28 Barbary Lane: The Tales of the City Omnibus

"These novels are as difficult to put down as a dish of pistachios. The reader starts playing the old childhood game of 'Just one more chapter and I'll turn out the lights,' only to look up and discover it's after midnight." -- Charles Solomon, Los Angeles Times Book Review Armistead Maupin's uproarious and moving Tales of the City novels--the first three of which are collected in the is omnibus edition--have earned a unique niche in American literature, not only as matchless entertainment, but as indelible documents of cultural change in the seventies and eighties. When originally serialized in the San Francisco Chronicle, Tales of the City (1978), More Tales of the City (1980) and Futher Tales of the City (1982) afforded a mainstream audience of millions its first exposure to straight and gay characters experiencing on equal terms the follies of urban life. Among the cast of this groundbreaking saga are the lovelorn residents of 28 Barbary Lane: the bewildered but aspiring Mary Ann Singleton, the libidinous Brain Hawkins; Mona Ramsey, still in a sixties trance, Michael "Mouse" Tolliver, forever in bright-eyed pursuit of Mr. Right; and their marijuana-growing landlady, the indefatigable Mrs. Madrigal. Hurdling barriers both social and sexual, Maupin leads them through heartbreak and triumph, through mail-biting terrors and gleeful coincidences. The result is a glittering and addictive comedy of manners that continues to beguile new generations of readers. With a foreword by the author.