won’t go as far as to claim that Armisted Maupin’s Tales of the City books are the reason I upended my life and moved to San Francisco eight years ago—but they were surely a factor. Maupin captures the spirit of San Francisco like no one else, and his books are truly dear to me. Several years ago, in a tremendous act of willpower, I tucked away Michael Tolliver Lives for a “rainy day.” That day, of course, has come, and it’s such a comfort to visit with these old friends.Like myself, they are older. Michael “Mouse” Tolliver is in his mid-fifties and Anna Madrigal is eighty-five! In the pages of the book we get updates on all of our beloved former Barbary Lane denizens, but as the title suggests, this is really Michael’s show.Like his creator, he is now married (legally) to a much younger man, and is living with HIV—an eventuality he’d never considered years ago when AIDS was a death sentence. As for further details of the plot, they’re essentially irrelevant. This book is all about character. And Maupin’s insight into these people is just as deep—and as deeply affectionate as it ever was. Now, clearly I’m a hard-core fan, and reading this book gave me great joy at a time when I badly needed it. That said, this latest volume is not a favorite. Perhaps because Michael’s life so closely mirror’s Maupin’s, I felt like parts of this book smacked of self-justification. Also, and this isn’t exactly a complaint, but this book seemed a lot more gay than I remember the rest of the series being. Or rather, more graphically and explicitly gay. I don’t really care, but readers who aren’t fairly open-minded might not want to go there. I’m pretty open-minded, and I could have done with just a bit less detail.Small complaints aside, I was thrilled to reconnect with these dear friends and discover I loved them as much as I ever had. Maupin is a magical writer with boundless heart. I will read absolutely anything he writes. Happily, I won’t have to wait quite so long for my next visit. Mary Ann in Autumn, a Tales of the City novel, will be published in November!
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Oh dear. I loved Tales of the City. But this felt like another author, one without a sense of humour or the joie de vivre that made Maupin's earlier work so much fun. I didn't manage to finish it - it's hard to read something where you want to slap the protagonist out of his self absorption.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It’s been nearly twenty years since the last installment in Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City series, about the intertwined lives of Michael “Mouse” Tolliver and his friends and lovers in San Francisco. Tales begins with the arrival of Mouse, a fresh-faced young gay man from Orlando, at the apartment building run by the colorful and eccentric Anna Madrigal in the mid-1970s. In the ensuing six books Maupin chronicles Mouse’s life through the decades that follow, incorporating current events such as the Jim Jones massacre and the rise of AIDS. Although part of the Tales series, Maupin’s latest book is a standalone novel, with enough background given for each character that new readers won’t feel lost.Lives takes place in the present day, and like the previous books shows how the wider culture that we live in affects our own lives, and how the political really is personal. Michael, HIV-positive and not expected to survive long at the end of the previous novel Sure of You, is now 55 and still alive thanks to new antiretroviral drugs and now facing the reality of growing old despite the virus. He’s found love again, this time with a man fully 25 years his junior, and was even married at San Francisco City Hall. Through Michael we learn the fate of all the characters in the previous Tales books, and learn that life does go on for all of us.Michael’s father never appears in this novel – he has passed away from prostate cancer – yet his influence still pervades Michael’s life. It overshadows Michael’s relationship with his dying mother and his straight Christian brother, and pervades everything from Michael’s feelings towards his sissy nephew to his marriage to a much younger man. Though not apparent on the surface, part of the story of Lives is about how a father’s influence can last our whole lives – for good or ill – and what it takes for us to step out from under it. Lives also tells the story of Michael’s old friend Brian, now a single father and still an aging hippie who’s raised a bleeding-edge postmodern daughter now taking her first steps to independence. This is not only a book about growing older, but also a meditation on the roles that fathers play in our lives and how critical they are in shaping who we become.(Please be aware that this book does contain scenes of sexuality that, while not excessively graphic, may not be appropriate for all readers) Reviewed by Book Dads
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I've just finished this after devouring it in two sittings. My first thoughts are that this could be my favourite of the Tales of the City series. Written in the first person it is a more intimate and tender account of Mouse / Michael Tolliver's life now. In fact I had tears rolling down my cheeks for the last two chapters, not just because of the story, but also because it was like coming to the end of a reunion with long lost but much loved friends. Armistead Maupin should be really proud of this book, it has a genuine warmth that is very hard to find in books, and somehow it never slips into corniness. I think maybe it helps that the story isn't as eventful and action packed as some of the earlier ones, it reflects the changes to Mouse's life as he approaches old age, as he looks back to old loves and friends as much as he looks ahead with an acceptance that life will never be as it was, but that doesn't mean there won't be happiness and pleasures of a different kind. Altogether a hopeful, affectionate book, this has left me with a mix of sadness and happiness, not an unpleasant combination actually. Mr Maupin I salute you..
