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Summary
Summary
From the author of Tales of the City series, this is a story of a woman's adventures in Hollywood that shows how sometimes when you get what you want it's not exactly what you expected.
Author Notes
Armistead Maupin was born in Washington D.C. on May 13, 1944. He received a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He served as a naval officer in the Mediterranean and with the River Patrol Force in Vietnam.
He worked as a reporter for a newspaper in Charleston, South Carolina, before being assigned to the San Francisco bureau of the Associated Press in 1971. In 1976, he launched his groundbreaking Tales of the City serial in the San Francisco Chronicle. The series describes a group of characters that live together in a boarding house in San Francisco. Eventually, these Tales were collected into a series of six novels. In 1993, the British Broadcasting Company adapted them for a television series that aired on PBS in 1994.
His other works include Maybe the Moon, Michael Tolliver Lives, and The Days of Anna Madrigal. The Night Listener was adapted into a movie starring Robin Williams and Toni Collette.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Though Cadence Roth, the heroine of Maupin's captivating novel, is only 31 inches tall (she is said to have held the title the World's Shortest Mobile Adult Human in the Guinness Book ofRecords), her impact on the reader's emotions is enormous. In choosing this diminutive woman to dramatize the role of an outsider, Maupin draws parallels between the way small people and others who are thought to deviate from the norm, such as gays, lesbians, blacks and Jews-are mocked and dehumanized. He does this skillfully and delicately, with humor and compassion, meanwhile telling a suspenseful story whose subtly foreshadowed ending delivers a dramatic clout. At 30, Cady is a has-been in Hollywood. A decade earlier, she had portrayed an adorable elf in a film that captured Americas heart. But since there are few movie opportunities for dwarfs, her career as an actress and singer has skittered downhill. Cady chronicles her gutsy attempts to earn her livelihood in funny and poignant journal entries, her irreverent voice spiked with trendy movie-town lingo. She is offhand about the handicaps small persons must endure: what it's like to be patronized and treated like a child, to walk in a forest of legs, to be unable to turn on the shower or close the bathroom door-and to yearn for romantic relationships and a sex life. Under the clever patter and black humor, however, Cady fiercely and wistfully conveys her need to be viewed like everyone else. Maupin (Sure of You) surrounds Cady with other appealing outsiders a black pianist, a gay writer, Cady's spacey housemate. But tiny Cady acts as a strobe light whose compelling gaze illuminates the depths of the human heart. 60,000 first printing; BOMC alternate; QPB selection; author tour. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Having published the final volume (Sure of You, 1989) of his popular Tales of the City series, Maupin leaves the San Francisco setting behind, turning his warmth and wit to the Hollywood scene; he remains equally adept at spotting trends and skewering social injustice. Cadence Roth, a 31-inch actress, was never credited for playing the title role (inside a high-tech costume) in Mr. Woods, an ``enduring fable''--à la E.T.--``of almost universal appeal about the nature of being different.'' Being a dwarf is apparently being too different; ten years later, Cady's acting career is entirely stalled, though her limited celebrity has gained her a star-struck roommate who helps her negotiate the wrong-scale physical world and also encourages her to write her life's story. (Maybe there's a screenplay in it with a starring role for a little person.) Cady's journals reveal her as intelligent, funny, cleareyed, and subject to constant discrimination. But even Cady can hope: a comeback seems imminent; she starts a tender love affair. (But can sexual love between a tall black handsome divorced father and a white overweight female dwarf be brought into the light of day?) Meanwhile, people from Cady's past reappear: the child star from Mr. Woods (having a secret gay affair while making his adult debut in a nastily homophobic film); the horrible director who expects Cady to appear in a televised tribute to him. A sad, funny tale that--although goodness may not always triumph in the world--will win readers' hearts.
