The Night Listener (novel)
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| Author | Armistead Maupin |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
| Released | 2000 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-06-017143-X |
The Night Listener is a roman à clef novel by Armistead Maupin. The plot is based on the real life story of Anthony Godby Johnson, the purported author of a book A Rock and a Hard Place: One Boy's Triumphant Story that was later revealed to have been a hoax.
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[edit] Plot summary
Gabriel Noone is a writer whose late-night radio stories have brought him into the homes of millions. Noone has recently separated from Jess, his homosexual partner of ten years. Noone's publisher sends him the galleys of a memoir written by a thirteen-year-old boy, Peter Lomax. Noone reads the story which moves him. Pete's parents had a sound proof shed where he was sent for 'discipline'. His father started beating him at two and raped him at four. His mother knew this; she videotaped the sessions and shared them with other grownups who liked that sort of thing. And when money was tight, Pete himself was shared. People would drive across three states just to involve an eight-year-old in their games and Pete would have to suffer his abuse surrounded by the smell of Amyl Nitrite. It all stopped when Pete was age eleven. He ran away with a backpack stuffed full of the pornographic tapes and his parents ended up in jail. He never saw them again.
Pete's luck changed when he phoned a child abuse hotline. The lady who came to meet him was Donna Lomax. Donna took the boy in and eventually adopted him. She was the one who had to tell him he had tested positive for AIDS.
Noone contacts the boy and they start exchanging a series of intimate phone calls that develop into a father/son relationship. Then, something happens to explode Noone's comfortable assumptions.
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
The novel was adapted into a film starring Robin Williams, Toni Collette, and Rory Culkin, which was co-written by Maupin, Terry Anderson, and director Patrick Stettner and released on August 4, 2006.
A 2002 episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent entitled Faith[1] borrowed heavily from the book's plot.
[edit] See also
For a similar hoax, see JT LeRoy.
[edit] External links
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