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5"Michael Tolliver Lives" is Armistead Maupin's most poignant and endearing "Tales" book yet. A very wise decision to shift to Michael's first person point-of-view, Maupin takes us closer and makes us empathize even more with his alter-ego, an ageing gardener who is reminiscent of the past and quietly struggles to accept his role as an impending senior. The present is cleverly interwoven with recaps of what has happened in the past seventeen years since the last installment, and is told in a style that is almost poetic. If you are a fan of Barbary Lane and can get through this novel without shedding a tear, then, well, I just don't know what to say...
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series, born as a newspaper serial, has been adored by many thousands around the world. The adventures of a group of San Francisco friends living on Barbary Lane under the roof of Anna Madrigal -- a man turned motherly landlady -- ran for six books and ended with 1989's Sure of You. Now, 17 years later, comes Michael Tolliver Lives, a sequel that's not a sequel, according to Maupin. It's the first-person tale of Michael Tolliver, a central gay character from the original books who is now 55 years of age. He's still in San Francisco and living with HIV/Aids (Maupin's Babycakes, in 1983, was one of the first novels to address Aids openly). This is the "Mouse" of the past grown into a thoughtful, mature man, a gardener by trade and a friend to many. He's in a new but promising relationship with a younger man, and still visits the octogenarian Madrigal (no more a landlady) regularly. He's made his peace with his HIV-positive status and is slightly bemused that he outlived his dog. As the pages turn, we learn what became of all the other Tales characters. Some have moved on with their lives; others (and their children) still see Michael often. His life isn't exciting, perhaps, but he is content. Then, his hospitalised mother -- a fundamentalist Christian, of course -- takes a turn for the worse and he has to face up to his estranged family for the first time in years. The ensuing tale and its surprising climax is touching, engrossing and sad at times, but Maupin still has a gift for injecting enough wit -- and some saucy love scenes -- to prevent dire topics like death from turning this into a morbid read. It's more of a celebration of life: lives well lived, lives to share and lives to remember. On an American talk show, Maupin said the book is not a sequel, and it does read more like JK Rowling's epilogue in the last Harry Potter: an opportunity to know how it all turned out, with a story or two to tell along the way. Loyal Tales of the City fans will get most out of it, as there are plenty of back references to spot and enjoy.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Really enjoyed this book. I read the Tales of the City series over a 4 week period before I read this latest one. Although this book was funny in places I found it was a very deep and moving book. I recommend this book if you have read the Tales of the City series.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Armistead Maupin has penned a follow-up to his Tales of the City books, this time concentrating mainly on the character of Michael (Mouse) Tolliver, now 55 and in a new relationship with a younger man. Having survived his HIV-positive diagnosis, Michael negotiates middle age, something which he never expected to live to see. In the main portions of the novel, he must deal with the impending death of his mother and his conflicted feelings for his birth family. Other characters from the original series of books make appearances, including Mrs. Madrigal, Brian, and Mary Anne. A treat for all those who enjoyed the earlier books and/or the three television miniseries based on the books.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is a follow-up to the Tales of the City series, which ended 17 years ago with Sure of You. If you haven't read the six Tales of the City books yet, you have a treat in store, so do that first, and come back when you've got to the end of Sure of You.Michael Tolliver Lives isn't really a continuation or a sequel in the traditional sense. In Sure of You, it was clear that Maupin's anger with the way the world was going, especially the AIDS epidemic, was making it difficult for him to continue the light, comic style of the series. It was inevitable that he would have to go away and do something different for a while. I never really expected that he would bring back the Tales of the City characters, but here they are...The central character in the new book is still Maupin's fictional alter ego Michael Tolliver, but the fast-cutting multiple-POV style Maupin developed to suit the newspaper serial format of the original stories is replaced by a more introspective first-person narrative, with Michael himself telling the story. This gives us a more focussed novel -- we are closer to the world of Maybe the Moon and The Night Listener than to the Tales.On the other hand, we can still revel in Michael's taste for excruciating puns and his ability to relate every situation in life to an old movie (though he's clearly fighting to suppress his "inner Baby Jane" in this book).Maupin is still a master of comic economy, of course: I always enjoy his wonderful ability to sum up a situation by chucking in a couple of product names ("We sat on the edge of the bed and, almost simultaneously, tore at the Velcro of our Tevas."). The subject-matter is a natural development of Maupin's concerns in Tales of the City. Michael is nearly twenty years older, and age, in various aspects, is a major new theme. The core of the story is the conflict between "San Francisco" (open-minded tolerance; relationships between people based on free, loving choice) and "Orlando" (closed-minded prejudice; relationships based on biology and contracts). Things are more nuanced than that, of course; Michael is older and more mature now than back in the seventies, and discovers that he has his own barriers of prejudice to overcome when it comes to dealing with his relatives in Florida. But equally, Maupin reminds us that there are still battles to be fought, and the forces of reaction haven't packed up and gone home quite yet (he's probably preaching to the converted here, but it can't do any harm...).Tales of the City was an important part of my growing up and learning about gay culture. My first reaction on starting this book was incredulity that Michael could be so old already. It makes me feel horribly ancient too! The characters are old friends, and reading the book at times felt like a slightly weepy family reunion do. Not that there's anything wrong with that.