The Night Listener

Armistead Maupin

Armistead Maupin has always been associated with Tales of the City, in my mind. And all I know of that is the outraged reaction that my PBS station received when they aired it. So I went into The Night Listener without a clue about what I would find. I found a middle-aged man talking to a child about things that I thought were not appropriate, and I almost stopped reading after several chapters. However, there was a plot twist shortly thereafter that kept me glued to the book, and I finished it in two days. As a story, it was lacking - the characters seemed a tad unreal, and sometimes difficult to believe in. I found myself thinking, would these people REALLY do that? The writing was easy to read and the plot twists were good, until there were simply too many of them and they wore thin. I could recommend this novel, but not without reservations.