Logical Family: A Memoir

by Armistead Maupin Narrated by Armistead Maupin

Overview

""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

""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

In this long-awaited memoir, the beloved author of the bestselling Tales of the City series chronicles his odyssey from the old South to freewheeling San Francisco, and his evolution from curious youth to ground-breaking writer and gay rights pioneer. Also included is an exclusive conversation between Maupin and bestselling author Neil Gaiman.

Armistead Maupin was born in the mid-twentieth century and raised in the heart of conservative North Carolina, Armistead Maupin lost his virginity to another man ""on the very spot where the first shots of the Civil War were fired."" Realizing that the South was too small for him, this son of a traditional lawyer packed his earthly belongings into his Opel GT (including a beloved portrait of a Confederate ancestor), and took to the road in search of adventure. It was a journey that would lead him from a homoerotic Navy initiation ceremony in the jungles of Vietnam to that strangest of strange lands: San Francisco in the early 1970s.

Reflecting on the profound impact those closest to him have had on his life, Maupin shares his candid search for his ""logical family,"" the people he could call his own. ""Sooner or later, we have to venture beyond our biological family to find our logical one, the one that actually makes sense for us,"" he writes. ""We have to, if we are to live without squandering our lives."" From his loving relationship with his palm-reading Grannie who insisted Maupin was the reincarnation of her artistic bachelor cousin, Curtis, to an awkward conversation about girls with President Richard Nixon in the Oval Office, Maupin tells of the extraordinary individuals and situations that shaped him into one of the most influential writers of the last century.

Maupin recalls his losses and life-changing experiences with humor and unflinching honesty, and brings to life flesh-and-blood characters as endearing and unforgettable as the vivid, fraught men and women who populate his enchanting novels. What emerges is an illuminating portrait of the man who depicted the liberation and evolution of America's queer community over the last four decades with honesty and compassion-and inspired millions to claim their own lives.

Armistead Maupin's journey from conservative North Carolina to freewheeling San Francisco is chronicled in this long-awaited memoir, which also includes an exclusive conversation between Maupin and bestselling author Neil Gaiman.

HarperCollins 2024

Editorial Reviews

OCTOBER 2017 - AudioFile

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

Publishers Weekly

★ 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.)

Edmund White

A consummate entertainer who has made a generation laugh... It is Maupin’s Dickensian gift to be able to render love convincingly.

Washington Post

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.

People

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.

Amy Tan

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.

The Advocate

The unflinchingly honest, often humorous, and ultimately powerful memoir of one of the most influential American writers of our time.

Alan Cumming

Logical Family is a beautiful memoir — so tender and funny and dignified and kind that it left me a little weepy.

Booklist

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.

Caitlin Moran

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.

BookPage

Maupin is a sympathetic and soulful storyteller. His account of a past struggle for equality is especially important in our fraught present.

Charlotte News & Observer

Maupin is a gifted story teller. His memoir packs much into 289 pages.... Humorous and poignant by turns.

Minneapolis Star Tribune

Vivid and charming.

Slate

Logical Family gives selflessly of such heartrending experience as it journeys through Maupin’s life.

Book of the Week People

Wise, witty, and beautifully told.

Neil Gaiman

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.

San Francisco Chronicle

Engaging and revelatory, Maupin’s memoir is a delight, punctuating a distinguished career in letters.

Mary Karr

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.

New York Times Book Review

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.

O Magazine

A sweetly frank and funny memoir by a storyteller in the first rank.

Library Journal

★ 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

OCTOBER 2017 - AudioFile

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

Kirkus Reviews

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.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170239207
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/03/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos