Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Further Tales of the City
    Further Tales of the City
    Further Tales of the City
    Audiobook8 hours

    Further Tales of the City

    Written by Armistead Maupin

    Narrated by Frances McDormand

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    Narrated by Frances McDormand

    Inspiration for the Netflix Limited Series, Tales of the City

    The third novel in the beloved Tales of the City series, Armistead Maupin’s best-selling San Francisco saga.

    The calamity-prone residents of 28 Barbary Lane are at it again in this deliciously dark novel of romance and betrayal. While Anna Madrigal imprisons an anchorwoman in her basement, Michael Tolliver looks for love at the National Gay Rodeo, DeDe Halcyon Day and Mary Ann Singleton track a charismatic psychopath across Alaska, and society columnist Prue Giroux loses her heart to a derelict living in a San Francisco park.

     

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateMar 26, 2013
    ISBN9780062259745
    Author

    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

    Related to Further Tales of the City

    Titles in the series (13)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Literary Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Dan Levy Show

      Sep 24, 2019

      The Dan Levy Show
      11 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Jul 16, 2020

      Book Club
      4 min read

    • Article

      Four Of A Kind

      May 3, 2023

      Four Of A Kind
      4 min read

    • Article

      Great Read

      Feb 22, 2023

      Great Read
      7 min read

    • Article

      Getting Out Alive

      Apr 6, 2017

      Getting Out Alive
      4 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Feb 1, 2024

      Book Club
      5 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Aug 7, 2019

      Book Club
      5 min read

    • Article

      Magnets: Carried through time, lovers seek their purpose.

      Feb 6, 2014

      Moon Colony B, 2213 Former Ponzi-schemer Mary Pillar digs through a trashcan. It smells like rotten eggs and milk. She is elderly and homeless, living in an alley between two eco-efficient skyscrapers. Dust particles dance around her. She has lost ev

      11 min read

    • Article

      Past IMPERFECT

      Oct 2, 2023

      Past IMPERFECT
      10 min read

    • Article

      A Bloody Grand Finale

      Apr 13, 2023

      A Bloody Grand Finale
      4 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Feb 2, 2022

      Book Club
      5 min read

    • Article

      Great Read

      May 17, 2023

      Great Read
      8 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Oct 2, 2019

      Book Club
      5 min read

    • Article

      Let’s Go… Australia

      Apr 29, 2019

      She’s hot, punishingly hot in the out woopwoop town of Wilbrook on the Pilbara plateau in Western Australia, the location of James Delargy’s thriller 55. Usually, Sergeant Chandler Jenkins has a quiet, predictable life, punctuated occasionally by th

      3 min read

    • Article

      Baking Through a Plague

      Jun 12, 2020

      Baking Through a Plague
      8 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Jan 4, 2024

      Book Club
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Art of Fiction No. 245

      Dec 15, 2019

      The Art of Fiction No. 245
      42 min read

    • Article

      Christmas Books Guide

      Nov 30, 2022

      This is Fiona McIntosh’s first novel set entirely in Australia. Her heroine, Fleur, is just eight when she is already helping her adoptive undertaker parents prepare bodies. Mother Mae knows their only daughter is capable of running the Port Adelaide

      10 min read

    • Article

      Past Imperfect

      Sep 2, 2023

      Past Imperfect
      9 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Aug 16, 2023

      Book Club
      5 min read

    • Article

      Threshold

      Dec 11, 2023

      Threshold
      18 min read

    • Article

      Summer Reading Special

      Dec 28, 2023

      The distinctive depth of characterisation shines in this tightly knitted story of therapist Nick and retired solicitor wife Zoe, as they decide to view a deconsecrated Victorian church which is for sale. It’s “even more picturesque than it looked onl

      11 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Aug 16, 2023

      Book Club
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Further Tales of the City

    4/5

    574 ratings34 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Call it 3.5 stars, I'm a little torn.

      It's a breezy and in the year 2011, dated slice-of-life novel set in 1976 San Fransisco. I think it's of some small importance to remember that this novel (as well as the next three in the series) were originally published regularly as a newspaper serial. I think that a reader younger than 30 and/or one who is unfamiliar/intimidated by gay culture would have a tough time with this book, but the story is just perfect for film/tv adaptation, which is has been more than one occasion, so a younger reader would probably LOVE this story on tv, in my opinion.

