Mary Ann in Autumn

Mary Ann in Autumn by Armistead Maupin  287 pp.

This is the latest installment in Maupin's Tales of the City series. All the old characters who hadn't died in previous books return to this one. Mary Ann, now 57, returns to San Francisco to visit Michael after her second marriage fails and she is diagnosed with cancer. The now frail Mrs. Madrigal no longer lives at 28 Barbary Lane but shares a condo with Jake, a transgendered gardener going through transition. Michael is living with the love of his life, the much younger Ben, and Roman, the Labradoodle. Add Shawna, Mary Ann's estranged adopted daughter, her clown boyfriend, Otto, and a crazy drug addict homeless woman named Leia and you have classic Maupin. The lives of all these people intersect in a myriad of ways and a mystery from the early days of 28 Barbary Lane is solved. Will the story continue in another volume? I hope so. I couldn't put this one down.