Michael Tolliver Lives audiobook

Dear Mr. Maupin,I want to thank you for your book "Michael Tolliver Lives." It's helped me understand a bit more the journey that lay ahead for me. You see, I'm a 28 year old gay guy. I've lived through some halcyon days of hedonism and beauty. These things may seem shallow, but as your character Mouse understands, there's a lot of depth in that kind of shallowness for a nice Southern boy from a religious family.This last half of my 20's, though, has greeted me with an unrelenting thickening of my midsection and thinning of my hair. Whereas I was prepared for puberty when it hit because of all the books I had surreptitiously stolen glimpses of in public libraries, I was wholly unprepared for a new adult pubescence, taking me from boyish pupa to the current chrysalus state I'm in. It's a state of flux. Changes are occuring that I thought would never happen to me. I haven't been ready to look like the man my genes have predestined me to become. Your book that dwells on age and change has helped me get ready. And I thank you for that. I have a better idea, now, of what is to come. I have a better idea of how I can live out my conception of happiness in a body and mind that I haven't even met yet. Thank you.Furthermore, thank you for your ealier books, too. The PBS miniseries "More Tales of the City" was my first encounter with gay men. When I was a child, I glimpsed, with a pounding heart, a few scenes from that show. I still remember the scene with Mouse and Jon, I believe, cavorting under a sheet, and afterwards lying so happily in each others arms. At the time, I didn't even know you could show something like that on TV!Of course over time I came to know the characters of your books better (through reading as well as Netflix). So learning about their lives, but in the present time, really moved me. Now, I might be a big ole fag, but I don't cry much. "Michael Tolliver Lives" had me balling. Thank you for that, too.

Since this is my personal favorite of all the "Tales of the City" books, it really pisses me off to read all the negative reviews this one has gotten, mainly from peeps who were expecting yet another episodes in the "Tales" saga. Armistead Maupin confounds those expectations by totally going off format: it is narrated first person by Michael "Mouse" Tolliver, and so is a much more simpler and personal narrative than the other books. This is not meant to be a sprawling multi-story narrative, it's meant to be intimate and personal.The things I found most annoying with the other books are largely absent here: Maupin's obsession with the upper classes which borders on outright snobbery, his propensity to reduce real events and problems into soap opera, the sense of humor that threatens to become so precious that it stops being funny, the ridiculous coincidences which puts too many demands on our willing suspension of belief - all these are replaced by a sincere personal story about people who have become gone from being iconic types to being authentic people.There are genuine emotions here, I found all the tears and laughter in this book to be well earned.

I first read the "Tales of the City" books when I was in my 20s in Columbus, Ohio in the 1990s. I loved the books! Such quick, fun reads. I was not unfamiliar with the thriving gay community in Columbus, and I don't remember being shocked at anything in the books aside from some of the fun story twists.Now, I live in the San Francisco Bay area and I'm in my 50s (like Michael, who was in his 20s in the early books and is now 53). I was choosing a book with an LGBT main character for my book bingo square, and I came back to Armistead Maupin. I was delighted to see there was a newer (but still almost 10 years old) book in the series. This time the graphic sex did take me by surprise for a moment, but I really appreciate that the sex scenes don't take themselves too seriously (unlike the last book I read). "Hey, the nipple toys have arrived from eBay!"But what this book is really about is much sweeter. Like all the "Tales" books, it's about the family you build, juxtaposed with the family you were born to. It's about life in all its ordinary moments of pleasure and sadness, about the curveballs life tosses you, and about how the best people in our lives support us through it all. Armistead Maupin narrated the audio book, and it's perfect for the voice of Michael Tolliver right down to the almost indiscernible southern twang. Which makes sense, as it's semi-autobiographical. There's a cool little interview with the author at the end of the audio book.Rounded up to 4 stars.