      As neither, I enjoyed it, but the word that just doesn't leave my mind is "breezy". Like much of the culture of the time, major plot developments and emotional events are dealt with by both Maupin and his characters by attempting to pass them off as no big deal. Death, sex, drug use, family, the quest for meaning in existence are all touched on, but done so in as nonchalant a manner as is humanly possible, both by the characters, and often by the prose itself. At the not-terribly-ripe-but-at-least-less-fresh age of 35, I just know that people don't work that way, although I've certainly seen enough of them TRY to look (and feel) that way. People are impacted by events, despite their efforts to look cool. I would have been less bugged by this had the prose broken into the third-person omniscient once or twice to just suggest that events had caused some deep thoughts. Granted, there are scenes where events cause people to cry. Actually, the characters cry a lot. Like all the time. But it's not the kind of silent doubt and deep thought that real people do when they see anything that makes them think. I don't need Naturalism here, it's not Dostoyevsky, but a dash of it would have made these characters very human and approachable. The most human by far is one who from what little I understand about what happens next, is one of the central figures of the later novels (I don't spoil things for myself).

      So having been critical of it, I DID enjoy it, and I very much wanted to give it 4 stars, but I just couldn't do it. I haven't decided whether or not to try the next book, but I'm leaning towards doing so, and will add it to my to-read list just in case. It's a good book, and if you've been thinking of giving it a try, please do so, it's good enough to get off the fence for. If you're thinking about getting ON that fence, and homosexual 1970's S.F. is NOT your thing, you'll probably be frustrated, and perhaps you should move on.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This book was wonderful and funny and a real 'page turner'.The fact that I did not at first understand all the references, being in San Francisco and in the seventies did not reduce my enjoyment at all. Next in the series is now ready and waiting on my shelf!
    • 3/5
      Reading this book is a bit like a history lesson. Set in San Francisco in the late-1970s, this book was remarkable for presenting homosexuality as part of mainstream popular culture. In 2011 this is hardly shocking, but thirty-five years ago it was. This is important to recognize before going into the book. With the stage set, I felt like this book read like a sitcom. The characters engage in crazy antics. They get involved in humorous love triangles. The series began in the newspaper, and I can see how that shapes the book. The book is comprised of short chapters and small vignettes. It is humorous and easy reading, a bit of mind candy. By the end I was left with some unanswered questions. What was the issue with the landlady? As this is the first book in a series, I'm going to assume that Maupin is setting up for the next book. I'll be reading it to find out.
    • 4/5
      Maupin introduces us to a large ensemble cast of quirky, complex, and lovable (well, mostly) characters from all walks of life, building what feels like a very realistic microcosm of San Francisco in the mid-1970s. The story is a bit choppy due to extremely short chapter lengths -- this work was originally published as a newspaper serial -- but that same issue also becomes something of a strength, since it forces the author to be economical with his words. Description is minimal but precise, and characterization is accomplished mostly through sharp, often funny and just as frequently heartbreaking dialogue. Some of the coincidental meetings and frankly bizarre plot developments are a little far-fetched, but the breezy tone keeps you turning the pages. I love these characters, who are as real in my mind as any I've ever encountered.
    • 4/5
      Continuation of characters in Tales of the City and More Tales of the City. Enjoyable.
    • 3/5
      Synopsis: Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City has blazed a singular trail through popular culture -- from a groundbreaking newspaper serial to a classic novel to a television event that entranced millions around the world. The first of six novels about the denizens of the mythic apartment house at 28 Barbary Lane, Tales is both a wry comedy of manners and a deeply involving portrait of a vanished era.Vanished era is right. Boy was it hokey. All the drug references were kind of quaint – the pot and the Quaaludes and the overt casualness of their use. Funny. Same with the pre-AIDS bed hopping by both straight and gay people. No wonder we had an epidemic; these people had all the restraint of alley cats. They all wanted (whether they admitted it or not) a serious relationship, but they all just moved from bed to bed. It’s hard to believe that people actually did this. It seems detrimental not only physically, but emotionally. What a way to live. No wonder they needed drugs.The story is something out of Melrose Place. Well, the reverse. Whatever. It’s very soap operaish. Maybe that’s where Spelling got his idea for the trashy series. I didn’t like many of the people in this story though. The lead character, Mary Ann, is compared to everyone else, priggish and judgmental. She thinks she isn’t, but she is and her constant waffling between “loving” the new city and wanting to move back to the safety of the staid Cleveland gets annoying. She is dense and I was sick of reading about her.None of the other characters were likeable either. The landlady who gives out joints to people and says that her house chooses them and not the other way around. The rich couple with marriage problems – he is actually gay, but won’t come out of the closet. There’s Mary Ann’s boss who is dying of some disease, can’t stand his wife anymore because she didn’t stay a 20-year-old and who begins a “love” affair with the crazy landlady. There’s the bed hopping single guy who is up for sex with either gender. Two roommates; a lesbian who wonders if she’s a fag hag for hanging around with her roomie, a “twink” who goes in for jockey shorts competitions at gay bars. And finally, the reclusive guy upstairs who claims to be a private investigator who really turns out to be a child pornographer. Oy vey. The writing in this one was not nearly at the level of The Night Listener, either. Maupin’s writing definitely improved between the writing of the two. In Tales he struggles with creating suspense without giving away the game and fails in a lot of storylines. But the story wasn’t compelling; each of the character’s situations were trivial and lame. I didn’t care about any of them. Bah.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyed this book even more than I expected. The San Francisco setting, however fictitious, was interesting, and the characters suprised me pretty often. I don't read many short story collections for some reason, enjoyed these. It was nice to come and go from the book without feeling like I'd missed much.
    • 4/5
      Charming and hilarious little story about life in San Francisco in the 1970s.
    • 4/5
      I can see why this is kind of a classic. Well-tied together, interesting stores weaving through the strange cityscape of San Francisco - not fully believable, but very enjoyable. My main criticism would be that the characters are often 2-dimensional and it's hard to really root for anyone. I more enjoyed the interesting interwoven experiences and lives of the group than the characters' emotional reactions to things.
    • 3/5
      The books is a collection of fictional stories about twenty-somethings in San Francisco in the '70s. A conservative young woman, Mary Ann Singleton moves to San Fran from Ohio and becomes friends with a diverse group of people including her pot-smoking landlord, Anna, bohemian neighbor Mona and a sweet gay man, Michael. The stories read more like a TV show than a book. Lovers are interchangeable and lives overlap as the characters deal with relationships, roommates, jobs and the AIDS epidemic. The writing isn't bad, there was just too much soap-opera style drama for me. Some of the characters are likable, but I found myself not caring too much about any of them.
    • 5/5
      Great story, great backdrop, great characters. Definitely read this book.
    • 4/5
      Yay for serial novels! The characters are really funny and warmly portrayed; the story feels largely effortless. Maupin could have spent a lot of time waxing poetical about San Francisco, but instead he lets the city shine through the characters. The jokes made cheerfully at the expense of seventies' culture are still funny because, man, the seventies were pretty strange.

