Rating: 
Summary: "Elementary, my dear Watson."
Review: Here we have a book by Mr. Maupin in which he lightly expands the world we came to know in his "Tales of the City" series. Characters from that series are present in the book, yes, but this doesn't detract from this new string. It's more like a little morsel for his faithful readers that, when they read, their eyes widen and they think, "Yeah!! I know that!!"I read this book and was sucked into Gabriel's world with ease. The writing was fantastic, and the answer to the question on everyone's mind is played from every angle...if not in actual events, then in Gabriel's mind. A mystery of a different kind (no one is killed, no crowned jewels are stolen), "The Night Listener" pulled me from one extreme of opinion to the other. By book's end, I was in awe with Maupin's ability to keep the reader guessing...even after the last word is read and the book is put down. I give this book 4 stars because although I love the kind of ending that lets you write your own epilogue, I really wanted a definite answer to the questions that arose. Nevertheless, this book was a great read!!
Rating:
Summary: Gripping piece of literature window-dressed as mystery
Review: *The Night Listener* is gripping from beginning to end. Literally I am glued to the page. Writer and radio storyteller Gabriel Noone just broke up with his partner Jess who battled with AIDS. Things take a sharp turn as Jess' viral load plummeted to zero. As Gabriel noted that he would "like to believe there was a moment when I received this news with unalloyed joy...For the great love I'd longed for all my life had been a certainty only while Jess was dying." Anyway Jess moved out and found himself a new circle of friends and social etiquettes. 13-year-old Pete Lomax was the "godsend" who stepped into Gabriel's life at the perfect timing. Gabriel was asked by his publishing agent to review galleys of Pete's book and write a blurb for it. Immediately hooked to Pete's story Gabriel began a series of phone conservations with Pete who lived in Wisconsin with his foster mother Donna. Donna came to his rescue after Pete sneaked out from his folks' house in a blizzard. His parents had physically and sexually abused him, and prostituted him with pedophiles. Donna (a psychiatrist) was the first person Pete ran into at the hospital. She already knew about Pete's HIV status and decided to protect him from strangers and most importantly, his painful past miseries. When Pete finally let down his guard and spoke to her for the first time a few months after his escape, Donna encouraged him to overcome this fear by writing his memories down on paper. Afterall, Pete "trusts voices more than he can trust a face." As Gabriel and Pete talked more on the phone, their relationship become like father-and-son. As the publisher had no means to legitimate Pete in order to publish his book, Gabriel began to have doubt about the existence of Pete. He began to think if Donna and Pete, who shared the same high-pitched Wisconsin accent, are the really the same person. When the book was dropped finally, Gabriel made a trip from San Francisco to Wisconsin to locate Pete. This novel is extremely imaginative. Some might have thought Maupin has gone too far with the idea a middle-aged gay man making a last attempt of fatherhood with a 13-year-old dying of AIDS. But I find this book very appealing and gripping. At first Gabriel Noone seems really pitiful and pathetic. He always looks at life in a pessimistic eye. His relationship with Jess wrecked only because he never acknowledged his true feelings and emotions inside. The search for Pete after Donna disconnected phone service turns the book into some suspenseful mystery. Pete really taught Gabriel a lesson of love: to believe and let go. And what makes this book on my A list is the ending that comes with a twist. Good to the very last page. I have to say Armistead Maupin has become a favorite author of mine after *The Night Listener*. Literature window-dressed as mystery. 4.5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: A Fast, Fun, Revealing Read
Review: This is Maupin's first work in years, and while it's hard not to suspect autobiographical undercurrents - or surface currents, really - this does not distract from the overall result. If you are a Maupin fan, you already own it - but if you don't, you should. If you haven't read Maupin before, this is an excellent choice for a start (although, Tales of the City is the classic choice). Maupin keeps the story moving nicely, while keeping the daily, human events in the story. Many of his asides ground the story in a reality that anyone from the Bay Area would recognize. His relationships between the characters are both simple and complex, unlikely and relistic ... dichotomous. I haven't laughed with Maupin like this for a few books now. Let us hope he continues writing at this level or better.
