Rating: 
Summary: Umm, kinda there, kinda not
Review: I did indeed enjoy the read. I have some qualifiers, however, that I thought I might throw in.I had the pleasure of attending one of Maupin's readings promoting the novel here in Austin a few days ago, and seeing just a few semi-filtered bits of Maupin's own life threw things into perspective, not the least of which was seeing "Jess/Jamie/Thack/D'orothea" embodied in the person of one Terry Anderson. Just that much allowed me to see very quickly where the lines were drawn between fiction and reality. Though I know that the work should stand alone, parallels to the author's own life invite an urge for making comparisons that cannot be resisted. On the whole, while I did enjoy the book, I think it makes a better memoir than novel. Homages to various Hitchcock films aside, the book's "metaphoric" journey to Wisconsin takes on a different light with the realization that the book was written while Maupin was being medicated and treated for depression following his breakup with Terry. It's also not difficult, having seen Terry, to find the depiction of not only Gabriel's and Jess's relationship (as well as Michael and Thack's and DeeDee and Dorothea's) but its "transfiguration," as it were, as completely plausible in a literal, as opposed to literary, sense. I also find a little Freudian amusement from Maupin's symbolic dispatch about Gabriel's father, the second time Maupin has disposed of issues with his own parents in this way. At times it does seem that the whole family issue was added in as an afterthought, because it doesn't quite sit flush with the rest of what Maupin is doing with the novel. The parallels just aren't there as far as telling the story until very near the end, at a point which makes the "revelation" seem contrived, and pushes my notion of "successful memoirist" even further. One mind-boggling (at least to me, another heavily medicated writer of sorts) aspect of the book is how Maupin manages to bring his characters, quite literally, to life. I suppose you could say, metaphorically, that Armistead Maupin has given himself the children he hasn't had thus far. There were a few things about the plot, meaning those elements not related to the biographical items, that were a little more in the realm of "dead giveaways," and Maupin doesn't try to hide them much, which I wouldn't expect of someone who was writing a sort of stylistic homage to Hitchcock. Maupin passes them off as Gabriel's/his own inclination towards self-delusion, but what little insights they provide unintentionally . . . I, like many other readers, seem to be wavering: on the one hand, I'd like to see more Barbary Lane-type material, on the other, I'd like to see Maupin stretch more as a writer, get further away from vaguely fictionalizing his own life and experience while still creating compelling work. This novel aspires to both, but falls a few inches short of either. Niggling personal criticisms aside, save for a few not fully aligned or realized episodes, The Night Listener is an engrossing read that many people, even those who are nothing like Maupin at all or know nothing about him, will find things in with which to identify, which is, in fact, the author's stated intent.
Rating: 
Summary: I speaks to universal themes, in an unusual package
Review: This book was startlingly good. Not that I would ever think that Armistead Maupin could write a book I wouldn't like (he could write a book about paint drying and it would be interesting in some way), but I was wondering if I'd find the story as interesting as the TOTC series. After reading a couple of chapters, thinking I'd finish it upon returning home, I was hooked. Before I knew it I had read 1/2 the book. I finished it the next night. When I was done, I was in shock. I have read many books, but NONE have ever made me feel the emotions I felt reading this book. No book ever made me actually cry, and for an extended period of time too. People should read this book even if they think its subject matter (gay relationships, child abuse, famous authors, etc.) would not appeal to them. I'm not gay, I don't know anyone who has been abused like Pete Lomax was as a child, and I am not a published author, and yet I found this book and the emotions and feelings it described were universal themes relevant to my own life and things I was going through at the time I bought the book and previously. It was a very moving experience .
Rating:
Summary: Art Imitating Life?
