I may not be judging this book fairly as a work of fiction – I wanted to read it because I had originally read the Rock and a Hard Place, the book published by “Pete”, when I was about twelve, and had really gotten into it. I’d felt a bit betrayed when I found out it was a hoax, and remembered the note from “Dad” assuring readers that “Pete” was real. So I wanted the story behind that, how Maupin had been hoaxed too.
The Night Listener felt like yet another hoax, unfortunately, a lie about how a lie came to be. Because it didn’t account for how the boy’s book _was_ published, with a long foreward from Maupin assuring readers that it was real. Why did the real Maupin do that? Did he have doubts at that time, was he trying to help the boy, or did he know it was false and it was some sort of coldhearted calculation in this strange world of elephants? I feel a bit more let down at the end, that this book was again some fantasy for suckers, and nothing to do with whatever the real motivations were in the real story that occurred.
If one likes a show, this book is all right. But if you want to see behind the curtain, not so much.
… And yet – thinking again – I think he did give some clues in the middle, in his imaginary conversation with the imaginary publisher, of why he could not really explain. So perhaps it is meant to be as true as he felt he could be. And he also mentions, how telling the truth would hurt and affect so many others. So perhaps this is as real as Maupin could be in correcting his lie to us readers, yet without telling truths that would wound others…a tricky dance indeed.
also posted at goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2922682464