Armistead Maupin
Back to Barbary Lane: The Final Tales of the City Omnibus.
HarperCollinsPublishers, 1991. First printing. 0060166495 713 pages.
Volume, measuring approximately 6.5" x 9.75", is bound in dark blue cloth, with stamped silver lettering to spine and author's facsimile signature stamped in silver on front cover. Book and dust jacket, with price of $25 on front flap, are in fine condition. Dust jacket is preserved in mylar cover.
"Armistead Maupin's uproarious and moving "Tales of the City" novels have earned a unique niche in American literature and are considered indelible documents of cultural change from the seventies through the first two decades of the new millennium. The nine classic comedies, some of which originally appeared as serials in San Francisco newspapers, won Maupin critical acclaim around the world and enthralled legions of devoted fans.
"Back to Barbary Lane" comprises the second omnibus of the series—"Babycakes" (1984), "Significant Others" (1987), and "Sure of You" (1989)—continuing the saga of the tenants, past and present, of Mrs. Madrigal's beloved apartment house on Russian Hill. While the first trilogy celebrated the carefree excesses of the seventies, this volume tracks its hapless, all-too-human cast across the eighties—a decade troubled by plague, deceit, and overweening ambition.
Like its companion volumes, "28 Barbary Lane" and "Goodbye, Barbary Lane," "Back to Barbary Lane" is distinguished by what The Guardian of London has called "some of the sharpest and most speakable dialogue you are ever likely to read.""