I always liked Mouse (Michael) in the Tales books and was so glad to find him here, thriving despite his HIV positive status that hung over him so dangerously in an earlier era. This book could be read alone, I believe, although the events of the past books certainly enrich it. This is a much more personal and intimate book than the Tales, written in the first person. It follows only Michael and not the full cast of characters, although many of them appear during the course of the book. I really enjoyed both Michael's narrative voice and the plot and people around him. The book presents a loving non-monogamous relationship in a way that is very real and works. Even if Michael's voice is occasionally a little wistful, perhaps because of the fact that his significantly younger and negative husband makes more use of that openness, none the less he seems content and finally where he belongs. (In a content as real, although different from, where he might have been had his lover Jon survived, all those years ago.) The views of his family and the decisions he makes create a story I will no doubt reread periodically for the pleasure of it.

Michael Tolliver Lives in my head as my boyfriend. Book 7 in this lovable series brings us even closer together—written in the first person for the first time by Michael Tolliver himself—and no matter how much time passes, he is forever dancing in his underpants.

4,5 starsMichael is one of my favorite gay characters not only within the series and I loved to meet/hear from him again.

Like catching up with an old friend, it's an uplifting visit to the City by the Bay.

Michael Tolliver Lives is the rare book that I finished in one day. I think it's partly because I took a break from the series after Sure of You, and was so happy to be back among friends.Unlike the previous six, this one is in the first person, and pretty much restricted to Michael's romance with the much younger Ben. The most graphic of the Tales books, Maupin fearlessly depicts the sex lives of older gay men here. I could see how some people would be squeamish reading about an intergenerational gay threesome, but like everything in the Tales series, it's handled appropriately and fits perfectly with the story. Anyway, there's plenty of other stuff going on, including a glimpse at Michael's family back in Orlando, and a where-are-they-now wrap up on a lot of the familiar characters.Ultimately, I was happy to be reunited with my friends from 28 Barbary Lane, but I don't think this one is quite as good as the previous books in the series. I was happy to see Mary Ann back in the mix. Seems like she's figured out a lot about her life and isn't such a despicable person any more. Next one is all about her, so looking forward to the rehabilitation of Mary Ann Caruthers née Singleton. If you liked this, make sure to follow me on Goodreads for more reviews!

It's not Shakespeare. But then sometimes neither is Shakespeare. But it's familiar territory with old friends, friends who change, some for the better and some not so much. And some times friends, like ourselves, change along a horizontal line. I read the first three books in my early twenties in the early eighties, playing catch up. Then as they released. So these are "people" I grew up with and learned from and helped give me an idea of the gay man I hoped to grow to be and whom I wanted to surround myself with. So while the dialogue and scenarios in this book might seem sweet and cheesy and out of touch, for me they are very much in line with their development. And mine. Like Michael I've been dismayed and delighted at the success I've had getting laid as a gay overweight man in my fifties, and finding love late in life, and falling away from a dear friend from my twenties only to have her resurface after decades (she and I were essentially Mouse and Mona). And losing friends to disease and having a lover be there to ease that pain. It's not groundbreaking stuff. But it's the stuff of life told with a commonality and a sweetness and a familiarity. And I enjoyed revisiting my own memories as Michael relived his.

I love Michael and I love seeing where this soap opera takes him.

I know that an exclamation mark would be hyperbolic, but I think that, after an 18 year absence, "Michael Tolliver Lives!" is an appropriate title. Abandoned by his author in 1989, Michael Tolliver has been up to a lot in his absence. This wasn't originally going to be a Tales of the city book, but Maupin realised that Michael Tolliver was the perfect vehicle for an ageing gay man.This explains why it's written in the first person, and how everything seems to grow organically from that original concept. It can be dangerous resurrecting beloved characters after a long time away, but Maupin has let them all live and die natural lives in the interim.The shift from third person to the first is not without its problems: unlike The Night Listener, where the narrator was addressing his hypothetical radio audience, there is no indication of whom Michael is speaking to. This is not normally a problem with other first person books, but it's clear that Michael is addressing someone, and I refuse to believe it's me. He reminds you of things a couple of times and he explains things that don't strictly need explanation. Because we're presented the exclusive viewpoint of Michael, other characters - Brian in particular - get short shrift from Maupin. This isn't a failing as much as it is a necessary evil. Just because one wants an author to overstuff a book doesn't mean that they should. Maupin shows more restraint here than he has previously.Of course, the other side of the double edged sword is that the exercise is rather more personal than any previous entry in the Tales canon. Rather like Maupin's prior effort, The Night Listener, I found myself tearing up or even outright crying at times in the last fifty pages.I welcomed this book because I considered Sure of You a huge downer to end the series on. Maupin doesn't idolise his characters, and so they sometimes make horrible decisions and become people that you can easily fall out of love with - as I did with several. The character arcs from book to book actually made me worry about reading on for fear that the characters - not Maupin - would compromise themselves.Michael Tolliver Lives is an invigorating experience. It sounds stupid, but it is "life-affirming". Maupin writes death and loss very well, having experienced it too often first hand (this series, after all, spans pre-AIDS society to "post"), but he also writes survival. His honesty is brutal, and I don't agree with every stance that Michael takes, but I don't have to. I'm touched in such a way that I don't have to internalise the whole experience. Ultimately, Michael Tolliver Lives, despite the way that it treats some characters (Mona!), feels like more of a gift from Maupin than anything else.Mary Ann in Autumn, only recently published, promises to be a return to the original format of sprawling and unlikely storylines that intertwine in vague and strange ways. Mary Ann's return as a focal character might set everything that was wrong in Sure of You right once and for all.