Booklist Review
Maupin follows his fabulously funny, politically hip Tales of the City (the first successful serially published novel--indeed, series of novels--since God knows when) with the story of Cady Roth, the world's shortest female would-be movie star, who once inhabited the rubber corpus of the elf-protagonist of the second most popular movie in history, Mr. Woods, and who's been trying ever since to be recognized clad in her own skin and one of the outfits she's small enough to make out of a single yard of material. Her friends include gay novelist-activist Jeff, her housemate Renee, who's the incarnation of the dumb blonde bombshell with a heart of gold, and Neil Riccarton, a young black divorced father struggling to make his way in showbiz, too. Eventually, Cady and Neil get a thing going, as does Jeff with Cady's Mr. Woods costar Callum, now grown up into something of a gay preppy wet dream. By book's end, both romances have foundered, both on the rocks of fearful prejudice. And then, Cady gets a chance to avenge the wrongs Hollywood, particularly Mr. Woods director Philip Blenheim (a Spielberg-Coppola type), has done her. Animated more by keen appreciation of the different yet similar injustices little people and gays suffer than by Maupin's daffy and endearing humor, Maybe the Moon is as easy to keep reading as any of the Tales, but it's not as much fun. It is, however, arguably more affecting--a serious soap opera travesty that's exactly attuned to these times of increasing pressure for social equality. (Reviewed Sept. 15, 1992)0060165529Ray Olson
Library Journal Review
Cadence Roth is a heroine one will not soon forget. All of 31 inches tall, Cady played Mr. Woods, an E.T.-like character, in a hit movie a decade ago. Now 30 years old, she performs at birthday parties and bat mitzvahs, on the fringe of an industry that doesn't have much need for chubby dwarfs. In a strong and witty voice, Cady records daily life with her dizzy, star-struck roommate Renee, the physical challenge of turning on a shower, discrimination by people, and harassment by dogs. She begins a charming romance with a tall, handsome pianist and then, with her best friend, Jeff--a writer active in gay politics--she plots her comeback. Both a well-told story and a subtle fable about difference, this novel was penned by the author of the popular series ``Tales of the City,'' of which Sure of You ( LJ 9/15/89) was the final installment. Recommended for public libraries.-- Brian Kenney, Brooklyn P.L. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Maybe the Moon Chapter One The Spiral Notebook The diary was Renee's idea. She ran across this notebookat Walgreens last week and decided on the spot that it was time for me to start writing things down. Just so you'll know, it's a Mr. Woods notebook, the spiral kind, with a green cardboard cover and the little bastard himself gazing wistfully from his hole in the tree trunk. Renee took this as a major omen. That evening over dinner she made such a solemn ceremony out of giving it to me that I felt like Moses on Mount Sinai. Since then, so help me, she hasn't stopped peeping at me sideways, watching my every move, waiting breathlessly for the muse to strike. I probably shouldn't start until my period is over, just to keep the pissing and moaning to a minimum, but Renee says that's exactly the time I should be writing. Some journal expert she saw on Oprah says all the important stuff happens while you're feeling like a piece of shit; you just don't realize it until later. I've got my doubts--serious ones--but I'm willing to risk it if you are. At the moment, Renee is pretending to be engrossed in America's Most Wanted. Though she's all the way across the room, curled up on the sofa like some huge Himalayan kitten, I can almost feel her breath on my neck as I set pen to paper. The pressure is enormous, but I'll try to muddle through, since it seems to mean so much to her. Who knows? Maybe she's right. Maybe there is a movie in my life. Maybe some brilliant young writer/director will discover these pages someday and see the perfect little film he or she has always wanted to make. And when that happens, who else but me could possibly play me? (After I've lost a few pounds, that is, and had my teeth capped.) Cadence Roth would join the ranks of Sophia Loren, Ann Jillian, Shirley MacLaine, and a handful of other actresses who've had the honor of portraying themselves on-screen. And due to the "special nature" of the material, the Academy would fall all over itself at Oscar time. I'd be a natural for talk shows too, and it's not that much of a stretch to imagine a sitcom spun off from the movie. Of course, the real reason Renee is pushing this is because she knows she'll be part of the story. Yesterday, when we were sorting the laundry, she told me in all earnestness that Melanie Griffith would be her number one choice to play her in the movie. That's not as farfetched as you might think, actually. Renee's a little broader in the beam than Melanie, and her features are less delicate, but the general effect of soft, pink, babyfied sweetness is pretty much the same. (If you're reading this, Renee, that'll teach you to snoop.) At any rate, we'd have our pick of voluptuous blonde co-stars if we came up with the right script and director. That's a big if, I know, but it never hurts to have a dream or two in the pipeline. We could sure use the cash. My last job was in November, four whole months ago, a half-hour infomercial in which I played--say it ain't so, Cady--a jar of anticellulite cream. I have