Maupin is a gifted story teller. His memoir packs much into 289 pages.... Humorous and poignant by turns.
Charlotte News & Observer
A book for any of us, gay or straight, who have had to find our family. Maupin is one of America’s finest storytellers, and the story of his life is a story as fascinating, as delightful and as compulsive as any of the tales he has made up for us.
A sweetly frank and funny memoir by a storyteller in the first rank.
It is easy to understand Maupin’s reputation for geniality, given his openheartedness as a person and his honesty as a writer; and that will make this delightful chronicle attractive to a wide range of readers, whether they’re familiar with his fiction or not.
An enormously talented writer—witty but always sympathetic, generous in showing us the secrets of his heart.... By writing about what’s seemingly different Armistead Maupin always manages to capture what’s so hilariously painfully true for all of us.
Maupin deftly illustrates how far America and the pioneering Anna have come, and nearly 40 years into the [Tales of the City] series, his writing remains wildly addictive but is deeper and richer.
Together, the nine volumes of ‘Tales’ constitute a cultural touchstone that has enlarged our understanding of the varieties of human behavior…. ‘Tales of the City’ remains an immensely readable accomplishment that wears its significance lightly.
Together, the nine volumes of ‘Tales’ constitute a cultural touchstone that has enlarged our understanding of the varieties of human behavior…. ‘Tales of the City’ remains an immensely readable accomplishment that wears its significance lightly.
It is easy to understand Maupin’s reputation for geniality, given his openheartedness as a person and his honesty as a writer; and that will make this delightful chronicle attractive to a wide range of readers, whether they’re familiar with his fiction or not.
Logical Family gives selflessly of such heartrending experience as it journeys through Maupin’s life.
Maupin is a gifted story teller. His memoir packs much into 289 pages.... Humorous and poignant by turns.
A consummate entertainer who has made a generation laugh... It is Maupin’s Dickensian gift to be able to render love convincingly.
The unflinchingly honest, often humorous, and ultimately powerful memoir of one of the most influential American writers of our time.
Logical Family is a beautiful memoir — so tender and funny and dignified and kind that it left me a little weepy.
Master storyteller Armistead Maupin — the man who defined the difference between ‘a biological family’ and ‘a logical family,’ who is both gifted with fearless art and the ability to speak for millions — finally tells his own story. Logical Family is a sweet, filthy peach of a memoir from a cultural explosion of a man.
Maupin is a sympathetic and soulful storyteller. His account of a past struggle for equality is especially important in our fraught present.
Wise, witty, and beautifully told.
Engaging and revelatory, Maupin’s memoir is a delight, punctuating a distinguished career in letters.
I fell in love with Maupin’s effervescent Tales of the City decades ago, and his genius turn at memoir is no less compelling. Logical Family is a must read.
Entertaining…. Wry and sharply drawn…. There is a good deal of what one expects from Maupin, wit and heartache rolled up into a tidy package, so that any anecdote can bring an ache of longing and a belly laugh all in the same paragraph. There is also vivid, sharp writing.
New York Times Book Review
★ 08/14/2017 The celebrated author of Tales of the City series revisits his turbulent upbringing and path to self-actualization in this engrossing and emotional memoir. Born in North Carolina into a bigoted family that revered its Confederate history, Maupin seemed set for a career working with Jesse Helms in the archconservative media. But after coming to terms with his sexuality while serving as a Navy officer, Maupin moved to San Francisco a few years before the dawn of the LGBTQ-rights movement, where he would eventually write his iconic queer series. Maupin plays fast and loose with his timeline, jumping fluidly back and forth between decades, but never muddies his waters—in fact, the story is told with such clarity that even those unfamiliar with Maupin’s work can appreciate his life experiences. He had steamy trysts with Rock Hudson as well as a long-standing friendship with Ian McKellan, but the true prize here is the cleverness with which Maupin bares his soul. Maupin ties the bonds of joy and heartache he shares with both his families (biological and “logical”), and in so doing he has crafted a nuanced reflection on what it means to love and be loved in a flawed but beautiful world. Includes b&w photos. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM. (Oct.)
