Logical Family

A Memoir

De: Armistead Maupin

Narrado por: Armistead Maupin

Logical Family has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher.

Well written, like his novels.

I was the classic "Mary Ann Singleton" at the time Maupin was writing his Tales of the City daily column. In the early 1970's I was reading it every morning while riding the #41 Union bus from my Pacific Heights studio apartment to my administrative insurance job in the Embarcadero Center. I was raised in a similar background to Maupin on the East Coast. So I thoroughly related to his real life, and to his literary character, while reading this book. Like Mary Ann, I learned about gay life, pot, AIDS and more through his column, NOT experience. I enjoyed the honesty with which this book was written.

A gem of a memoir

In the late 70's, I wanted nothing more than to move to San Francisco . Armistead Maupin's books gave me a familiarity with The City that eased the transition when I finally arrived in 1980.
Logical Family filled in some of the back story, and allowed me to relive some of my own early adventures.
Simply splendid on many levels!

Ends Abruptly

I've read all of Armistead Maupin's books over the years, enjoying some much more than others, finding some absolutely delightful, and some wildly uneven. This account of the author's life kept my attention, and introduced me to a side of his early life I could barely imagine given the difference in our ages, but it glosses over areas of his life I know about, relationships, and events, and then (worse) comes to an abrupt halt with an account of his last meeting with his father. It literally ended (with years and years uncovered) and then said "Epilogue," at which point Maupin read his famous coming out letter for Michael Toliver, and then an interview followed with Neil Gaiman.

What's the rush? I would have much preferred the author was thorough and didn't gloss over so much of his story, and all I can think is he and his publisher are leaving room for a followup.

I was satisfied with the content, but disappointed with the abrupt end to it, and overall I was left disappointed.

Personal, sad, funny, and insightful.

I was far more familiar with Armistead Maupin’s books than the man himself. I can no longer say that.

In his 72 and a half years the author packed a great deal of living into his life, and shares much of it with us in this book. For me the most fascinating part of the memoir is the transformation from what he started out to be, into what he eventually became. It, shall we say, was an uncommon journey.

His spent essentially the first third of his life trying to make his father proud of him. These years led him to work for ultra conservative causes, join the military, go to Vietnam, and become involved with a number of people, including Jesse Helms, that ultimately spent their lives fighting against, what Maupin would spend the remainder of his life fighting for...LGBT rights and causes.

He didn’t come out to his parents until he was 32. Both of his parents struggled with this knowledge, especially his father, and this leads to the title of the book....the Logical Family he found for himself in the Gay Community, vs the biological family he came from. But make no mistake...Maupin dearly loved his parents and his two grandmothers.

I think this memoir is for more than just us fans of his Tales in the City books. I think anyone who is the lone liberal in a family of conservatives, anyone who has lived in San Francisco, anyone interested in the evolution of Gay Culture, and anyone trying to break free of the world’s expectations of them and come into their own...this is a book for you.

Maupin makes me think a bit of Forest Gump...he was in so many pivotal places in history, and came into contact with so many iconic people....from Harvey Milk to Nixon, from Rock Hudson to Jesse Helms. He grew up in North Carolina, in the pre civil rights days, he’s lived in New York, and has been in San Francisco since the bathhouse days, through the AIDS crisis, all the way through now when wide spread gentrification has made it impossible for the quirky low income folk to live on the same block as the society folk as it was in the 1970s and as it was depicted in the Tales series.

He has seen eras, and so many people, come and go. And he tells the story of all this with his unique insight from having been on both sides of it...the conservative and the liberal.

At the end of the recording is an interview of the author by Neil Gaiman. It starts out really slow when Gaiman asks him questions that were already answered in the book. But Gaiman finds his footing and the conversation between the two writers becomes both quite interesting and quite touching.

Enjoyable

Love learning about our history through the eyes of someone who lived it. Very enjoyable and I encourage all to read/listen