But the title could also be in reference to the fact that, unlike a lot of his contemporaries who have just been content to survive the plague years, Michael still wants to live. For Michael that means finding a partner to spend his days and nights with, more than just sex but a husband. When the opportunity arises he jumps in headfirst and falls for a younger man, Ben.
In fact, during a brief period when gays were being allowed the right to marry in a few cities in the United States, he and Ben had been joined in a civil ceremony. But they are living in the Brave New World of George Bush Jr.'s America where being gay is an aberration for the man in charge and he's doing his best to strip people like Michael and Ben of any rights they have gained.
This being 20 years later, everybody from the original series has aged considerably, and the gay community has expanded to include people who are transgendered both ways - women who have turned themselves into men and are gay, and men who have turned themselves into women. As Michael puts it, some people find them too queer to be queer, but he has always been comfortable with the idea.
When he first arrived in San Francisco his original landlady had not always been a lady, and Anna had become like a second mother to him when his own fundamentalist Christian family turned more than the other cheek to him. Oh, they didn't completely disown him, but they let him know that they were praying for him to find his way back to the fold.
When both Anna and his mother fall sick he comes to terms with both his blood and non-blood families. Instead of being the dutiful son and running to his mother's bedside when she's on her last breaths, he stays in the city when Anna falls into a coma after a heart attack. It's a testament to Maupin's writing ability that neither of these scenes ever descends into sentimental crap.
There's no deathbed reconciliation between mother and son, save for a final acceptance of who he is via a photo sent by email of his mom sitting in her bed, smiling and waving, holding a picture that been taken of him and Ben on their honeymoon. Touches like that are what have always made Maupin's books wonderful. He has the ability to take potentially trite sentimental moments and give them genuine emotional depth.
Article comments
1 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net , which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States, and to Boston.com. Nice work!