A sweetly frank and funny memoir by a storyteller in the first rank.” — O Magazine
“Entertaining…. Wry and sharply drawn…. There is a good deal of what one expects from Maupin, wit and heartache rolled up into a tidy package, so that any anecdote can bring an ache of longing and a belly laugh all in the same paragraph. There is also vivid, sharp writing.” — New York Times Book Review
“I fell in love with Maupin’s effervescent Tales of the City decades ago, and his genius turn at memoir is no less compelling. Logical Family is a must read.” — Mary Karr
“Engaging and revelatory, Maupin’s memoir is a delight, punctuating a distinguished career in letters.” — San Francisco Chronicle
“A book for any of us, gay or straight, who have had to find our family. Maupin is one of America’s finest storytellers, and the story of his life is a story as fascinating, as delightful and as compulsive as any of the tales he has made up for us.” — Neil Gaiman
“Wise, witty, and beautifully told.” — People , Book of the Week
“Logical Family gives selflessly of such heartrending experience as it journeys through Maupin’s life.” — Slate
“Vivid and charming.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Maupin is a gifted story teller. His memoir packs much into 289 pages.... Humorous and poignant by turns.” — Charlotte News & Observer
“Engrossing and emotional…. The story is told with such clarity that even those unfamiliar with Maupin’s work can appreciate his life experiences…. The true prize here is the cleverness with which Maupin bares his soul. Maupin ties the bonds of joy and heartache he shares with both his families (biological and ‘logical’), and in so doing he has crafted a nuanced reflection on what it means to love and be loved in a flawed but beautiful world.” — Publishers Weekly , starred review
“There could be no more appropriate title for Maupin’s own tale, which relates his coming of age from a rigidly conservative Southern childhood to one of the most notable writers of the 20th century. Maupin writes vibrantly…. With just the right amounts of humor, thoughtfulness, and poignancy.” — Library Journal, starred review
“Maupin is a sympathetic and soulful storyteller. His account of a past struggle for equality is especially important in our fraught present.” — BookPage
“Master storyteller Armistead Maupin — the man who defined the difference between ‘a biological family’ and ‘a logical family,’ who is both gifted with fearless art and the ability to speak for millions — finally tells his own story. Logical Family is a sweet, filthy peach of a memoir from a cultural explosion of a man.” — Caitlin Moran
“It is easy to understand Maupin’s reputation for geniality, given his openheartedness as a person and his honesty as a writer; and that will make this delightful chronicle attractive to a wide range of readers, whether they’re familiar with his fiction or not.” — Booklist
“Logical Family is a beautiful memoir — so tender and funny and dignified and kind that it left me a little weepy.” — Alan Cumming
“The unflinchingly honest, often humorous, and ultimately powerful memoir of one of the most influential American writers of our time.” — The Advocate
“An enormously talented writer—witty but always sympathetic, generous in showing us the secrets of his heart.... By writing about what’s seemingly different Armistead Maupin always manages to capture what’s so hilariously painfully true for all of us.” — Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club and The Valley of Amazement
“Maupin deftly illustrates how far America and the pioneering Anna have come, and nearly 40 years into the [Tales of the City] series, his writing remains wildly addictive but is deeper and richer.” — People
“Together, the nine volumes of ‘Tales’ constitute a cultural touchstone that has enlarged our understanding of the varieties of human behavior…. ‘Tales of the City’ remains an immensely readable accomplishment that wears its significance lightly.” — Washington Post
“A consummate entertainer who has made a generation laugh... It is Maupin’s Dickensian gift to be able to render love convincingly.” — Edmund White, Times Literary Supplement
Engaging and revelatory, Maupin’s memoir is a delight, punctuating a distinguished career in letters.
Logical Family gives selflessly of such heartrending experience as it journeys through Maupin’s life.
★ 08/01/2017 It was in Maupin's Tales of the City that he coined the term logical family as a phrase to describe the people we find and choose to love, unlike our biological family. There could be no more appropriate title for Maupin's own tale, which relates his coming of age from a rigidly conservative Southern childhood to one of the most notable writers of the 20th century. Maupin writes vibrantly of his youth, his navy tours in Vietnam, his work on Tales of the City, and his acceptance of his sexuality and friendships within the LGBTQ community. But central to this memoir is the painful conflict that can come when one has both a logical and a biological family, for Maupin's growth into himself is always balanced against his lingering emotional ties to his hidebound father and beloved mother. VERDICT Maupin's long career as a storyteller serves him well with his own biographical material, and he leavens the varied events of his life with just the right amounts of humor, thoughtfulness, and poignancy.—Kathleen McCallister, Tulane Univ., New Orleans
In this terrific performance of his new memoir, the author of the famous—and famously gay—series Tales of the City tells us what growing up in 1950s North Carolina and finding new life in 1970s California was like. It was complicated, fascinating, heartrending, and, because it’s Maupin telling the insightful story, it was often very funny. He reads in a light, pleasant voice with well-tuned pacing. He has just the right amount of expressiveness to make us feel some of his complicated emotions for his dad, the racist homophobe; for his kind and trapped mother; and for all the rest of the folks who helped him become an interesting man, and a thoughtful and thought-provoking author. A.C.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
2017-06-01 Friends, lovers, and a few celebrities form the author's logical, though not biological, family.Fans of Maupin's stories of gay life in San Francisco (The Days of Anna Madrigal, 2014, etc.) will find some familiar themes in this warm memoir. The son of a racist, homophobic conservative, the author grew up hiding his homosexuality, knowing the "revulsion, shame, disbelief," and rejection that he would face. Yearning to win his father's love, he became a staunch conservative himself; as a college student in the 1960s, he "railed against Socialists and peaceniks," defended segregation, and enthusiastically spoke out against "radical social agitators." He went to law school to follow in his father's footsteps but was so bored that he dropped out only to pursue another of his father's dreams: to see him in the military. Maupin recalls with affection his stint in Vietnam, where he became chief of staff to a sympathetic commander. His father, "who always said that God created a war for every generation of men in our family," felt proud. His parents worried about his determination to be a writer, just as they worried about their son's "lifestyle" choice, which they could not confront. Maupin's professional breakthrough came when the San Francisco Chronicle commissioned him to write a five-day-a-week series of stories featuring a motley, eccentric, and appealing collection of characters, gay and straight, young and old, living in the author's adopted city. The first installment of "Tales of the City" appeared on May 24, 1976, and changed his life. "The public was hooked on ‘Tales' before the year was out," he recalls. Collections of the stories were published and eventually turned into a miniseries starring Laura Linney (a cherished member of Maupin's logical family). Loving remembrances abound—not least of his compassionate mother—as the author celebrates the many people who enriched his life; most famous among them are Christopher Isherwood, Ian McKellen, and Rock Hudson, with whom Maupin became "buddies with occasional benefits." Engaging reminiscences from an ebullient storyteller.