yet to see this epic aired. My guess is that the FDA finally caught up with the sleazebag from Oxnard who was fronting the operation and nailed him with a cease and desist. It's just as well. Poor Renee, the last of the true believers, glopped the stuff on her thighs for three weeks and got nothing for her troubles but a nasty rash. Renee, I should mention, brings home a modest paycheck from her job at The Fabric Barn, and that's keeping us both in cornflakes at the moment. There's no rent or even a mortgage, thank God, since I bought this house outright ten years ago with the pittance I made from Mr. Woods. Still, we're feeling the pinch in this recession. While the wolf may not be at the door, he's at least casing the neighborhood. Long gone are the days when Renee and I would treat ourselves to pedicures and pore cleansings at Hair Apparent, then tool into Hollywood for a night on the town. Frankly, I'm beginning to feel a little trapped. Since I don't drive, I'm fairly housebound while Renee's at work, unless somebody else swings by on the way to God-knows-where. That's the problem with the Valley: it isn't near anything. I moved here when I was barely twenty, largely at the insistence of my mom, who got it into her thick Jewish skull that Studio City would be much safer than, say, West Hollywood--my personal choice. We lived here for seven years, Mom and me, right up to the day she died of a heart attack in the parking lot at Pack 'n Save. I'd met Renee when I was shopping for mock leopardskin at The Fabric Barn. (I make all my own clothes, so I've haunted most of the outlets between here and West L.A.) I took to her right away, since she was the only clerk in the store who didn't lose it completely when I walked in. She was so helpful and nice, and while she was cutting the fabric she told me a "dirty joke" that would only be dirty if you were twelve years old, maybe, and living in Salt Lake City. When I explained about the leopardskin, how Mom and me were planning to crash the premiere of Out of Africa, she got so excited you would've thought she was waiting on Meryl Streep herself. "Gah," she said, "that sounds so glamorous." I reminded her that we weren't actually invited, that the jungle getup ploy was pretty much of a long shot. "Still," she said, "you're gonna be there. You might even meet Robert Redford!" I resisted the urge to tell her that I had already met Mr. Redford (and found him boring), back when Mom was working as an extra on the set of The Electric Horseman. To be perfectly honest, I wanted Renee to like me not for who I knew but for who I was. "Actually," I told her, "it's more of a business-promo thing. I'm an actress myself." "You are? Have I seen you in anything?" My face betrayed nothing as I moved in for the score. "Did you see Mr. Woods ?" Renee's big, soft mouth went slack with wonder. "You're kidding! That's my most favorite movie of all. I saw it four times when I was thirteen years old!" I shrugged. "That was me." "Where? Which one?" "C'mon." I chuckled and bugged my eyes. "How many roles did they have for somebody my size?" The poor baby reddened like crazy. "You mean...? Well, sure, but I thought that was ... wasn't that a mechanical thingamajig?" "Not all the time. Sometimes it was a rubber suit." I shrugged. "I wore the suit." "You swear to God?" "Remember the scene where Mr. Woods leads the kids down to his hiding place by the creek?" "Yeah." "That was me in there." Renee laid her scissors down and looked at me hard. "Really?" I nodded. "Shvitzing like a pig." She giggled. "Also," I added, "the part at the end where they hug him goodbye." Her eyes, which are huge and Hershey brown, grew glassy with remembrance. She leaned against the wall for a moment, heaving a contented sigh as she folded her hands across her pillowy breasts. She reminded me somehow of a figure on a medieval tomb. "I just love that part." "I'm so glad," I said, and really meant it, though I probably came off like Joan Crawford being gracious to her garbageman. Frankly, I've heard this sort of thing for a long time, so my re-sponses have begun to sound canned to me. Renee didn't notice, though; she was staring into the distance, lost in her own elfin reverie. "And the next day, when Jeremy finds that acorn in his lunch box. Gah, that was so sad. I just sat out in the mall and cried all afternoon." After a melancholy pause, her gaze swung back to me. "I even bought the doll. One of the life-size ones. I still have it. This is so amazing." "Did the eyes fall out?" "Excuse me?" "The doll," I explained. "People tell me the eyes fall out." She shook her head, looking stricken and slightly affronted, like a mother who'd just been asked if her child showed signs of malnutrition. "No," she said. "The eyes are fine." "Good." "Do you totally swear you're him?" I held up my palm. "Totally swear." "This is so amazing." When I finally left the store, Renee was my escort, keeping pace a little awkwardly, but obviously thrilled to be seen in my company. I could feel the eyes of the other clerks on us as we threaded our way through the upright rolls of silk and satin. I knew Renee would tell them about me afterwards, and that made me gloat on her behalf. These gawking idiots would find that her friendliness had actually counted for something; that she'd had the last laugh, after all; that she wasn't the blonde airhead they had probably figured her for. Maybe the Moon . Copyright © by Armistead Maupin. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold. Excerpted from All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.