Armistead Maupin is a literary legend. In fact when it comes to gay fiction his Tales of the City series is arguably the best-known and most-loved the world has known. He has a new book on the shelves ‘Mary Ann in Autumn’.
The latest in the Tales of the City series takes place after Mary Ann Singleton returns to San Francisco at age 57 to face a number of personal issues. Last we’d heard, Singleton left her husband and stepdaughter to pursue a glamorous career in television in New York.
‘I really wanted to offer some hope of redemption for Mary Ann,’ Maupin told OUTinPerth when asked about the reasons behind the new novel.
‘The question I get asked most often is why is Mary Ann such a bitch?’
No doubt that will be one of the questions Maupin will be asked when he appears at the Perth Writer’s Festival. Chances are he’ll also be quizzed on the difficulties of writing a character who has aged 20 years since readers were last able to peer into Mary Ann’s complicated but loveable life.
‘[Mary Ann] is part of my genetic make-up, I’ve been writing about her for 37 years,’ Maupin offered by way of explanation.
‘Most writers use bits of themselves in their characters, and there are certainly parts of me in Mary Ann’.
Maupin admitted to injecting significant amounts of his own character into the Tales of the City matriarch, Anna Madrigal. In Mary Ann in Autumn, Madrigal is a frail, elderly woman. When asked how difficult it was to age such a beloved character, Maupin admits it was confronting.
‘It’s not at all easy writing about Anna in that way, I can’t distance myself from it,’ he said.
‘To a certain degree her mortality is a representation of my mortality …’
Maupin’s ‘Tales of the City’ broke new ground on its release thanks to the open and frank way it looked at the evolution of San Francisco’s gay community through the 1970s and ’80s.
Not only did it spawn a string of international best-sellers, but also three incredible television series.
While the author has no firm plans at this stage to add to the series in print form, he is hard at work on a stage adaptation of the work with none other than The Scissor Sisters.
Due to open in San Francisco in May this year, Maupin is hoping the show will be successful enough to tour the globe.
‘It really is a wonderful experience, a completely different medium,’ he said of the as-yet unnamed show.
‘There’s a very dedicated team of people working on it.’
An Evening with Armistead Maupin is part of The Perth Writers Festival and happens Sunday March 6 at the Octagon Theatre.
Scott Abrahams courtesy of Star Observer
