MixedThe GuardianEach of the 20 chapters of Maupin’s memoir reads like a well-made scene for TV: tidy and arced, with a punchline ... at 304 pages with lots of white space per page, it’s a spare selection of anecdotes that are supposed to interpret and shape the meaning of Maupin’s life – a lot has been left out. There are brief scenes featuring his friends Laura Linney, Ian McKellen and Christopher Isherwood. But conspicuously missing from a memoir called Logical Family is any description of an ordinary, intimate circle of San Francisco friends and lovers ... A more apt title for this autobiographical story about changing from one type (conservative, chaste and clueless about the unjust plights of others) to its opposite (liberal, promiscuous and focused to some extent on diversity, equality and freedom) would have been A Different Person ... Logical Family, like all of Maupin’s books, is best read quickly, and just once. That’s entertainment.
