I finally got around to reading
Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City (I had been sort of
“dragging it along” for a month, but when I really got to
it, I went throught the latter half of the book in just a couple of
hours): contrary to what I initially thought, it's pretty easy to
read, in fact (even though I must have missed zillions of cultural
references of all sorts). It starts out as a set of rather disparate
stories, but, as one proceeds through the book, the characters
interact in many ways (perhaps too many, even: it gives the idea that
San Francisco is a very very small world!) and there's a true
plot and dénouement[#]. It's quite brilliantly done,
actually. So, while I'll probably wait some time before getting
started on the second volume (More Tales of the City)
because I'm weary of multi-volume sagas (or, for a slightly more
adequate comparison, multi-season sitcoms 
), I'm
certainly not disappointed with the first.
[#] But I must admit I haven't understood what the final pages' deeper meaning: or rather, are we supposed to guess what Mrs Madrigal's secret is? Or is it meant to remain a mystery? Because I don't have a clue.