Rating: 
Summary: Why aren't you reading this book!
Review: Judging from the number of reviews posted for "Tales of the City", poeple obviously read that book and loved it. Yet no one chooses to comment on volume 2? READ IT! It's even more sick and twisted than the first. If that's possibel.
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Summary: Construction Through De-Construction
Review: Like the first reviewer below, I can't understand why more people don't review this great book. Though not as wonderful as his first (what could be!?), Maupin's second in the Tales of the City series is light-hearted, funny, exticing, and well worth noting.As he does in the first novel, Maupin continues constructing a close-knit community of caring individuals while simultaneously deconstructing the beliefs and institutions in which people across the globe have put their faith in for centuries: the family, the church, gender identity, sexual orientation identity, racial identity, and even individual identity. The reader is forced to ask her/himself if the only family is the traditional "nuclear" family, if people can have faith in a church which is capable of supporting the philosophies of a bizzare cult, if fathers must be men, if love and families can only occur with a man and a woman at their centers, if "true" friends and families can only consist of a single race, and even if a man suffering from amnesia can have faith in his identity as an individual. When faced with "no" as the answer to these and other questions posed in the novel, the reader might expect the community to collapse with the disintegration of its beliefs. However, the novel has a happy ending. Why? Because what are left after the traditional structures of society have been broken down are, quite plainly, people. More important than any of the fragile constructs of our environment is learning how to learn from and get along with those others who share the planet with us, which is a task these wonderful characters understand. An funny, mysterious, and exciting novel of caring and understanding, *More Tales of the City* is as much worth reading as its predecessor. Revel in the story and its loving depiction of the ups and downs of its characters. READ IT. Read it for the message, read it for the style, read it for the characters, but read it for the stories most of all. If you learn a little about life along the way (and its inevitable), you're all the better off.
Rating: 
Summary: I want to live there, too!
Review: Maupin just does such a great job of bringing these eccentric characters to life; you find yourself wanting to wander San Francisco to meet them for yourself, to find out what's happened to them recently! So interesting, so quirky, so... San Francisco!!
Rating:
Summary: Cloyingly Good
Review: Maupin's followup novel to "Tales of The City", imaginatively titled "More Tales of The City", has most of the characters of the first and a few new ones most notably Mary Ann's amnesiac lover. The focus, however, of this novel is on developing the characters that we saw in the first Tales, namely Mary Ann, Mouse, Brian, Mona, and of course Anna Madrigal. This instance of Maupin has all his signature plot twists, and I won't reveal them for fear of ruining a perfectly good story. This novel is entertaining, but not as engaging as the first. I'm not sure why this is the case. But I believe the discrepancy is caused by the constant plot twists (the "shockers") that Maupin inserts into his stories. After a while, even the best candy becomes cloying, and by the second Tales, the reader has consumed plenty. Another quibble is that even after two novels, I still don't understand the characters. At this point they are all friendly acquaintances that are far too witty for their own good.
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Summary: Nancy Drew with a big, angry heart
Review: Maupin's second novel retains all the virtues of the first _Tales of the City_, while strengthening the one weak link in the first book: plot. _More Tales of the City_ resolves the dramatic deficiencies of the first _Tales_ by featuring an interlocking set of mostly tongue-in-cheek mysteries. The sleuthing is mostly of the Nancy Drew variety, but the mysteries are well developed, and various clues and revelations are deftly spaced throughout the novel. Of course, there is a larger point: Many of these tales address the rise of religious fundamentalism (and the subsequent decline of public tolerance) during the late 1970s. Michael Tolliver--the only character not directly involved in dime-novel shenanigans--gets the novel's one truly affecting scene: his letter to Mom and Dad forms the thematic and emotional core of the book.
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Summary: Stay where you are Mouse, I'm coming over
Review: OK, so it's not quiiiiiiite as good as the first one. But make no mistake about it - Michael Tolliver's coming out letter to his parents is one of the most significant, inspiring, empassioned, and beautifully articulated passages in the history of gay literature, and should be required reading for every gay man and woman, their friends, their parents, their families - and especially the Christian Right. It's worth the cover price alone for this stunning passage. But beyond that, there's still a heap of fun to be had by all; the seventies are beautifully evoked in all their carefree splendour, and Mouse remains one of the loveliest characters in modern fiction. Like a good wine, the series gets better with time. Savour it.
Rating:
Summary: A wondeful journey continues
Review: Reading the 'Tales of the City'-Series was such a wonderful experience I could easily repeat it as much as I could. Maupin's style is so great and terrific, it's strange I hadn't heard of him that much, before I read it. The characters are surely some of the best ones ever created in literary history. The developement of the storyline is so surprising and unexpectable it's breath-taking. The twists and turns are so effective, because you seem to know the characters so well, and never had thought... well, you have to explore the secrets by yourself. I have never seen such a developement of characters. The same persons are totally different in the last book than in the first one. It's great. I won't rate every book differently, although they are very different. But they are so great alltogether and so well-connected it's hard to tell them apart. This is wonderful stuff!
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious and intriguing
Review: San Francisco hasn't change much since Armistead Maupin wrote the series. He has done a great job of capturing the mystery that is San Francisco.
Rating:
Summary: The high point of the series.
Review: The characters are at their strongest, most loveable, and most believable. (And in this series, that says a lot!) I think this is probably the most serious of the six books, which is probably why I love it the best. There are still humorous moments, but More Tales deals with issues: coming out to parents (and I agree with the reviewer who said Michael's letter to his parents should be required reading!), the formation of a relationship between a young woman and the father who abandoned her as a small child, the acceptance of mixed-race children (and racial issues more generally, as we see more of D'orothea), and the very literal search for identity in the case of one character suffering from amnesia. Mahvelous, dahlink! :)
Rating:
Summary: A great follow-up to the classic satire!
Review: The tenants at 28 Barbary Lane are back! This time they take their adventures abroad. Each character goes through one dilemma after another, making the novel as hilarious as the original! Who could forget Mona, Mary Ann, Michael and the unforgettable landlady, Anna Madrigal? Tales of the City is a satire of homosexuality in San Francisco during the Seventies -- yes, the books were written during that era -- and you read such old slang words like "Far out!" You appreciate the fact that this book was written during the times when beards, afros and the slang word "far out" were considered, well, far out:-) Maupin has great attention to detail and an ear for witty dialogue. I look forward to reading the rest of the Tales of the City series.
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