Review: Armistead Maupin is a master story teller. I remember reading the first "Tales of the City" book and feeling that I was lost in a magical world. A feeling that no book has replicated for me, until the Harry Potter stories. Now Maupin returns with "The Night Listener", a book that seems closer to his own life story than anything he has previously written. In it his narrator, Gabriel Noone is a novelist struggling with writers block, and a breakup of his long term relationship with Jess, his former lover. After a publisher sends him the galley of a nonfiction book about a young boy, Pete Lomax, who was horribly abused sexually, he develops a friendship with the boy via the telephone. As their relationship grows, Gabriel and Pete develop a surrogate father son bond. This causes Gabriel to question his relationship with his own father, while at the same time resorting the scattered puzzle that was his life with Jess. Suddenly Maupin concocts a scenerio for a genuine page turning mystery as Gabriel attempts to discover the truth about Pete. The premise for the book is where the headtrip started for me, in part because Maupin so successfully blurs the lines between truth and fiction. The boys' story, which is loosely recounted in the novel, appears to be verbatim from a book called, 'A Rock and a Hard Place'. I had read the book years ago, and was deeply moved by it. At the time it was published it created a stir because many people wondered if the eloquent and brave boy actually existed. A similar scenario wields its's head here. Maupin also recently split from his longtime companion, Terry Anderson on whom the character Jess might be based. The fun of all this is never really knowing what's fact or fiction. Maupin seems to be deliberately bluring the reality line between his own life, and the lives he created in "Tales..." by inserting a character from the "Tales..." series to layer the book like an onion skin. Maupin's Gabriel Noone says he's a "fabulist by trade" who's "spent years looting his life for fiction." Again, that could be the character talking or the author. Regardless, we as the readers are richer for it.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the Wait
Review: I saw Armistead Maupin read from this (then unpublished)novel during the spring of 1999 in London. (Ian McKellan was in the audience, just days after losing the Oscar for "Gods and Monsters"). I knew hearing the first chapters that this was going to be a special book, and I waited a year and a half to finally get my hands on a finished copy. It did not disappoint. Let me highlight some of what the other reviews overlooked: for one, this novel includes a cameo appearance by a couple of AM's better known characters (hint: they were kids during the "Tales" books) and has an twist-in-the-tale ending that is classic Maupin. In fact the entire book is a reminder of what made the "Tales" series so irresistable: like a literary hologram, the characters in AM's books are often not what they appear to be, or are they? I can see what Maupin is going for here: our need for face value trust belies the greater truth of the humanity that lies beneath the surface of our packaging. The fact that he writes about this truth with a gentle touch makes the realization all the more moving. This book is a great comeback, completely worth the wait.
Rating:
Summary: Jewelling the Elephant
Review: I've followed the TV adaptation of Maupin's 'Tales of the City' over the years, which seemed to get more fantastic and convoluted as they went along, but this is the first time that I've actually read one of his novels. It concerns Gabriel Noone, a very Maupin-like author, who is trapped in the travails of writers' block. I have been similarly blocked trying to write this review! However, my difficulty in writing in no way negatively reflects this wonderful book. One day Noone is in a studio, and just can't go on recording one of his radio shows. Noone finds that there is something wrong with his voice - he can't recognise it. This, in turn, afflicts his writing, and he finds it impossible to commit anything worthwhile to paper. Deep down inside, he realises that his inability to write reflects his current emotional turmoil. Jess, his lover, has moved out and has provided no explanation for his desertion. Noone misses him desperately, and is ever hopeful that his partner will return. Since Jess features so much in Noone's fiction (under a somewhat shallow disguise), this contributes to Noone's pain about his writing. And then Pete Lomax's galley proof arrives. Noone is resistant to read it at first, since he's well used to editors pleading for his endorsement of celebrity cookbooks. However, Pete Lomax's narrative is far weightier, because it is a tale of unpalatable suffering. Noone's emotional anguish seems trivial in comparison with this boy's pain. Noone is more than a little flattered also that his radio shows are mentioned with great admiration in Pete's book, and it's clear that the boy regards Noone as some kind of hero. So Noone contacts Pete's editor to give his endorsement, and is sucked into Pete Lomax's world. It's not long before Gabriel and Pete are exchanging involved phone calls, supervised by Donna Lomax, the psychiatrist who adopted Pete. Pete asks if he can call Gabriel 'Dad', something that Noone readily agrees to. Noone's somewhat detached father visits town, and Gabriel is reminded of his mother, and the mysterious death of his grandfather, (also named Gabriel like he and his father). Gabriel never thought he would have someone who he could call 'son', and yet he's now embracing this young boy metaphorically over the phone. Pete seems even more poignant now that he is dying. Naturally enough, Noone turns for advice to Jess, who's thriving despite his illness due to a cocktail of drugs. Jess readily agrees to talk to Pete about treatment. However, the more Noone becomes attached to Pete, the more suspicious his friends become about the boy. So doubtful are they that even Gabriel begins to asks questions, which lead to a catastrophic turn of events in his relationship with Pete. Overcome with guilt with what he has done, Noone sets out to prove that the disembodied voice at the other end of the phone really does exist. According to Pete's narrative, he is solaced by Gabriel Noone's nightly shows. And it appears that Pete is more than prepared to play the role of listener on the phone. It almost seems as though it's Noone, with his broken heart, who needs comforting, rather than this poor sick boy. The plot of this novel twists and turns excellently, and constantly keeps you captivated over its three hundred and so pages. I think what's most attractive is the veracity of the text, and the honesty of Noone - he doesn't hesitate to reveal his petty betrayals. Maupin has created a protagonist who is very human in his selfish failings, and all the more likeable for that. Those readers who like closure are going to be in for a frustrating time though, and a good thing too! At times, it seems very much as though Noone is Maupin. Jess at one point suggests that Noone gets over his block by writing about the emotional travails of the Pete Lomax situation, and you can't help but wonder if Maupin had a similar conversation, and experience himself. What if there really was a 'Pete Lomax' character out there? This is one of the loose threads that Maupin dangles before us at the end. Those who have read James Hogg's bewitching tale of multiple personality, 'Confessions of a Justified Sinner', will have become enamoured of this type of closure though. Besides, as Noone relates, what else would you expect of a narrator who cannot but help jewelling the elephant in his tales? For that lovely metaphor, and exquisite prose, Maupin's thrilling tale of detection gets full marks.