      Hoping that the rest of the series is this good!
    • 5/5
      Oh, cute, cute, cute. What more does anybody have to say? Go read someone else's review and just consider mine positive.
    • 4/5
      Just thoroughly enjoyed the book. Looking forward to the rest of the series.
    • 4/5
      I did enjoy this, although the plot was very far-fetched. The reading was absolutely brilliant – the narrator is amazing! i’m not going to give any spoilers, but if you liked the first two, you will enjoy this.
    • 5/5
      I knew I'd love this book from the first sentence, and it didn't disappoint. So readable, a real page-turner, you can't put it down, the clever plot leads you to the next chapter and the next until you find you've finished the whole thing. Wonderful to find that there are 5 equally good sequels.
    • 5/5
      This is truly one of the most charming books that I have read. Having once lived in San Francisco I think it captures the atmosphere and ambiance of the area beautifully. One of the best moments is when Mrs. Madrigal tells her suitor that those that come to San Francisco are believed to be the people of Atlantis returning. This makes the story feel like a cohesive family unit, which is what Maupin seemed to want to project in the story with the cast of 28 Barbary Lane, specifically with that character.

      While the story feels like you are reading a soap opera I think that is what it is supposed to feel like overall. The story originally was written in the San Francisco Chronicle, so the chapters are very short and present part of the story in a fast and effective manner. This makes the book pretty easy to read.

