Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin

So on the recommendation (you HAVE to take this book and read it!) by a family member, I've started Tales of the City.  It was published in 1978.  I was 9 that year.  Life was pretty good in the Midwest.  This book looks through the eyes of San Francisco residents in the '70's.  I've heard the stories--the drugs, the free lifestyles, the new ideas, karma, finding oneself...this book covers it all and does so in a city that was the most (and still may be) brazen in terms of lifestyles. 

As the characters cross paths, the reader starts to question life.  One man is dying, one women is finding herself, one is losing herself, one man is trying to find a stable relationship and another is defying stability.  As you read this book you know there is one crazy reason all these people are tied together.

I wonder what that might be?

This book certainly explores the idea of a community and the different personalities that make up that community.