The Tales-of-the-City series had cult status in the 1980s and was still good reading in the 1990s. They are set in 1980s San Francisco and follow a group of hippiesque tenants in an old villa under the guidance of extravagant, extrovert and exceptional Ms Madrigal, who refers to her tenants as her "children". Many of the group are homosexual, all of them, including Ms Madrigal, love to share a good joint. And everybody is totally cool about.

This was exciting and exotic in the 1980s, in small-town Germany of the 1990s it was still refreshing. Nowadays, society, morals, even the laws have developed and, indeed, improved. We no longer need literature to open our minds in this respect. What remains is the plot – which is rather wild, highly unrealistic, and sometimes incoherent. There is a lot going on, but somehow it never leads to development or change; which at least for the series is a good thing, because all the novels can start and end under the same premises.

While this makes for shallow literature practically without character development or even ambiguity, it is still a nice little read. And if you read it in the 1990s (or even earlier) it is certainly worthwhile re-reading it just for the fun or for nostalgia.