The Days of Anna Madrigal

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 2/28/14 at 1:40am

Has anyone read this? I just finished and would like other people's thoughts. How did you feel about Anna's back story? Mary Anne's current personality? How about the end?

I felt like it should have been called The Days of Burning Man. I know that Armistead LOVES Burning Man and it was a life altering experience to him, but it felt like the gathering/festival was a bigger character in the book than any of my beloved Barbary Lane characters.

And maybe I am just a prude and was afraid the chick next to me was reading over my shoulder, but the sexual situations seemed really unnecessary. I am all about steamy lit, but it needs to be organic. It felt a bit like "oh, I need to throw some sex in here!" to me.

Then, the end, at least to me, felt very abrupt!

I was rather disappointed, I think. I am still processing.

Updated On: 2/28/14 at 01:40 AM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 2/28/14 at 2:02am

I was going to start a thread about this a while back, but... well, didn't.

I feel like you do, except I enjoyed it more.

What did you think of the previous two parts of what Maupin now calls a series of three trilogies?

I've had my issues with them, but have also enjoyed them. I think some of that is because I know too much about Maupin now. If Mouse was always meant to basically be him, reading and watching the earlier Tales of the City books, even up until the last three of the first cycle was fine. But the fact that suddenly he dropped his old bf (Trask?) in Michael Tolliver lives and then basically went through the exact encounter Maupin has told in the press of meeting a younger guy on the street who ran a gay older guy sex meet up site (daddychat in the real world) and the way that his boyfriend/the character of Ben is held to this amazing ideal, really annoys me. Granted, Jon Fielding was basically an idealized gay man as well, so maybe that's unfair.

I have grown to kinda like the new characters of the last several novels, but am also annoyed with them. Maybe it's because I was born in 1980, so reading the references in the 70s and 80s books to slang terms and fads seems cool, or at least quaint. With the younger characters now it just seems annoying. I don't know anybody my age who would actually say "amazeballs" at least without some sense of irony. And dropping references to Netflix and Lost and Orange is the New Black just seems forced (I read an interview with Maupin where he admitted that he no longer felt he could write about younger characters, so maybe he knows this too.)

That said, I admit, I enjoyed reading the book. I liked, even though it was somewhat predictable, all of the parts set in Anna's past a lot. I have a love/hate feeling towards Maupin's writing style, but I do find it a comfortable and a fun read--I read the book in several hours. And, while I never ever want to go, I kinda liked the Burning Man parts, even if the whole pregnancy subplot made no sense (but I chuckled at the the threeway near the end with both the reference to Mouse's satyr outfit in the first book and the questioning Mormon character in the previous book.)

I admit, if another book came out (and honestly, do we really think one won't?) I'd buy and read it.

But...

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 2/28/14 at 2:03am

(I will say I didn't think the sex was more descriptive or prevalent than in the past six or so books... Michael Tolliver Lives probably was the peak for that.)

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 2/28/14 at 2:17am

I absolutely agree that the sex wasn't much or graphic, but it just felt unnecessary. Michael Tolliver lives was on a whole different level. I don't need to ever imagine Armistead in a circle jerk.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 2/28/14 at 2:23am

I hated the way the pregnancy story line ended, as that is something I take way too seriously. If you choose to have a baby alone, you have a baby alone. You don't decide after one encounter that you might just be parenting this child with your hookup. It never came out and said that, so I suppose that as still open to interpretation. Full disclosure: I had a friend who got pregnant as a single woman, who started asking me how to make the "non-gestational parent" feel like a part of the process after their second date. It annoyed the F*CK out of me.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 2/28/14 at 3:00am

Maupin was on the Graham Norton show and he basically said he had no clue how the pregnancy storyline would end until it "wrote itself." No kidding. What was the point? As well, if Shawna was so against using Michael's sperm, due to his HIV status, and was being so careful not to do drugs at Burning Man, why was she suddenly on a mission to find a random sperm donor to impregnate her? Zero sense. And yes, the end result with someone she just met, and the fact that she was pregnant seemed to be a perfect fit didn't work for me. Wasn't this just what Maupin was trying to point out *didn't* work in the last three novels of the original 6 (the ones that some fans found huge downers, but I mostly really loved.)

