Realism in The Series
Because installments were published so soon after Maupin wrote them, he was able to incorporate many current events into the plot of the series, as well as gauge reader response and modify the story accordingly. At one point Maupin received a letter from a reader who pointed out that one of the characters' names was an anagram, providing Maupin with one of the more memorable and surprising plot twists in the book. Maupin's books are also some of the first to deal with the AIDS epidemic.
Real life people such as Jim Jones and a thinly veiled Elizabeth Taylor are mentioned in the story lines. A prominent closeted gay celebrity is represented as "______ ______" throughout the third novel, with sufficient detail available to deduce that it could be Rock Hudson.
Read more about this topic: Tales Of The City
Famous quotes containing the words realism in, realism and/or series:
“I hate vulgar realism in literature. The man who could call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one. It is the only thing he is fit for.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“While we look to the dramatist to give romance to realism, we ask of the actor to give realism to romance.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Every man sees in his relatives, and especially in his cousins, a series of grotesque caricatures of himself.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)