TBI’s 5 Best: Books That Take Place in San Francisco

Classic reads for rainy days

Don’t you miss the days when Karl the Fog used to greet us every morning? Now his cousin, Jeffrey the Rain, has taken what feels like a permanent pitstop over the city. But it’s hard to complain about rainy weather (because, yes, we need it), and the bright side is that it makes for a perfect excuse to cozy up with a good book this weekend.

San Francisco has been home to many great writers throughout the decades, and at the same time, its charm has also inspired many writers to make it the backdrop of their novels. While many people think Jack Kerouac’s On the Road is the only San Francisco classic, in fact it’s only one of many.

Here are our favorite novels that take place in San Francisco:

1. “Tales of the City” by Armistead Maupin

The first novel in a series of nine came to life as a book after being published in serialized installments in the San Francisco Chronicle. Tales of the City takes place in the 1970s in SF, where secretary Mary Ann Singleton travels from Cleveland, Ohio, and impulsively decides to stay. The Midwesterner finds an apartment at 28 Barbary Lane, a complex owned by a marijuana grower named Anna Madrigal. The eccentric neighbors of the complex become the core characters of the novel, exposing the city’s diversity and quirkiness. The comedic account captures a moment in time that has influenced the San Francisco we know and love today but also surfaces a feeling of nostalgia for a time when life here felt a little more simple. If you’re already a fan of the book, here’s some good news: Netflix is reportedly working on a 10-episode installment based on the series, which is set to premiere this year.

2. “The Golden Gate” by Vikram Seth

Composed of 590 Onegin stanzas, The Golden Gate turned poet and novelist Vikram Seth into a household name. The novel is set in San Francisco in the 1980s, where yuppie John Brown meets a woman named Liz after placing a lustful personal ad in a newspaper. While Liz is initially meant to be Brown’s love interest, she quickly begins to fall for his best friend. Through this exchange, Brown meets other characters who all seem to grapple with various ideas of “self-actualization,” ideas that are at times challenged by their relationships with each other. The book is the telling of a tryst of sorts that unfolds in beautiful sonnets and is known for its lyrical prose.

3. “Virgin Soul” by Judy Juanita

At first, Geniece Hightower’s life looks like a typical one for someone in the 1960s in San Francisco. She goes to college and has romantic relationships, friends and a part-time job. However, once Huey Newton is incarcerated in October of 1967, Geniece finds herself with the Black Panthers, all while remaining a college student. The novel is a coming-of-age story about how one woman goes from being a typical student to being part of the Black Panthers in one of the most politically and racially charged decades in America. It’s a story about finding yourself in activism and politics, with San Francisco as the backdrop, which is probably a story that many can relate to right now.

4. “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” by Dave Eggers

Within five weeks, main character Dave Eggers endures two of the biggest losses of his life: both of his parents die from cancer. The exhilarating story starts in suburban Illinois with both deaths, after which he must take on the role of parent to his eight-year-old brother. The memoir, which Eggers actually encourages readers to view as a work of fiction, is about grief and young adulthood. After his parents’ death, Eggers and his brother leave for California, seeking a more idyllic life to ease the pain. As he writes about the Northern California coast, “Only up here does the Earth look round, only up here can you see the bend of the planet at the edge of your peripheries.”

5. “Valencia” by Michelle Tea

An autobiographical novel published in 2000, Valencia chronicles a life of heartbreak, sex, drugs and queer culture in SF’s Mission District. The characters are 20-something lesbians who find themselves navigating the city during what many of them find to be a confusing time in their lives. Indeed, the story chronicles a certain type of intensity that comes with the feeling of being lost in your 20s. Through many dramatic moments, the characters work to find their identities by living life a little recklessly—and entirely fully.