Rating: 
Summary: Its Gets Better with the Second Book...
Review: With Book Two - More Tales of the City - the gloves start to come off! "Tales of the City" told us a story and introduced us to our characters. Now things really start to happen to them in "More Tales." They're put under pressure. They betray one another. They're there for one another. They find love. They lose love. They live. They die. "More Tales" is slices of life at its near best. While, in some cases, this starts to give the book more of a "soap-opera" character (something that, to be fair, the series IS), because of the introduction and story in "Tales" you largely care about what will happen next. Again, "More Tales" is written as social and historical commentary (whether Maupin meant it that way or not) and now the books have an even more interesting nostalgic twinge to them as you can compare your thoughts and your actions to events the characters are going through that you remember from your own life even if you've never been to San Francisco. Maupin has a way with dialog and characters somehow. While there are times when his PLOT is contrived and fantastical, how his characters get through it always seems to be rather on the mark. Finally, no review of this work is complete without mentioning the chapter "Letter to Mama." This one chapter - two pages - is worth the price of the entire book and I personally know two families whom that chapter has helped "pave the way." It is required reading for any child (of any age) who has yet to come out to their parents and is still trying to figure out how to do it, and if its worth it. It is. Let Mouse show you why.
Rating:
Summary: Its Gets Better with the Second Book...
Review: With Book Two - More Tales of the City - the gloves start to come off! "Tales of the City" told us a story and introduced us to our characters. Now things really start to happen to them in "More Tales." They're put under pressure. They betray one another. They're there for one another. They find love. They lose love. They live. They die. "More Tales" is slices of life at its near best. While, in some cases, this starts to give the book more of a "soap-opera" character (something that, to be fair, the series IS), because of the introduction and story in "Tales" you largely care about what will happen next. Again, "More Tales" is written as social and historical commentary (whether Maupin meant it that way or not) and now the books have an even more interesting nostalgic twinge to them as you can compare your thoughts and your actions to events the characters are going through that you remember from your own life even if you've never been to San Francisco. Maupin has a way with dialog and characters somehow. While there are times when his PLOT is contrived and fantastical, how his characters get through it always seems to be rather on the mark. Finally, no review of this work is complete without mentioning the chapter "Letter to Mama." This one chapter - two pages - is worth the price of the entire book and I personally know two families whom that chapter has helped "pave the way." It is required reading for any child (of any age) who has yet to come out to their parents and is still trying to figure out how to do it, and if its worth it. It is. Let Mouse show you why.
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