Scan barcode
A review by cleo_reads
Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
2.5
2.5 stars? I don't know how to rate this - this soapy, catty novel about life in 1970s San Francisco is a queer classic but some things in it really, really didn't age well and they kind of ruined the whole book for me.
This novel started as a serial in a newspaper and that shows in the short chapters and also in the insane number of plot twists and reveals. It also started out surprisingly straight given that I read it because it's a queer classic - but it gets very queer as it goes on.
This is set in the 70s and was written in the 70s. To me it feels like a book that was ahead of its time in its sympathetic portrayal of LGBT characters but kind of behind ours in some ways, especially in terms of dealing with race and sexual abuse / harassment. Although not as far behind our times as we'd maybe like to believe.
Most of the characters are white and the casual racism is shocking and also written in a way that shows that the author doesn't approve of it. Butthere's one character who's Black but is revealed to actually be white and I found that whole sub plot to be really cringey.
Trigger warnings:
suicide, racism, fat shaming, lot of drug use, one character is revealed to be a child pornographer (more details below)
More details on the thing that ruined the story for me:
One character turns out to be a child pornographer. He's portrayed as a creep but it's also kind of played for laughs. And we meet the child he's abusing before we know what's going on. This may not be a deal breaker for most readers but it was for me.
This novel started as a serial in a newspaper and that shows in the short chapters and also in the insane number of plot twists and reveals. It also started out surprisingly straight given that I read it because it's a queer classic - but it gets very queer as it goes on.
This is set in the 70s and was written in the 70s. To me it feels like a book that was ahead of its time in its sympathetic portrayal of LGBT characters but kind of behind ours in some ways, especially in terms of dealing with race and sexual abuse / harassment. Although not as far behind our times as we'd maybe like to believe.
Most of the characters are white and the casual racism is shocking and also written in a way that shows that the author doesn't approve of it. But
Trigger warnings:
More details on the thing that ruined the story for me:
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse