Rating: 
Summary: An engrossing read
Review: I do not know the author to judge if this is partially a biography. But the story itself is suspenseful, engrossing and at times heart breaking. However I am giving 4 stars and not 5 stars because I never like vague ending which to me is the flaw of the whole story. Maybe it would have been a better ending if the author has just left out the afterward. Overall the book is brilliantly written. The emotions just flow and I found myself feeling for Gabriel, a lonely, insecure and unhappy man past his prime seeking for acceptance from his father and love. Did he finally find love and solace through talking with Peter/Peter's mother? The story seems to suggest so. Jess, Gabriel's 10 year lover who left him, is a fascinating character too. Jess may have Aids but he wants to live and that in itself is beauty and strength. A must read despite the ending.
Rating: 
Summary: Pathetic
Review: Not only was Gabriel exceedingly boring, repetitive and pathetic I never CARED about his character. MaupinsI kept thinking, ok yes I already know this about this or that character why do I need to be told again. Get on with it. When I read the end of this book I wanted to throw the book out the window! The book had a good premise but it got lost in the muddle.
Rating: 
Summary: I Wish I could give it 6 out of 5
Review: I just finished the most amazing book! The Night Listener, recommended strongly to me by my friends Dena and Soky is a masterpiece. Maupin's a literary genius. Though for a long time now, I had "Tales of the City" lying on my TBR, I never picked it up. I'm glad I started Maupin with The Night Listener. A semi-autobiographical novel written with so much emotion and love, its unbelievable. I have drowned myself in tears of joy and sadness. The Night Listener is a different book. And when I say that, I mean it 110%. The protagonist Gabriel Noone is a gay storyteller. He has written many novels based in San Francisco and serialised by him on AIR. His long-time partner Jess has drifted away as he has got AIDS. And one fine day he gets hold of a manuscript written by a thirteen year-old Pete Lomax who is tested positive for AIDS and tells a long dak history of child abuse. Pete and Gabriel start conversing over the telephone. Pete is an ardent fan of Gabriel's works and radio shows. Through Pete, Gabriel learns to face his own demons and where he stands in the scheme of things. He learns to live and finally love. That's not it. There are so many surprise elements. You must read the book to find that out. The Night Listener healed me... Rarely comes a book that can manage to touch you so deep. Night Listener is one of them. The book is an event in my life. The healing, the emoting, the knowing, the nature of forgiving and sometimes loving to insanity are not the only hallmarks of this magnificient novel. There's more to it. Much More. Read to find out...
Rating:
Summary: The love of stories
Review: Gabriel Noone is a writer and storyteller on a radio program called "Noone at Night". Through a publishing house editor, Gabriel begins talking on the phone with one of his fans, Pete, an ailing boy who was intensely abused. The friendship blossoms, until Gabriel begins to doubt Pete's tales and existence. Could this be just an elaborate hoax? And if not, then how hurtful will doubting Pete's story be? Gabriel confronts his relationships with his estranged lover and with his aged father, and ultimately must learn that love is about letting go. "The Night Listener" is about the power of fiction and stories in people's lives, and reminded me of Felice Picano's "The Book Of Lies", but Maupin's book is nowhere near as aggravating in its ending and leaves the reader feeling hopeful, if somewhat bewildered.
Rating:
Summary: Melancholy, bittersweet, unsettling
Review: This book had great interest for me in light of the press it has received for it's basis in a bizarre real life scenario involving several high visibility figures drawn in by its beguiling and tragic central characer. Additionally, it marks a departure for Maupin whose previous works have been witty, and uplifting, despite underlying substantive, and occasionally heavy messages. "The Night Listener" is a serious, thought provoking book. It is also a genuine and somewhat disturbing mystery, and in that regard an ideal book for book group discussion. Interestingly, the tragic alleged victim of pedaphilia (his existence at all becomes a mystery) who the recorder of the tale attempts to console, ends up serving as the therapist for an older gay man whose long term relationship has atrophied, and who is struggling with a painful, but polite separation, and increasing distance from his partner. The story is insightful in revealing how well intentioned good efforts can actually emanate from primarily self serving motivations and needs. The story would be complex, and thought provoking enough, if one did not already realize it is based upon actual circumstances. That realization was unfortunately distracting as I read it; however, it also made what one might dismiss as an implausible and far fetched tale, in fact credible. And because it is reality based, the tale is that much more sad, and disturbing. This one of those novels you will ponder for days after completing it, and with which you will associate current events. In that respect it is a quite a fine book and a genuinely worthwhile investment of time.