How delightful to read this latest Tales volume while holidaying in San Francisco - this story focuses on my favourite character Michael aka Mouse. Michael has survived the AIDS plague that ravished his friends and the community and finally found love. The story has all the classic components of Maupin's joyful prose: familiar faces, highs, lows, drama and sabotage all set against the picturesque back drop of the city by the bay. I could read this series forever alas there are only two volumes remaining. Surely time for more Armistead?!

I can't say enough good things about this book. It was phenomenal. There were times when I had to put the book down because I was crying too hard to read, and other times when it got put down so that I could stop laughing. This was an amazing come back to Michael Tolliver.

I loved the first five Tales of the City books, but the sixth book was a disappointment for me. I did not like the person Mary Ann had become after being a local celebrity went to her head. By the end of the book I quite actively disliked her. But this seventh book, set twenty years later, is about Michael, and was just as enthralling as the first five books. Unlike previous books, this one is just Michael's story, and the narrative is even in first person, his point of view. Other characters are still around of course – best friend Brian and his (and Mary Ann's) now grown daughter, Shawna, and an elderly Anna Madrigal. Thack is long gone, but Michael is still living in the same house, and is now married to the sweet and much younger Ben. Michael tells us his story with wit and deprecation. We follow him to Florida, where he visits his ailing mother and ultra-religious brother and sister-in-law. Michael refers to them as the biologicals, and his other, more accepting and loving family, the characters mentioned above, as the logicals, a term I love. My favorite quote in the book:As she fiddled with the piping on the slipcover I could see that her hands were the only place where her age was evident. I've noticed this about myself as well. We can fool ourselves about our changing faces, but our hands creep up on us. One day we look down at them and realize they belong to our grandparents. I had this exact revelation a couple of years ago, when I looked down one day and saw my grandmother's hand. Which overjoyed me, as I adored her and miss her. Mary Ann is now living in Connecticut with her second husband, but she does make a brief appearance towards the end of the book, where she and Michael have an awkward and stilted reunion (and under trying circumstances), and then she breaks down and cries and insinuates that there was more to her moving away than the advancement of her career. She's not redeemed in my eyes, and I'm hesitant to pick up the next book, MARY ANN IN AUTUMN. But I do look forward to the last book, THE DAYS OF ANNA MADRIGAL, and I cannot skip a book in a series, so I'm just going to have to trust Mr. Maupin to bring Mary Ann full circle and make me like her again. I zipped through this book in a day and a half, giving up some sleep to do so, something I don't have the energy for very often. But it was that good.

