Logical Family: A Memoir
Armistead Maupin

Laugh, Cry, Wait – Armistead Maupin is the quintessential voice of Bay Area Bohemian life, with a Southerner’s well-honed talent for spinning entertaining, winsome and moving yarns. In this case, the tale is his own – and Logical Family became the book I most often recommended to others this past year. (And I still recommend it!) That’s because Maupin’s memoir is a hell of a good story. Plus, it demonstrates six pillars of powerful storytelling: (1) the necessary arch of a protagonist’s journey (in Maupin’s case, his life as a young conservative coming of age in North Carolina to closeted Naval officer in Vietnam to out, liberal artist and activist in San Francisco); (2) the value of vivid antagonists and protagonists, heroes to root for and villains to root against; (3) suspense, built by withholding identities and events, and using coincidence; (4) compelling details, which help readers “see” people and places; (5) using twists, turns, reversals and betrayals to propel the story’s action forward; and (6) variety. On this last point, Maupin is a master of the aphorism attributed to Charles Reade (and, sometimes, to Wilkie Collins): “Make ‘em laugh, make ‘em cry, make ‘em wait.”