      While some of the material may seem a bit lewd to some people it feels like it is in a proper place within the story. Maupin sets up each plot masterfully so you are not left scratching your head when something is revealed, instead you simply state to yourself "OH! Now it all makes sense." When you get to the end of the book though you will be wanting to read the next volume because it leaves many things open still, which makes for a good series.
    • 4/5
      Tales of the City is based on Maupin's 1970's newspaper serial in the San Francisco Chronicle. Between the pages we meet a group of unforgettable characters AND we get to remember what it was like to live in the 70's. Drugs, Sex and secrets are what make up Tales of the City. The story opens with Mary Ann Singleton a small town girl from the Midwest who falls in love with San Francisco while on vacation and decides to move there. The adventures start as soon as she makes this decision and it's as if we move right into the Barbary Lane apartment with her. The story unfolds in soap opera fashion as we meet Mouse ( who's gay), Mona ( the ad exec), Mrs. Madrigal (The landlady who grows pot), and Brian ( the womanizer) . The story is written in short snippets that at first seem a bit disjointed. The story jumps around from one set of characters to another. But as the story unfolds we see how it all fits together like a jigsaw puzzle and how everyone is connected in some way. And Maupin knows how to write a good story so you'll be hooked soon enough. This is the first of 7 books.
    • 4/5
      It captures a moment in time. Reading it is like eating candy. I'll take another box.
    • 4/5
      Very entertaining reading, esp for anyone who may have nostalgia for the 70s and San Francisco in the 70s in particular. I was a child in the 70s so most of the pop-culture references were beyond me, but the stories were still fascinating and fun to read--probably because Mary Ann is an outsider too. Thank goodness. These were originally serialized in a newspaper, which explains why the tales never seem to get anywhere. As a book, it doesn't conclude; I guess one just has to keep reading the whole Tales of the City series...
    • 3/5
      The everyday stories of the daily lives of some of the shallow and trivial folk that live in San Francisco,as interpreted by Armistead Maupin. I have been given to believe that this book and the later books in the series are wonderful but I just cannot understand what the fuss is all about. The characters are mere puppets and their lives seem completely pointless and indeed in most cases ugly too. A certain amount of mawkish humour is scattered amongst the pages and let's face it I did finish the book without actually throwing it at the wall. But in the end,it is just a so so sort of thing with little substance to it.
    • 5/5
      The classic San Francisco novel introduces a family of characters who live in Mrs. Madrigal's rooming house on Barbary Lane. The book is so full of dialogue that it reads like a script. Very funny, quirky, mind-opening, and heart-warming.
    • 4/5
      Another comfort re-read. A minor character takes centre stage as Prue, a society columnist falls in love with a homeless man who lives in the park who turns out to be more than he seems.
    • 4/5
      The characters and tales continue to grow. Old friends reemerge and new friends are made.
    • 4/5
      More laughing out loud, more thoughtful pauses when remembering some of the awful stuff that happened back in the day, more caring about this merry band of people who populated San Francisco in the 1970s. Maupin sticks a genuine mystery into this book, and there were moments when I did not know if I put the book down because I did not want to find out "what happens", or if I was too excited to read "what happens". How he pulls an impossible story together at the end is a wonder to behold. And the heroes are totally lovable!
    • 4/5
      Lovely narration by Barbara Rosenblat. I wish I could find the next 3 narrated by her, as I also have the last book to listen to. Worth a listen if you are a fan.
    • 4/5
      Maupin never fails to deliver with these characters.. It’s a very fast read, so you have to slow down and enjoy it. This one had quite the drama and an “Oh No” moment. A very interesting look back at the big socio-political events of that era. If the intent at the time of original publication was “conspiracy theory”, it certainly would have been plausible.
    • 4/5
      Another cruise-ship plot? What is this, The Love-boat?Actually, this is one of the best plots in the series. When I re-read it, I took the opportunity to look up Jim Jones and the People's Temple: I hadn't realised quite how conspicuously the leading lights of liberal San Francisco (Harvey Milk, Angela Davis, Maupin's colleagues on the Chronicle, etc.) were taken in by Jones. Maupin must have been stepping on some tender toes when he brought the subject of Jonestown up.It is interesting, though, that when this one was adapted for television, they had to bring in a whole new plotline in order to give Olympia Dukakis enough to do to make it worth her while to play Mrs Madrigal. The plot of the book is very focussed on Mary Ann and DeDe, as well as bringing out Prue Giroux, who was only a very minor character before. Michael's plot is important, but seems to be almost independent of what all the other characters are doing. So this book is maybe stronger as a self-contained novel than as an episode in the cycle.
    • 5/5
      Further tales of the City jumps forward a few years from More Tales of the City, but most of our favourite characters are still there; the residents of 28 Barbary Lane; Anna Madrigal’s children. The improbable events and unlikely coincidences continue with unabated abandon, but this is part of the charm of the stories. But what holds the book together is the skilful way that Maupin involves all the regular characters in the main plot; and main plot there certainly is (with a Jonestown connection), a plot which keeps one guessing to the end.It’s every bit as good as and possibly even funnier than its predecessors; highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Another coincidence-filled jolly good time.....this one a wee bit more graphic than previous volumes in the series, but still just plain fun....short little chapters, ridiculous circumstances and a rather startling take on a major world event that was fun to contemplate.....have at it......you probably will not regret it.