We found Armistad Maupin's The Night Listener just about as close to unreadable as it gets. The memory is still vivid, lumbering through the first 25 or 30 artless pages in a Santa Monica restaurant and finally tossing it aside with disgust. As we walked out of the restaurant sans book, we were chased down by a helpful waiter trying to return. "All yours," we muttered. "Knock yourself out." All of which is a long way of saying we don't expect to be going to see the film version, which is presently upon us.
After falling for an elaborate hoax -- one that had all the trappings of a ``Psycho'' or a fake Howard Hughes autobiography -- San Francisco's Armistead Maupin was determined to have the last word.
In 2000, he published a novel about a gay radio host who falls under the spell of a phone voice that may or may not belong to an abused 14-year-old boy, who may or may not be dying of AIDS . . . and who may or may not have written a memoir detailing his experiences as sex slave.
That novel, ``The Night Listener,'' is now a movie starring Robin Williams. Like the book, it's inspired by phone conversations Maupin had with someone who claimed to be Anthony Godby Johnson, teen author of the bestselling memoir ``A Rock and a Hard Place.''
But you never know. If a screenwriter could mire through it (even if inaccurately or tangentially), THE NIGHT LISTENER might end up serving well as the opposite of the famous "the book is better than the movie" scenario. The trailers look interesting. Now I'm curious.
At any rate, there are a few books on my own shelf I couldn't get through that I wish I could have (Durrell's JUSTINE, as one example). Now this is not to say Durrell's not a fab writer, because he is, to many people (to differentiate between Durrell and Maupin). I just didn't "get" the first 30 pages of JUSTINE and so left it behind. Maybe a movie would make a proper "translation" for the likes of me?
(That being said, I'll check into the likelihood; it seems natural there'd be at least a foreign film made of Durrell's QUARTET.)
So who knows? Maybe a movie will make a proper "translation" of THE NIGHT LISTENER as well. Just food for thought.
Posted by: Tamara Kaye Sellman | July 31, 2006 at 07:16 AM
Definitely looking forward to this movie!!
Posted by: Jerry Sticker | July 31, 2006 at 10:44 AM
That Robin Williams is the star of the film is enough reason for me not to go. Do you think he'll be really, really sensitive? Do you think he might call someone "chief" during the course of the movie? Do you think he'll have a beard? Do you think he'll over act to the point that you actually ask for Jonathan Winters to show up as a huge alien baby to save the movie? (And Maupin adapated the novel for the screen, too.)
On the other hand, I did enjoy the Tales of the City books Maupin did and the initial TV version with Laura Linney and Olympia Dukakis.
Posted by: tod goldberg | July 31, 2006 at 01:01 PM
I'll second that, Tod. I liked all of Maupin's other books, some quite a lot. But the Night Listener never made it for me either, though I would have left the restaurant with it. But Robin Williams takes away what little interest I had in seeing this on screen.
I wish movies wouldn't continually wreck good books. Surely Hollywood can butcher original scripts just as easily?
Posted by: Dave Worsley | July 31, 2006 at 03:49 PM
That book is indeed a flaming bag of shite .. the only they could make the movie worse than the book is to put Robin Williams .. mission accomplished!
Posted by: Keith Demko | August 02, 2006 at 02:49 PM
It's a shame you feel the need to trash the book on your blog when you've read only 20 or 30 pages of it. If I recall correctly, that was about when the book took a major turn and became unputdownable for me . . . and for every other person I know who's read it.
Putting down a book after 30 pages is your right, of course, but that means you've disqualified yourself from offering intelligent commentary on said book.
Posted by: Julie | August 03, 2006 at 06:24 AM