Re the sex. I found the final threesome kinda sweet, but also kinda icky. So I can't really decide. I think I know what he was going for, but it only got me half way there. And then the whole *spoiler* moment (can we discuss spoilers?) which apparently is something that happened to Maupin in real life I've since read was just too much of a fake out. Especially since ultimately it didn't tie into Anna's premonitions.

I *did* like how he brought Wren back brought from the fifth book. I admit, I'm completely biased--I did enjoy reading it. But I also had a ton of issues with it.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 2/28/14 at 3:07am

Wren is a great character. She fit well with the family.


I am a sucker. I will read anything he writes about this group.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 2/28/14 at 4:13am

Well then, I'm right there with you, perhaps sadly :P

Dukakis and others have mentioned that they are in talks to do one more filmed story based on...something from the last 6 books, I have no clue what. The third miniseries in particular (I could deal with the cast changes in the second one) was disappointing, being cut down to three hours and with Maupin himself adding unnecessary new subplots to the already hectic third novel, that I'm a bit weary. Though with Olympia and Laura on board, of course I'd still watch. (and a few months back the first miniseries, in crappy unremastered quality, was finally released on DVD to North America, in its unedited state.)

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/1/14 at 7:05pm

Apparently either no one else has read this on here, which despite apparently being a best seller would be understandably after the mixed results of the last few--but I'd love to hear other people's opinions. It would be, as apparently people my age always say amazeballs.

[blaxx]

Posted: 3/1/14 at 7:17pm

Get a room!

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/1/14 at 7:33pm

I would love a room to bend JerseyGirl's ear about many of the interesting things she has to say and her opinion on books, films and issues.

But I don't think that's what you meant :P

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 3/1/14 at 7:46pm

I read it far too quickly on vacation in February and it was over much too quickly and I meant to start a thread about it but I didn't and I regret it because to be totally honest I don't want to post about it in this thread.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 3/1/14 at 9:12pm

Why don't you want to post here? Was I too negative?

Ultimately I have decided it was just too short. Had it been longer, I feel like it could have better covered the things that annoyed me.

Updated On: 3/1/14 at 09:12 PM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/1/14 at 9:34pm

Namo, I would love to read your take.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 3/1/14 at 10:55pm

Maybe when the paperback comes out I'll start a different kind of thread. If I were making a movie, it would be of the new book with one flashback for each of the last two books. And i would be happy.

[The8re phan]

Posted: 3/2/14 at 8:51am

Just finished reading it last night, as I wanted to re-visit the previous 8 books first. I really enjoyed it, but as with the previous 2 books, I found too much focus on newer characters, and too many missed opportunities for a bigger reunion of the central ones. Mary Ann has maybe 15 pages? DeDe and Dorothea are mentioned in passing, but have nothing at all to do with the story? Anna has a 'feeling' about Michael, and chases tail to get there, but she just missed him and Ben? Truly this can't be the last book……

Spolierish --- i think we expected the book to end with a death. The few last chapters, it appeared as it would be a character you didn't expect. A beloved part of the series for sure, but if Maupin followed this twist through, he may have given these people the chance to truly connect, rather than continuing to run around in circles and miss each other.

I hope that's indicative of one more book………..

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/2/14 at 1:45pm

" If I were making a movie, it would be of the new book with one flashback for each of the last two books. And i would be happy. "

I think *that* would really work well.

Phan--I was actually glad that it didn't end with a death. But at the same time it made some of the buildup not make sense for me. I feel the same way about it not having some sort of final scene with everyone all together. The last few books have all had everyone re-uniting around Anna being sick in the hospital it's seemed, so I appreciated that this one didn't.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 3/2/14 at 3:55pm

I actually think that in THIS book, it could have worked, because of Burning Man. Michael didn't know Anna was coming. No one knew Mary Ann was going to be there. I think would have been more satisfied with Anna's premonition leading to all of them coming together rather than leading to nothing and missing them.

And didn't it pretty much end with a death? I guess it was open to interpretation.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/2/14 at 4:44pm

I suppose it did--I didn't read it that way. But in hindsight, I can see how it could be implied...