Back in the mid-1970’s, a naïve 20-something Mary Ann Singleton arrived in San Francisco for the first time. Making her new home at a boarding house at 28 Barbary Lane, Singleton’s life soon became intertwined with the building’s colorful tenants: the enigmatic and magical transsexual Anna Madrigal, the womanizing Brian, and the sweet, sexy, hopelessly romantic gay guy, Michael (Mouse) Tolliver.

For those who have invested years reading and rereading The Tales Of The City, when we last checked in on the characters in 1989, Michael Tolliver had tested positive for HIV and was preparing for an early death. As the title implicitly states, Armistead Maupin’s recent novel, released June 12, 2007, couldn’t have a happier title: Michael Tolliver Lives.

A lot has changed for Michael. He finds himself now a 55-year old gay man, somewhat astonished to be alive after being HIV-positive for two decades. He owns his own house and runs a successful business as a gardener and landscape architect. With regular shots of testosterone and a Viagra prescription, he has an active sex life with Ben, a much younger man. The domestic bliss that Michael shares with Ben is distinctly San Franciscan in flavor - “You’re too young to be monogamous,” Michael tells Ben. “And I’m too old.”

Michael found Ben on the Internet, at a site devoted to older men and their admirers, on which Ben identified himself as CLEANCUTLAD4U. It is interesting how Armistead Maupin occasionally makes reference to how clueless Next-Gen gays are about their predecessors’ cultural references. “Who’s Sally Bowles?” asked Ben. I turned and looked at my younger, less theatrical half. “She used to be married to Ansel Adams.” Michael is clearly a character with which Maupin intimately identifies (Maupin, 63, is married to Christopher Turner, 35).

Mirroring the lives of many baby boomers, Michael Tolliver is dealing with aging parents - specifically, his “biological” mother, dying in an Orlando nursing home, and his “logical” mother, the indomitable Anna Madrigal, 85-years-old and as feisty as ever.

It was a genuine thrill for me to learn what has been going on in the lives of Maupin’s loveable characters. But alas, the building at 28 Barbary Lane is no more. Even the stairs have been replaced. Neither Michael nor Anna Madrigal, the former landlady, can ever go back again. Luckily for me, the six Tales of the City books still populate my bookshelves - so I can return anytime to relive the tales.