Rating:
Summary: Intricate Spirals
Review: A hard book to categorize--part mystery, part love-story, part semi-demi-memoir...Gabriel Noone is a media personality (like Maupin) from a good Southern family (like Maupin) who has mined his personal life shamelessly for material (like Maupin), but while everything in this novel may have a grain of truth, at the same time none of it is true, because all of it has been touched with artifice, which is what Maupin (and Noone) are brilliant at. So the intricate spiralling revelations of the plot (is Gabriel's partner really leaving him? When will we get to meet the prepubescent author of a disturbing new book which Gabriel has been asked to blurb?) are never quite what we expect. We are manipulated by the storyteller into believing, and then restructuring our beliefs, and it's a wonderful ride...Sometimes sad, frequently comic, with cameo appearances by minor characters from his other books, I admire this novel greatly. Direct-but-unpreachy commentary on the nature of love and commitment and creativity, and some memorable metaphors...Great characters, evocative descriptions (I recognize those streets in San Francisco, don't I? I've met some of the people in the Castro, haven't I? I've driven that highway in Wisconsin, right?) and a twisty, tricky plot which keeps the pages turning. Quite good, engrossing and engaging. I personally enjoy novels told in the first person, if that narrator is interesting and has a unique voice. Gabriel Noone/Armistead Maupin is certainly that narrator.
Rating:
Summary: I want to be Armistead's own Pete Lomax
Review: I cannot remember being as moved by a book, being taken through so many different emotions as I was after reading this treasure of a book. Armistead Maupin has a way with words that can have you laughing your ass off with one sentence and crying your eyes out with the next. I will never forget Gabriel Noone, Pete, Donna and every one of the "real" characters in this book. I love Armistead's book just like Pete loved Gabriel's. I hope we don't have to wait another eight years for the next project.
Rating:
Summary: Riveting and memorable
Review: I only bought this book as I couldn't find anything else of interest before going on a long flight and having loved the Tales of the City series decided to give this a try. Needless to say I didn't get any sleep on that trip until I'd turned the last page. It was a riveting read and I really enjoyed it. It will also stay with me for a long time, especially the part where Jess first speaks to Pete and what he suspects (don't want to spoil the surprise). The only problems I had with it were the constant similarities with Maupin's own life and the ambiguity of the ending. Call me old fashioned, but it just turned a bit wishy-washy at the end. Nevertheless, a great book, and should be read by a huge audience.
Rating: 
Summary: Perhaps his other works are better...
Review: I can't deny that The Night Listener is engaging and easy to relate to. What I liked most is the way Gabriel describes the pain of losing a lover and falling into a depression. It's not easy to stick to him, but Maupin's depiction of the loss is very accurate. However, the whole story about Pete and his relationship with Gabriel is unrealistic and creepy. We virtually cannot see the emotional scars that Pete carries due to his years of suffering. Perhaps the writer has tried to give us a clue, after all, we never know if Pete is really himself. But the fact that after a few phone calls, Gabriel and Pete are calling themselves father and son, made me feel very uneasy. Also, the subplot involving Gabriel and his father is cliched and boring.
Rating:
Summary: Sometimes telling a story is the only way to tell the truth.
Review: I found my way to this excellent novel after reading a New Yorker article (Nov 19, 2001) about Maupin and a teenage writer named Anthony Godby Johnson that article said nothing about LeRoy. The New Yorker proposes that the teenage author never existed and that the woman who supposedly adopted him wrote the book. She also pretended to be him on the phone for about 10 years. Maupin based his book on his involvement with this fraud. Maupin was one of many celebrity victims of this literary hoax. As for "The Night Listener", I couldn't put it down. It a real thriller and also a touching account of how a man copes with loss...his lover, his father, his childhood and, ultimately, a child who was never there....I personally loved the ending.
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