Rating:
Summary: A sad yet beautiful book
Review: I admit to preferring by far the Armistead Maupin who unravels the antics of Mrs Madrigal and her tenants. This book is concerned whit the sadness of the end of a loving relationship and the unspeakable horrors of child abuse. This is not a consoling book,but it makes you think of the meaning of life and of the ways one can cope whit its most unpleasant aspects. It's a sad book, but a beautifully written one
Rating: 
Summary: Kept me glued to the page
Review: The Night Listener by Armistead Maupin Based on a true-life event that happened to Armistead Maupin, THE NIGHT LISTENER chronicles the unusual relationship of author/radio host Gabriel Noone and a young boy dying of Aids. The unusual part of this relationship is that their friendship exists only by phone. Gabriel and his partner Jess have just recently separated. Jess, who is also HIV positive, is dealing with it on his own in a separate apartment, with new friends and a new lifestyle. Gabriel is having a hard time dealing with the separation, and is also suffering from a bout of writer's block. The entrance of young Lomax into Noone's life is a godsend. Gabriel learns about Pete's hard life: being used and abused by his own parents, part of a child sex ring where Pete played a major role. Pete now lives with a foster parent, and he is about to have his first major book published. It is during this time that Pete and Gabriel become friends. Their relationship grows into something akin to father and son, but with one catch: Gabriel never meets Pete. They discuss everything under the sun: Gabriel's relationship with his father, with his ex lover, and about his writing. Soon, seeds of doubt are planted in Gabriel's head. During a phone conversation with Pete's foster mother, Gabriel notices a very big similarity with her voice and Pete's. After talking to his publicist, who is the one that is about to publish Pete's book, Gabriel is almost convinced that there is something wrong about Pete and whether he exists at all. For one thing, Gabriel can't find a way to meet Pete. There is always one excuse or another from either Pete or his foster mother. So, when one day Gabriel calls Pete and finds that the phone number is no longer in service, Gabriel decides to try to locate Pete. With only a few clues, Gabriel makes the long drive from San Francisco to Wisconsin. This was my first book by Armistead Maupin, and I have to say that after I finished THE NIGHT LISTENER, I have become an Armistead Maupin fan. I loved his writing style and his directness about a lot of issues that I find are normally skirted in every day life. I finished this book in only a few days. If I had more time I think I would have finished it in a few hours!
Rating:
Summary: A subtle book not intended for shallow reading
Review: If you want a novel with a straightforward exposition -- the written version of a made-for-TV movie -- then this is NOT the novel for you. If you want a novel that challenges you to reach your own opinions in every chapter along the way, to find self-contradictions in the narrator's statements (e.g., Holden Caulfield, in The Catcher in the Rye, complaining about how phony people are, while being exceptionally phony himself) -- then you'll love this book. From other reviews you will have figured out that this is Maupin's therapy for -- in real life -- having been taken in by a woman posing as a boy who wrote a book about his supposedly abuse-laden childhood. As a skeptical kind of guy myself, this novel helped me understand how someone could be taken in by such a scam. But the book is much more than that. It *is* a bit confusing, jumping back and forth among three different plot lines. The final, final ending is brilliant -- it refuses to resolve the main mystery (although I think the solution to that one is clear, skeptic that I am) while it blasts into your astonished face the secret to another mystery completely unrelated to the hoax.
Rating:
Summary: I LAUGHED, I CRIED, ...
Review: ...and I enjoyed! This book was a fast read(3 hours) giving me a few starts, a couple of tears, several laughs and a desire to hug Armistead. Thanks Mr. M..
Rating: 
Summary: Should be "Armistead Maudlin"
Review: Maupin's protaganist (who is a thiny veiled version of Maupin, himself)worries that he will be discovered as a literary fraud. Good heavens - has anyone ever considered Maupin "literature?" Why didn't my gay lit class in college inform me of this as we were reading Balwin and Isherwood? Maupin wrote a gossipy article for a newspaper and had them anthologized - hardly literary at all. This book was dreadful - no structure, maudlin sentimentality, plotless menaderings, a complete lack of credibility and a self-absorbed unlikable protaganist. If you want entertainment, read "Tales of the City." If you want literature, skip Maupin altogether! Dreadful, Maudlin, Poorly Crafted and Self-Absorbed!
Rating:
Summary: Mysterious/realistic/amazing
Review: This was my intro to Maupin, and I must say he has such an amazing way of conveying identifiable experiences and feelings in this life, (trust me, I've lived many of them!-many laughs, many sighs) I read it entirely in one sitting -all night long!! The turmoil incurred by the vulnerable/evasive co-protagonists was spellbinding. At the end, I just had to scratch my head and chuckle, which any mystery should inspire. I'm now a Devoted Maupin fan.
Rating:
Summary: Completely unrealistic & disturbing
Review: The main problem I had with this book was the character of Pete Lomax. It was absolutely unbelievable that a 13 year old boy, who had suffered years of horrific sexual abuse and contracted HIV because of it, would be so confident, mature and wise beyond his years. And using him as some sort of "therapist" for the whiny, insecure, middle-aged protaganist Gabriel Noone just made it all the more ridiculous (especially when he was giving him sexual advice----come on!!!) I admit that I couldn't even finish the book because it bothered me so much. I've heard his other works are better, so perhaps I'll give them a try.
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