| Title: |
Armistead Maupin |
 |
| Author: |
Patrick Gale |
| Published by: |
Absolute Press, 1999 |
| ISBN: |
1-899791-37-X [trade paperback, 152 pages] |
Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City
grew from a small San Franciscan phenomenon into a six volume novel sequence
that spawned two television miniseries and a benign global cult kept alive
by an army of fiercely obsessive fans. As well as writing subsequent novels,
Maybe the Moon and the forthcoming The Night Listener, Maupin
has become a generous champion of gay rights, accepting that what began
as an entertainment for local readers has changed people's lives across
the world. Thrown into gay politics when the Rock Hudson AIDS story first
broke, by committing one of the first acts of outing before the activity
was even a verb, he has gone on to challenge mainstream thinking on subjects
as diverse as drugs, dwarfs and gay teenagers.
Patrick Gale's Outline is a delightfully quirky
biographical tribute to his longstanding friendship with Maupin. Based
on long, candid and hilarious conversations between these two outstanding
novelists, it covers everything from Maupin's aristocratic Southern background
and extreme right wing youth to his battle to wrench open the door on the
Hollywood closet and the difficulty of sustaining a highly publicised gay
"marriage".
