Babycakes (Tales of the City Series, V. 4)

<BLOCKQUOTE>"An extended love letter to a magical San Francisco."

--New York Times Book Review</BLOCKQUOTE>

When an ordinary househusband and his ambitious wife decide to start a family, they discover there's more to making a baby then meets the eye. Help arrives in the form of a grieving gay neighbor, a visiting monarch, and the dashing young lieutenant who defects from her yacht. Bittersweet and profoundly affecting, Babycakes was the first work of fiction to acknowledge the arrival of AIDS. <BLOCKQUOTE>

"Armistead is a true original. His tales are bang up-to-date. They will surprise and maybe even shock you, but, I promise, they will make you laugh."

--Ian McKellen

"Maupin has a genius for observation. His characters have the timing of vaudeville comics, flawed by human frailty and fueled by blind hop."

--Denver Post

"Armistead Maupin's San Francisco saga careens beautifully on."

-- New York Times Book Review</BLOCKQUOTE>