Years later, a return to 'Tales of the City'

SAN FRANCISCO -- Stretched out on a sofa next to his Australian shepherd, Sophie, Armistead Maupin says he never intended to write another installment of his popular "Tales of the City" series.

But thankfully for fans worldwide, Maupin's newest book, "Michael Tolliver Lives," revisits many of the same larger-than-life characters that propelled "Tales" from a weekly San Francisco Chronicle column to six books and a Showtime mini-soap opera.

The book debuted yesterday, when Maupin kicked off a tour and Mayor Gavin Newsom declared "Michael Tolliver Day" in San Francisco. Instead of randy hippies who smoke joints, as they did when the series began in 1976, the aging lefties of "Michael Tolliver Lives" pop joint and arthritis pills. Instead of plotting nightly sexual conquests, as they did as 20-something singles, many profess shock at the level of promiscuousness practiced by today's youth.

The book -- which would certainly earn the literary equivalent of an R rating -- centers on Michael Tolliver, the endearing Southern gay man who came to San Francisco in 1971 and lived at 28 Barbary Lane. Now Michael is in his mid-50s, a mildly arthritic and HIV-positive landscape architect married to Ben, a handsome furniture designer 21 years younger.

Michael first spots Ben on an Internet dating site, and a chance meeting in a coffee shop results in romance. They get hitched over Valentine's Day weekend in 2004, when the city began granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

"I wanted to tell the story of a gay man getting older -- especially one who thought death was imminent and is now confronting normal mortality," Maupin, 63, said from his home overlooking the San Francisco Bay.

For readers looking for updates on "Tales" characters, Maupin delivers. Mary Ann, the straight-laced girl from Cleveland who moved to San Francisco to find a husband, is now a wealthy wife in Connecticut. Brian, once a sex-crazed heterosexual, is a single father uncertain whether to embrace or stifle his precocious daughter's bisexuality.

The biggest difference between "Michael Tolliver" and earlier installments is Maupin's emphasis on politics. Several chapters take place near Orlando, Fla., where Michael visits his dying mother and introduces Ben to his born-again Christian relatives.

Maupin grew up in North Carolina, served in the Vietnam War, and came to San Francisco in 1971 as a reporter for The Associated Press. The novel's political edge, he said, mirrors the polarization between red and blue America. It's also the logical result of Michael's maturity.

"We've made progress from utter invisibility 30 years ago to prominence in the cultural scene, but with that prominence has come a more rampant form of homophobia," he said. "My hope is that we're close to the time that homophobia takes on the status of racism today -- normal, mainstream people don't accept it."