Michael Tolliver Lives: A Novel Book 7 in The Tales of the City Saga by Armistead Maupin"The only difference between comedy and tragedy is where you end the story." p. 251The first thing to know about the book is that it's 18 years after book 6. The second is that it's written from the first-person point of view - the first time Maupin uses this form of narration.We're in the middle of the AIDS pandemic, the only difference is that men are now surviving and living with it as a chronic disease: "After thirty years in the city, it's nice to be reminded that I'm still glad to be here, still glad to belong to this sweet confederacy of survivors, where men meet in front of the hardware store and talk of love and death and circle jerks as if they were discussing the weather." p. 4Michael is now 54 y/o and is married to a man 21 years his junior: Benjamin (Ben) McKenna. Michael is suffering from arthritis and other old men ailments - he needs Viagra to perform. He has a landscaping business and uses Jake Greenfiels - a FTM trans person as his partner. Brian Hawkins still owns the nursery - Plant Parenthood - and his daughter, Shawna is a queer liberal activist with her own blog and book deal. Michael has to deal with her mother - Alice - end of life crisis - which brings about issues with Michael's brother, Irwin - and Irwin's wife, Lenore.I was struck by Michael's assessment of his "biological" mother vs Anna Madrigal - the old landlady at 28 Barbary Lane who practically raised him in his life as a gay man. At one point, he's forced to chose between them. This touched me personally since I felt the same about my own biological mother: "She's spent all that time trying not to know who I am, and now she's entrusting me with her death. I should feel touched or something, but I don't. I don't feel much of anything. I let her go a long time ago. I've done my mourning already." p 116.For those of us who were used to the first six books, this one is quite different. I can see why so many fans feel betrayed. I, for one, enjoyed the book. It touched me, just like the first six did. Like all the other books in the series, this is a stand-alone book. But references to all prior six books abound and I would recommend you read the first six books before reading this one.

