Poor Mary Anne. She found out pretty soon that she wasn’t in Kansas anymore. Or whatever Midwestern state it was she was from.
No sooner did she find an apartment than the landlady taped a marijuana joint to the door, and the one guy she liked at the Marina Safeway–a spot where the young and hip cruised for dates–just happened to be with his boyfriend.
So begins Armistead Maupin’s popular “Tales of the City” series, written as a newspaper serial in the San Francisco Examiner and later made into six books.
Although written in the 1970s and acknowledged as an unequivocal barometer of the time, the collected sagas of a very diverse group of people living in an apartment house at 28 Barbary Lane retain their popularity–and poignancy. “Tales of the City” is sort of like a New Age soap opera.
When PBS converted it to a TV series last year, the books once again shot up the best-seller charts.
Even so, I can’t imagine reading Maupin’s books is half as much fun as listening to Recorded Book’s Barbara Rosenblat perform them.
The company started the series last year and has so far turned out “Tales of the City” (9 3/4 hours, $59 purchase, $16.50 rental, phone 800-638-1304), “More Tales of the City” (9 3/4 hours, $54 purchase, $16.50 rental) and “Further Tales of the City” (10 3/4 hours, $62 purchase, $16.50 rental).
Rosenblat, a ham down to her toes, is the perfect choice for this witty collection–a kind of comedy that’s sometimes sweet, sometimes subversive. She plays each of the characters to the hilt–if she had turned her efforts to languages instead of voices, she’d be an ace for the Central Intelligence Agency today.
Harper has produced abridgments of all six titles (each 3 hours and $17.95). But with Maupin as the narrator, they just don’t cut it. He writes much better than he speaks.
But in Rosenblat’s rendition, listening to the characters is like making a whole new group of friends. When she closed the final chapter of “Tales of the City,” I missed them all.
FAST FORWARD: For inspiration in life, take your choice between two recordings that trace family success stories. “Maggie’s American Dream” (abridged to 3 hours, $16.95, Penguin HighBridge), is James P. Comer’s book about his mother, who as an illiterate African-American moved north to escape poverty and abuse. She worked as a domestic, and her five children earned a total of 13 college degrees. Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee read.
Similarly, “The Ditchdigger’s Daughter” (abridged to 3 hours, $16.95, Nova), by Yvonne S. Thornton, is the story of her father, who inspired his daughters to succeed. Two became doctors, one a dentist, one a lawyer, one a nurse and one a court stenographer. Fran Washington reads.
