Reading "The Isherwood Century" is discovering an involved panorama of life in the past century - politically, artistically, internationally, psychologically, and spiritually. More than a memoir, this book remains intimate despite its scope. At last we have a reference (outside of his own wondrous diaries) that validates the greatness of this significant human being.

All the characters will soon become members of the family, and you will be laughing & crying along with them.

If you feel a six book series would be too much of the same thing, don't worry after the first book you will soon be wishing the series went way past six.

What makes this collection so wonderful is that it does not contain the final three books in the series. It helps to maintain my delusion that the last three book simply don't exist and the action stops at the end of book three. I highly recommend this collection.

This book is a MUST read for any lovers of fun, entertaining and poignant stories.

The ending was utterly heartbreaking. It reminded me a bit of the movie 'The Player'. Where the production staff has a story re-written because they find a persons appearance offensive or objectionable. By the time the filming starts, the entire story changed from what the author ever intended.

I have this book on my shelf and plan on keeping it there. I do not plan on selling it or re-reading it, however, it made such an impression on me. I think I will keep it for a very long time to remind me to appreciate other peoples differences and be grateful for what I do have.

The characters are a delight, and there's something in here for everyone, not just members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community. From Michael's quest for love, to Mary-Anne's journey to independance, these characters face life and death together on all its myriad fronts. Set in the San Francisco of the wild seventies, this book can be an interesting romp of nostalgia for many, or a wonderful peek into the past for those of us who were there, but in diapers, at the time.

The only word of warning I add to my otherwise hands-down reccommendation of "Tales of the City," is that its once serial nature makes it seem to jump and skip at the start, until you are used to the characters and have a feel for their personalities. Once you've got them down, it's a wonderful read, and you'll catch yourself pining for the next one, "More Tales from the City."

"Tales of the City" is written in a sort of "Mark Twain" style. Mark Twain used to serialize his works in newspapers and thus his chapters are short and to the point. Maupin did the same thing with the San Francisco Chronicle. The book is the perfect thing to read if you don't have a lot of time to sit down for a long read since you'll be through three or four chapters before you know it.

Tales is used as current commentary...current commentary for the 1970s. Maupin loved to try to weave current events into the stories. Here you'll see commentary on the Women's Lib movement and the Anti-Gay campaign of Anita Briant written as they were happening. "Tales of the City" is historical comment written as fiction in a lot of ways and as such it can be facinating.

Finally, "Tales of the City" is an essential book on Gay culture and Gay self-esteem. It presents a world where straights and Gays basically live together nicely and can be friends. Maupin doesn't display San Francisco as a Gay ghetto and everyone, no matter what their orientation, plays off of each other nicely. It's a world I'd love to live in.

Maupin originally wrote the vignettes as a series of newspaper columns. The book collected these columns together, so you can whip through the stories without having to wait for another installment. And you will whip through this book. The length of the chapters and the cliff-hanger prose ensures a quick read.

It's a fun if not deep book. It's especially interesting if you live in or often visit San Francisco. For really that's what this book is: a love story about a city.

As he does in the first novel, Maupin continues constructing a close-knit community of caring individuals while simultaneously deconstructing the beliefs and institutions in which people across the globe have put their faith in for centuries: the family, the church, gender identity, sexual orientation identity, racial identity, and even individual identity.

The reader is forced to ask her/himself if the only family is the traditional "nuclear" family, if people can have faith in a church which is capable of supporting the philosophies of a bizzare cult, if fathers must be men, if love and families can only occur with a man and a woman at their centers, if "true" friends and families can only consist of a single race, and even if a man suffering from amnesia can have faith in his identity as an individual.

When faced with "no" as the answer to these and other questions posed in the novel, the reader might expect the community to collapse with the disintegration of its beliefs. However, the novel has a happy ending. Why? Because what are left after the traditional structures of society have been broken down are, quite plainly, people. More important than any of the fragile constructs of our environment is learning how to learn from and get along with those others who share the planet with us, which is a task these wonderful characters understand.

An funny, mysterious, and exciting novel of caring and understanding, *More Tales of the City* is as much worth reading as its predecessor. Revel in the story and its loving depiction of the ups and downs of its characters. READ IT. Read it for the message, read it for the style, read it for the characters, but read it for the stories most of all. If you learn a little about life along the way (and its inevitable), you're all the better off.

I think this is probably the most serious of the six books, which is probably why I love it the best. There are still humorous moments, but More Tales deals with issues: coming out to parents (and I agree with the reviewer who said Michael's letter to his parents should be required reading!), the formation of a relationship between a young woman and the father who abandoned her as a small child, the acceptance of mixed-race children (and racial issues more generally, as we see more of D'orothea), and the very literal search for identity in the case of one character suffering from amnesia.

Mahvelous, dahlink! :)

The characters are surely some of the best ones ever created in literary history. The developement of the storyline is so surprising and unexpectable it's breath-taking. The twists and turns are so effective, because you seem to know the characters so well, and never had thought... well, you have to explore the secrets by yourself. I have never seen such a developement of characters. The same persons are totally different in the last book than in the first one. It's great.

I won't rate every book differently, although they are very different. But they are so great alltogether and so well-connected it's hard to tell them apart.

This is wonderful stuff!

The characters are surely some of the best ones ever created in literary history. The developement of the storyline is so surprising and unexpectable it's breath-taking. The twists and turns are so effective, because you seem to know the characters so well, and never had thought... well, you have to explore the secrets by yourself. I have never seen such a developement of characters. The same persons are totally different in the last book than in the first one. It's great.

I won't rate every book differently, although they are very different. But they are so great alltogether and so well-connected it's hard to tell them apart.

This is wonderful stuff!1

Although this book, like the rest of the Tales of the City series, is relatively light and easy reading, it also manages to be deep and touching.

One becomes attached to the characters and wants to read on to see what becomes of them, gets mad at them for some of their choices and may even decide they are no longer friends. The occasional brush with "real" characters helps to add a bit of fun to the stories.

A must-read series, this look into the world of 70's and 80's San Francisco is heartwarming and addictive. Written in a way that lets you easily set the book down after each section/chapter (the books were originally created as short pieces that ran in newspapers) a strong caveat is in order: Be careful: you WILL end up reading well past your bedtime!

The first three novels get five stars from me, straight across the board. The final three novels with this collection, get about a three. "Babycakes" is pretty good, "Significant Others" is just okay, "Sure of You" is quite bad.

Now few authors can touch Maupin in inspiring an "OK, just one more chapter" response (this book is a FAST read), but that response seems somewhat inappropriate considering the weight of the material here. It feels as if Maupin is falling back on what he knows he can do instead of allowing the story to unfold naturally. What we are left with is a book that tries too hard to be both wise and readable, leaving us with insights that just aren't very insightful and a story that is oddly lightweight.

In real life, by the way, Anthony Godby Johnson's identity was eventually confirmed, which opens up several interesting sociological and psychological questions about why it was ever doubted. Answering those questions may have made for a much more interesting book.

Quite good, engrossing and engaging. I personally enjoy novels told in the first person, if that narrator is interesting and has a unique voice. Gabriel Noone/Armistead Maupin is certainly that narrator.