MADRIGAL MAGIC

ARMISTEAD MAUPIN, AUTHOR OF THE ICONIC TALES OF THE CITY SERIES, TALKS TO ULI LENART ABOUT HIS EAGERLY ANTICIPATED NEW NOVEL, THE DAYS OF ANNA MADRIGAL, THE NINTH AND FINAL BOOK IN THE BESTSELLING SERIES

Armistead Maupin says goodbye to Mrs Madrigal

The novel centres on Anna Madrigal, the legendary transgender former landlady of 28 Barbary Lane, now 92 and committed to the notion of “leaving like a lady” as she embarks on a road trip that will take her deep into her past.

There is extraordinary affection for the Tales of the City series and huge adoration for the character of Anna Madrigal in particular. Was this in the back of your mind when you were writing this latest novel?

Oh, sure. I knew this was going to be the last novel in the series, so I wanted to land the plane gracefully, so to speak, without skidding off the aircraft carrier into the ocean. I wanted to honour the truth of the characters, especially Anna, without disappointing the people who had come to know her. It made for slow-going while I was writing. Finally, Anna herself gave me permission to just let it happen when she said toward the end of the novel, “There will be no tidying up, dear.”

In the new book we finally get to see into Anna Madrigal’s past. Can you tell us a little about her back story?

Her boyhood happened in a brothel in Winnemucca, Nevada, where a hooker named Margaret recognised Anna/ Andy’s transgender nature and made space for it. The novel explores Anna’s crush on a local Basque boy and the grim consequences of that. I go back and forth between past and present as a mystery develops and we learn why Anna wants to return to Winnemucca after 75 years. It was curiously freeing to write about the 1930s, but I had to make clever use of internet research, since that was a little before my time. It’s amazing what you can find if you Google “1930’s whorehouse menu.” I learned, for instance, the expression “dry bob”.

We also catch up with the new generation of characters as well as familiar figures such as Michael, Mary Ann and Brian. Your characters may be older now, but would you say they are any wiser?

That’s for the reader to decide. All of these people are so much a part of my own psyche that I can’t make impartial judgments about them. I think most of us just become more like ourselves as we get older, though there may be some wisdom involved in knowing that there’s nothing you can do about that.

The Days of Anna Madrigal is the ninth and final book in the Tales of the City series. Why was it right for you to end the series with this book?

Truthfully, I was ready to move on. The cast was getting a bit long in the tooth, as am I, and I had concerns about having to create realistic younger characters. I remember when Dodie Smith, the

“Coming out opens your mind as well as your heart. If you come out the right way, empathy becomes a skill, and that skill is tremendously valuable to writers”

wonderful author of I Capture the Castle and The Hundred and One Dalmatians, tried to write about flower children in the late 60s and it rang dreadfully false. Pathetic, really, and something to be avoided at all costs. I think nine makes a nice round number – three trilogies, in effect – and I’m ready to explore new avenues.

Do you think that your readers relate to your characters as real people?

They tell me they do. “A reunion with old friends” is the phrase I hear most often. That’s good news, of course, because all writers are Dr Frankensteins, frantically assembling parts until someone shouts, “It’s Alive!” Which of your characters would you say are the most autobiographical? Michael is the obvious one, but all of my characters contain elements of own experience. This time around it wasn’t all that difficult to feel 92 when I was writing about Anna. You use what you have and disguise it the best you can.

Is it true that you started writing the Tales of City series in 1974, the year you came out? What inspired you to start writing at that point?

Coming out opens your mind as well as your heart. If you come out the right way, empathy becomes a skill, and that skill is tremendously valuable to writers. By the same token, a writer who wants to impersonate all his characters must be a little transgender at heart.

How does gay life in the 21st century compare with life in the early Tales of the City books?

Magazines don’t get as sticky as they used to.

What, for you, is the legacy of the Tales of the City series?

Not for me to say, really. I hope my work brought LGBT life into the big, messy swirl of humanity. I hope I made queers love themselves more and get pissed off about oppression. I hope I told a good story.

Olympia Dukakis has hinted at a screen return for Anna Madrigal. Is a new Tales of the City television series a real possibility?

Not yet, but there are some rumblings. I’ll keep you posted.

This year you celebrate your 70th birthday. What piece of advice would you give if you could go back in time and meet yourself as a young man?

Concentrate on loving more than being loved, and both things will come to you.

You are going to be over in the UK for a book tour this February. What have you got planned and where can people find out more information about your tour and new book?

My tour is on my website at armisteadmaupin. com. Most venues, however, are already sold out. How can I not love the land of my ancestors?

The Last Days of Anna Madrigal by Armistead Maupin is published by Doubleday Books and is out now