Review: Armistead Maupin's "Mary Ann in Autumn" is Like Tea with an Old Friend

Armistead Maupin

Whenever an artist revisits a popular work for a sequel decades after its initial popularity, it's fashionable for critics to rip it apart, basically saying, "You can't go home again."

But that only works when the work in question truly does suck — like, say, George Lucas' three Star Wars prequels.

Armistead Maupin's latest return to his landmark and influential Tales of the City series of books, originally a newspaper serial in the 1970s that later became three different TV mini-series, is Mary Ann in Autumn (Harper, $25.99), which was released this week.

It's a solid entry, a very pleasant read that stands up nicely alongside the first six books.

Truthfully, I was a little disappointed in Armistead's last, and seventh, return to the Tales characters, 2007's Michael Toliver Lives!, which felt a little self-indulgent. Basically, it seemed like it was Maupin was telling his own story, not necessarily that of Michael ("Mouse") Tolliver. (In fairness to Maupin, he insisted for a long time that it wasn't intended to be a Tales book.)

Anyway, Maupin is working on a little broader canvas here, and the result is much more reminiscent of the books that made him famous.

At the same time, the familiar characters are definitely different, befitting the passage of time: they're older, sadder, and maybe just a very little wiser.

After more than 20 years away, Mary Ann, now age 57, has returned to San Francisco from Connecticut to stay with Mouse, who has a new life with his younger partner, Ben. Mary Ann, who was initially the series' naive "point-of-view" character who introduced readers to the weird and wonderful world of San Francisco in the 1970s, has received two pieces of very bad news: she has cancer, and her husband is cheating on her.

In other words, she definitely not as naive and optimistic as she was before.

As she struggles to make sense of her life, she leans on her old soul-mate, Mouse, even as she's haunted by a ghost from the past. Meanwhile, her and Ben's lives intersect with a cast of characters including Jake, Michael's transgender assistent, who meets a confused Mormon Missionary who had first come to town to advocate for Proposition 8. We also follow Mary Ann's estranged daughter Shawna, now a sex blogger, who is determined to track down the identity of a mysterious homeless woman she accidentally befriends on the street.

And of course there is Anna Madrigal who, at age 83, is growing increasingly frail, but is still popping out sage advice like a Pez dispenser.

It's not just Maupin's easy, readable style of writing that makes the book seem reminiscent of his older works. As he's done with past books, a central mystery ends up connecting many of the storylines. It might be a tad preposterous if you think about it too closely, but if you've enjoyed Maupin's plot machinations in his previous books, you'll like this one too. It also gives the book a nice structure and a satisfying conclusion.

But the real draw to the book is, of course, Mary Ann, who is at once very familiar and also very different. Mary Ann in Autumn (which is the perfect title) is like a visit with an old friend. I definitely recommend sitting down for a cup of tea with her.