Babycakes

This article is about the Armistead Maupin book. For the song by UK garage trio 3 of a Kind, see Baby Cakes.
Babycakes

US first edition cover
Author Armistead Maupin
Country United States
Language English
Series Tales of the City
Genre Novel
Published 1984
Publisher Harper & Row
Media type Print (Paperback)
Pages 220
ISBN 0-06-091099-2
Preceded by Further Tales of the City
Followed by Significant Others

Babycakes (1984) is the fourth book in the Tales of the City series by American novelist Armistead Maupin, originally serialized in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Plot elements

Babycakes is the term of affection the protagonist, Michael "Mouse" Tolliver uses for his best female friends. In this work, he uses "Babycakes" when he's with Mona Ramsey, his closest friend.

The novel begins in 1983. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip of England are motoring, via limousine motorcade, into San Francisco as part of their visit to the United States. The novel concludes with the Queen having a manicure done by the nanny of a former British naval officer who while in the United States, made the acquaintances of Michael, Mary Ann, Brian and the American and British press.

This work deals with Michael's revelation of Jon Fielding's death from AIDS, and his lost contact with Mona. Michael must cope with it - and the new "problems" arising from his sex-related behaviour. All is not bleak, but it certainly marks the end of the free love and decadence era of the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s.

After being absent from Further Tales of the City, the character of Mona Ramsey returns to the Tales series in this book. Mona, now 37 years of age, is living and working in Seattle, Washington, the supposed "San Francisco of the 1980s."


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