Rating:
Summary: Different, very different.
Review: Many fiction authors have a tendency, after writing a number of books to feel predictable and formulaic. Not so Maupin in this work. Here the characters are less robust than in previous volumes, the plot less intricate yet the emotional involvement of the reader, almost because of the lightness of touch becomes more intense. Here is a story where only the hardest of hearts will remain untouched. It is the readers imagination that is given free rein, an experience usually associated with radio listening! An excellent read, spellbinding stuff! ( I can almost plot the sequel Mmmm?)
Rating: 
Summary: A SERIOUS BUT SLOWLY-PACED NOVEL
Review: Gabriel Noone is a writer with a late night radio show that is listened to by millions. Gabriel is struggling with a bad relationship, as well as dealing with writers block, when he receives a manuscript written by a thirteen year-old boy. The manuscript is the boy's memoirs of years of sexual abuse inflicted by his parents. Pete Lomax is the boy suffering with AIDS, and looking for someone to love and trust, after being urged by his adoptive mother, Donna, Pete begins talking to his favorite radio personality, Gabriel Noone. As their friendship unfolds, so do the horrific stories of abuse that the young boy has endured. The closer the two become, the more Pete looks up to Gabriel as his father figure, leading Gabriel to confront every issue he has in his own life...such as romantic relationships, and the rocky relationship he has with his father. "The Night Listener" is a novel dealing with serious issues, but as the book unfolds, it becomes hard to read...and even a little boring. I received an advance copy of the novel, with a much hyped promotional kit concerning the long awaited return of author Aristead Maupin, unfortunately I found the book to be too depressing, and uninteresting to be the big return of the bestselling author. The plot involving Pete is both shocking and sad, but the book goes off track when it gets into detailing Gabriel's life, and lifestyle, resulting in my boredom of the entire novel. "The Night Listener" could have been an excellent entry in mainstream fiction, but due to the misguided plot, it fails. Nick Gonnella
Rating:
Summary: another triumph !
Review: A great read, though middle age has made Maupin more reflective and there's lots of self-doubt and less of the old Barbary Lane 70s optimism here. That makes the book even more interesting for me and shows Maupin's tetchy side: swipes at Bears and Leathermen as well as a run-in with a married redneck. There is no loss of his great story-telling powers, and it relly is impossible to put down. I kept saying "just another chapter" and eventually read it all at one setting...
Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: Great to have a new work by Maupin and one that is so interestingly about him, about life, with wonderful twists and turns. Sat up all night reading it and as usual with his books, wished it had kept right on going!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent novel with some difficult aspects
Review: I purchased a copy of this for my partner for Christmas, and soon got a "how dare you buy a book like this for me!" I was then instructed to sit down and read it. A very good thing to be made to do. Make no mistake: this book will not be a comfortable read to all. As it indicates in the blurb (which I didn't read first), one of the characters in the book was sexually abused by his father starting at age four. Now, the details of this are not examined closely, but we are never allowed to forget how Pete was abused. It's not in our faces, but it's never too far below the surface. Having said that, the book is a triumph. Mixing fiction and autobiography together, Armistead Maupin sets out a book which is about the way in which fiction is created. The book is the fictionalised account of Gabriel Noone's failing relationship, his long-distance meeting with a young survivor of sexual abuse, and how the two help each other forward, and all the trials and tribulations associated with that progress. But don't get comfortable: 'The Night Listener' turns your expectations on their heads on several occasions. Mr. Maupin also remembers his long time fans: there are several nods to the 'Tales of the City' series and its characters. If you haven't read those books, I don't think that this book would suffer, but if you have, you get a few little bonuses. As good a book as I have read in a long time.
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