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Mary Ann in Autumn: a Tales of the City Novel

Mary Ann in Autumn: a Tales of the City Novel by Armistead Maupin Doubelday HK$208

What started as a newspaper column in the San Francisco Chronicle about the everyday travails of Mary Ann Singleton in 1976 led to the popular Tales of the City book series, of which this novel is the eighth instalment.

Centred from the first book on the then naive Mary Ann - a fresh-faced arrival in the Bay city - the stories delved into the edgy and heart-warming lives of a disparate group of friends (and sometimes enemies), their relationships and personal demons in a city where re-invention and 'finding oneself' was paramount.

At the time, the books captured a moment in history when an alternative or non-judgmental lifestyle was still largely misunderstood outside of such places as the Castro area of San Francisco. Maupin managed to create believable and loveable characters to which we could all relate, delving into their psyches and giving an insight into not just their lives but the complexities of the human condition.

This instalment brings the reader back to the scene some 20 years after Mary Ann left her adopted daughter, husband and loyal friends to follow her ambitious television dreams to New York.

Mary Ann, now 57 and struggling with two devastating revelations in her personal life, finds San Francisco a place where varied past experiences and incidences lurk on every street corner. Its bittersweet memories force her to look at how she plans to live and love (as one of Mary Ann's old friends says about their younger lives in the city, 'We know where the bodies are buried').

Readers also get to revisit Anna Madrigal, the gentle and wise transgender landlady who was the centrepiece of Mary Ann's early life in the city.

In the earlier books, Madrigal was the sort of landlady who taped a marijuana joint to new tenants' front doors when they moved in. Now she is much older, but still bright with wit and wisdom.

However, she plays a much smaller role in this. Instead, the plot focuses on a few new personalities and Mary Ann's struggles, culminating in a surprisingly scary twist appearing at the final hour.

Maupin also explores the lives of Mary Ann's adopted daughter Shawna - a sex blogger - and best friend Michael Tolliver, a now ageing, dog-loving landscape gardener with a younger boyfriend. All the coincidences and subplots reveal themselves to be interlinked to the past and the present, allowing Mary Ann to move forward and reconnect with those she had guiltily avoided for many years.

Redemption, friendship, love and modern dramas are the hallmark of Maupin's series and fans won't be disappointed. But this has slow moments, perhaps in keeping with the fact the protagonist is no longer an ingenue. Either way, it's a fun and lighthearted read for all seasons.

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