** spoiler alert ** I found an old review of this on one of my blogs, so I thought I'd post it.There be MAJOR spoilers.July 2007: After some intense weeks, I've used the past couple days to devour Armistead Maupin's Michael Tolliver Lives, which Maupin states in not the next of the Tales of the City books, but very much is...and very much isn't.Like all of Maupin's Tales books, MTL is a breezy read (combined total reading time = less than 24 hours, probably), and is most certainly comfort food for those of us who have read all of the Tales books. It transports us back to our 28 Barbary Lane family, as disjointed as it has become, and although it feels almost anachronistic to see these characters in the aughts rather than in the 70s and 80s where we grew up with them, it is like being back in the loving family we've always known was there.So, do you have to have read the other books to get this one. Not really, but the journey through MTL will certainly be more fun if you have, as Maupin weaves in tales from the other books, making us feel as if we are not only looking back at Michael "Mouse" Tolliver's life, but reliving our own memories of those fabled times. I think you'll get this feeling if you're only familiar with the mini-series of the first books, but you will miss some stuff that didn't occur in those mini-series.So now there be spoilers, so look away, Dorothy, look away:Michael Tolliver does indeed live, having survived the AIDS epidemic -- and what he thought was his own HIV death sentence -- to ease his way into his impending sixties. It is a little unsettling to think of Mouse as sixty, and one certainly sees Maupin when one imagines what he looks like, but when you hear the lilt of his voice and his use of "Babycakes," Maupin fades away.Mouse is a very interesting guy in his late fifties, matured and more sensible, but still suffering (albeit a little less) from his insecurities. The addition of Ben, a man who is a "whole person younger" but loves Mouse deeply, gives a nice balance to Mouse and their relationship -- while occasionally an "open" one -- is immensely stable.Mrs. Madrigal is still around and an integral part of the book. Now in her late 80s, she is more wobbly and has long since moved out of Barbary Lane. She requires help, and a Trans employee of Mouse's lives in the same building and takes care of her to some degree. It's odd to see this woman older, but she is definitely the same Mrs. Madrigal, a tough cookie who knows how to call 'em like she sees 'em.Brian Hawkins and his adult daughter are there as well, though Brian's story (especially his quest for Ishi's Cave) seems to have been given short shrift. This doesn't really bother me that much as -- like Mary Anne had -- I always found Brian to be the least interesting of the Barbary Lane characters. His grown daughter, though, fills an integral void in the old Barbary Lane set of characters.My favorite character Mona Ramsey, we learn, died of cancer years ago. Mona -- Mrs. Madrigal's daughter -- was a free spirit, trouble by her existence most of the time, but an endearing one. When I learned of Mona's death, I was heartbroken that she would not make an appearance. However, Shawna, Brian's daughter, is a free spirit of her own and almost seems an amalgam of all things good about Mona and all things that were good about Shawna's not-so-natural mother, Mary Anne. She is a great addition and keeps the spirit of Mona close at hand.The plot basically centers around the impending death of Mouse's mother, an ultra-conservative South Florida bible-thumper who once was heavily into Anita Bryant's "Save Our Children" campaign. In some ways, Mouse's mother is almost a right-wing version of Mrs. Madrigal's mother, Mother Mucca, who passed away a few books back. Michael's mother is spunky and smart-mouthed, and even though she has never approved of Mouse's "lifestyle," Maupin does manage to convey a sense of love between the two. The dynamic between Mouse's mother, his own husband Ben, his brother and his brother's Jesus freak wife, is intensely interesting. The interactions are honest, and the dialogue is only as Maupin can write...witty, but utterly lifelike. There are a few major surprises in this family dynamic, but they are ones to be savored and not revealed here.When his mother takes a turn for the worse (with only days to live), Mouse and Ben go to SFO to get on a plane. Luckily, the plane is delayed by weather, and Mouse receives a call that Mrs. Madrigal has had a heart attack. There is no hesitation when Mouse reaches the moment of decision as to which Mother's bedside he must be at, and he stays in San Francisco to be with -- and mourn -- the mother he has always really known, Mrs. Madrigal. The moment he stops in the airport and breaks down in tears for his "mother," we know it isn't the one in Florida.The coma Mrs. Madrigal has fallen into allows Maupin the time to get Mary Ann back into the picture. Mary Ann -- who selfishly left Brian and Shawna many years ago to pursue her career -- arrives and though her meeting with Brian is strained, they all know they are there for another reason. Maupin here expertly redeems Mary Ann to an extent...brings her a bit more back to who she was before she became the career-driven woman who, really, I ended up not liking at all. That's not true, I didn't like who Mary Anne had become.But with the addition of Mary Ann, Maupin has made damn sure that all the surviving tenants of 28 Barbary Lane -- and the "new" tenants of Madrigal's post-Barbary life -- are there to celebrate the passing of Mrs. Madrigal. But there is a surprise...Mrs. Madrigal -- in true Madrigal form -- doesn't die. She wakes up from her coma, proclaiming "You'll never guess where I've been, dears."If there is any qualm I have with this book, it is in this turn of events. Believe it or not, I'm a bit disheartened that Mrs. Madrigal survived. The books was so expertly built to say goodbye -- in a very loving way -- to the tenants of 28 Barbary Lane and, presumably, the series, Mrs. Madrigal's survival feels almost like an editor's note ("You can't kill Mrs. Madrigal!"). On the other hand, her survival is typical Madrigal. So, I'm torn on this ending.What I didn't care for was the last chapter. It should have put some type of button on the whole thing, but it felt rather tacked on to me. I wasn't left with a sense of nostalgia or love. In fact, I turned the page expecting to read the final sentence of the book...and I got the acknowledgments. Most of Maupin's books end with an expertly crafted sentence that imbues you with some feeling or another. This one, curiously, did not, and that let me down a bit.But, again, an excellent read. Maupin has given us back our Barbary Lane family, created a new one, and let us look back lovingly on lives we as the readers are absolutely sure we lived right along with Mouse and Mary Ann and Brian and Mona and the wonderful Mrs. Madrigal. If this is the last of the books in the Tales series...well, I'll miss them, but this is a wonderful ending to all of it. Just remember...there is no Fifth Destination.

This was as charming read, mostly light-hearted despite the melancholy undertones. The transitory and fleeting quality of life felt like the underlying topic of the book. Michael Tolliver, the 55-year old main protagonist, is easy to warm up to. The writing is engaging and effortless. It's a bitter-sweet story that celebrates the 'chosen family' as opposed to the 'biologicals'. It has an autobiographical and positively mundane feel. I found it quite funny at times and quite comforting. I liked how naturally Maupin deals with sex in general and depicts sexual activity. Though I could have done with a more in-depth-characterization of Ben, the protagonist's husband. I was entertained throughout the entire book, had several belly-laughs and towards the end I even briefly cried. In the aftermath I dreamed a very sad dream about my mother, if you must know, which wasn't too surprising, given the topic of the closing chapters. And while the ending of the book was well timed very well, I would have loved to read on and stay a little longer in Michael Tollivers world.