MORE TALES OF THE CITY

Consuming Quaaludes, Pina Coladas, Mai Tais, Architectural Digest, Angel Dust, tokes of Colombian, and M & Ms, those tedious San Francisco trendies of Tales of the City (1978) are at it again--these are the parts of the San Francisco Chronicle serial that didn't make it into the first book. Primary focus this time is on homosexual Michael, who goes off on a cruise to Mexico with Mary Ann, both of them looking for Mr. Adequate and ending up with Mr. Right: Michael finds love with a handsome gynecologist who nurses him through a nasty bout of paralysis, while Mary Ann discovers a boyfriend with amnesia (something to do with cannibalistic Episcopalians who take the doctrine of transsubstantiation a shade too seriously). Then there's oversexed waiter/peeping-Tom Brian, punk-rock girl Douchebag (who wants to get a group of chicks together who will only play when they have their periods), and such old friends as malcontent Mona and her mother (father?), a transsexual Russian Hill landlady. Sodom, satire, and soapsuds--all dispensed with an air of naughty innocence that will certainly please anyone who chortled over the first volume of Tales. But outside the Bay Area: a fairly surefire soporific.