Product Description

The characters that filled the pages of the three earlier "Tales of the City" books with love and laughter are at it again, as an ordinary house-husband and his ambitious wife discover there's more to making a baby than meets the eye. Unexpected help arrives in the form of a British monarch, a grieving gay neighbour, and an international ring of mail-order brides. Armistead Maupin has written a comedy of manners for our times.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41884 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-19
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
More campy sit-com and soap from San Francisco - as Maupin (Tales of the City, More Tales, Further Tales) continues the sigh-and-giggle adventures of gay Michael, a.k.a. "Mouse," and his best pal, TV-newscaster Mary Ann, a.k.a. "Babycakes." Michael, still grieving over the AIDS death of a lover-turned-soulmate, is gloomy and celibate these days; so Mary Ann urges him to take a trip to London - where he can stay in the empty apartment of their new acquaintance Simon, a smoothly handsome Britisher (he once double-dated with Lady Di) who has fled from his official duties aboard the yacht of Queen Elizabeth II (who's visiting S.F.). London's something of a disappointment, however: Simon's apartment is a slummy mess, the gay-bar scene is depressing, Michael still recoils from sex (despite soulful advances from teenager Wilfred). And then, after witnessing a cartoonish murder and discovering the truth about Simon's parentage, Michael gets yet another shock: he spots old lesbian pal Mona - and laboriously trails her to a country-house where she's about to enter a lucrative marriage-of-convenience with young Lord Roughton, the one "with substantial gold tit rings in both his nipples." (Lord R. wants to become a US citizen, free to "wag weenie" in San Francisco.) Meanwhile, what's with Mary Ann back home? Well, she's finally decided to go ahead and get pregnant, largely to please husband Brian - only to discover that Brian (who's in the dark) is sterile. The solution: fertilization by dear Simon, who's staying in Michael's apartment - resulting in great sex for Mary Ann, hurt feelings for Simon, rage for Brian (who's been resisting seduction by "rock widow" Theresa). . . but no pregnancy. So there won't be a happy ending till one of Mary Ann's pals conveniently dies in childbirth, providing a baby for the couple by the time Michael comes home from England. With the usual sort of jokes (Calvin Klein Condoms, the state of lesbian life in Seattle) and the usual bitchy/maudlin, preachy/vulgar mixture of tones: a hard-working sequel for readers already devoted to Mouse, Babycakes, their transsexual landlady, and the rest of the Russian Hill crowd. (Kirkus Reviews)

From the Back Cover
‘May well be the funniest series of novels currently in progress…Maupin’s ear for dialogue is as acute as his feeling for characterization, and the net result is as engaging a read as you are likely to encounter in many moons’
The Times

The characters that filled the pages of the three earlier Tales of the City books with love and laughter are at it again, as an ordinary house-husband and his ambitious wife discover there's more to making a baby than meets the eye.Unexpected help arrives in the form of a British monarch, a grieving gay neighbour, and an international ring of mail-order brides.Armistead Maupin has written a comedy of manners for our times.

About the Author
Armistead Maupin was born in Washington, D.C. in 1944 but was brought up in Raleigh, North Carolina. A graduate of the University of North Carolina, he served as a naval officer in Vietnam before moving to California in 1971 as a reporter for the Associated Press. In 1976 he launched his daily newspaper serial, Tales of the City, in the San Francisco Chronicle. The first fiction to appear in an American daily for decades, Tales grew into an international sensation when compiled and rewritten as novels. Maupin's six-volume Tales of the City sequence - Tales of the City, More Tales of the City, Further Tales of the City, Babycakes, Significant Others and Sure of You - are now multi-million bestsellers published around the world. He is also the author of two other bestselling novels, Maybe the Moon and The Night Listener, which was recently made into a film starring Robin Williams and Toni Collette. He lives in San Francisco, California. Official Author Web Site: www.ArmisteadMaupin.com

Customer Reviews

A Great Starting point for Armistead Maupin
This was the first Armistead Maupin book I read, and it blew my socks off.
The story is great for the 'romantic'gay person, who are you? Michael? or Jon?..a FAB read that will make you want to start from Tales of the City, like I did.

Flawless
It's hard to judge these books individually, infact it's somewhat impossible. I have read this series many times over the last ten years and each time they have a different meaning, whether it's a new discovery or a shift in sympathy for a different character.
This book marks a significant change in the lives of the characters and also in Maupin's style. The humour and satire are present as always but a very obvious maturity is seen both in the residents of Barbary Lane and the political climate, with the advent of HIV/AIDS in the early 80's under American Rebublic rule.
Despite the significant change in the characters, they remain as friendly. heartwarming and delightfuly familiar as always.

a classic !!
Babycakes is just one in the Tales of the City series of books. The whole 'Tales' series is absolutely amazing and you'll find it difficult to put them down once you've started reading.
The chapters are very short which means that these books are perfect for reading on the tube or when you have only a short time to read in one sitting. Each chapter will generally focus on a specific character in the book of which there are several and these are followed throughout the whole series.

Do start with 'Tales of the City' book first, as the books do run in sequence.

The first three books have been made into films and part of them were screened on television several years ago. However the DVD's are available on amazon.com (the american amazon website) but only in region 1 unfortunately. Many DVD players do now play region 1 but need to check on your machine first before ordering them from amazon's amercian website.