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A review by jackieeh
The Night Listener by Armistead Maupin
4.0
Okay. Within the first five pages, it became apparent that this book was about storytelling and truth and falsehood and embellishment. Not only does the narrator, Gabriel Noone, tell the reader this point blank, but Armistead Maupin tells us that himself, by making the parallels between himself and his main character extremely easy to draw. Okay, we think, here we have an equivalent Armistead Maupin, who has written an equivalent Tales of the City series, in which equivalent characters act out a story equivalent to that of the author and his partner. Fine.
Then in waltzes A CHARACTER FROM TALES OF THE CITY, Anna (not Madrigal, but Anna of Edgar and Anna, DeDe Halcyon's twins). Instead of a toddler, she is now a 21 year old bookkeeper, which makes sense with the publication date and the original time frame of Tales of the City.
At this point, the entire story within a story about another story based on a story based on a true story thing goes completely out the window. All these wires are crossed, and that potential confusion (potential, because only a handful of readers may even pick up on any of this) paves the way for the actual confusion of the plot.
The mystery at the center of the book was very well done. Even though there is nothing particularly frightening about Gabriel Noone's predicament, I got shivers down my spine more than once, mostly after the halfway mark when his phone conversations with Pete and Donna start occurring on multiple levels.
Why four stars? As much as I like Maupin--and he himself alludes to this through his stand-in Gabriel Noone--his prose doesn't blow me out of the water. Also, truck stop sex seems pretty unnecessary in a book that's all about intangibility.
Plus, obviously, I was hoping against hope for Brian Hawkins to wander through. But that would be too much confusion, even for this book.
Then in waltzes A CHARACTER FROM TALES OF THE CITY, Anna (not Madrigal, but Anna of Edgar and Anna, DeDe Halcyon's twins). Instead of a toddler, she is now a 21 year old bookkeeper, which makes sense with the publication date and the original time frame of Tales of the City.
At this point, the entire story within a story about another story based on a story based on a true story thing goes completely out the window. All these wires are crossed, and that potential confusion (potential, because only a handful of readers may even pick up on any of this) paves the way for the actual confusion of the plot.
The mystery at the center of the book was very well done. Even though there is nothing particularly frightening about Gabriel Noone's predicament, I got shivers down my spine more than once, mostly after the halfway mark when his phone conversations with Pete and Donna start occurring on multiple levels.
Why four stars? As much as I like Maupin--and he himself alludes to this through his stand-in Gabriel Noone--his prose doesn't blow me out of the water. Also, truck stop sex seems pretty unnecessary in a book that's all about intangibility.
Plus, obviously, I was hoping against hope for Brian Hawkins to wander through. But that would be too much confusion, even for this book.