Just out., October 20, 2000, Page 41, Image 41

October 20.
T
Get Dressed Up
to Party Down
This Halloween!
Performance of the year
Art imitates life
Author Armistead Maupin talks about his new book
and how much of his own relationship drama is in it
by
R ex W ockner
T
ales of the City author Arm istead M aupin
is back with a book that is part autobiog­
raphy, part fiction, part mystery novel and
6 all Maupin.
The Night Listener deals with his breakup
with longtime lover Terry Anderson via the
characters Gabriel and Jess and follows Gabriel
through a mysterious relationship with a fan—
an abused teen-age boy with A ID S. Maupin,
Anderson and I sat down recently in La Jolla,
Calif., for a chat.
this as the two of us— and there’s plenty of rea­
son to do that; there’s the suggestion that this
might he true. A t the same time, the theme of
the novel is that truth and fiction are often
indistinguishable, depending on who the story­
teller is, and that what really matters in the
end is the intensity with which we’re able to
feel love.
m 'How
funny is
'I'm the One That I Want?'
Several times while watching
the movie/ I laughed
until tears were running
down my face."
A rm istead M aupin will read from The
N ight Listener from 7:30 to 9:3 0 p.m. Oct. 26
at Powell’s Books, 1005 W Burnside St.
magpie
-Stephen Holden, The N ew York Times
cloth i no etc
MARGARET
CHO
f il m e d l i v e
in CONCERT
I'M
THE
RW: You talked in another interview
about having a gay family that is something
other than a traditional couple, which is my
own situation, too. It’s hard to explain even
to some gay people sometimes.
A M : It is.
R ex W ockner: From w hat I know of you,
the book seem s to w ander back and forth,
alm ost from sentence to sentence som etim es,
between autobiography and fiction.
RW: T h at your family might be three peo­
A rm istead M au p in : My work has done
ple or four people and that sex is not the key
that from the very beginning. I’ve always
determinant.
draw’n on bits and pieces o f my own life. Terry
A M : Exactly.
and I, as you may know, were D eD e and
D ’orothea in Significant Others, and we were
RW: In other words, the relationship you
T h ack and M ichael in Sure o f You. T h is time
and Terry still have four years after breaking up.
around, I’ve gotten a lot closer to the bone,
but I’ve still
reserved the
right to alter
in hom age to
the story
itself. T h a t
rem ains my
single obses­
sion— to tell a
really good
story— so I
have to be
able to play
fast and loose
with the facts
and the order
o f things—
invent d ia­
logue and
scenes that
never
Terry Anderson (left) and A rm istead M aupin
occurred. My
AM: It’s been one of the great discoveries of
ch ief goal was to m ake it as em otionally auto­
my life, because when Terry and 1 broke up, I felt
biographical as possible, to stay true to my
this huge sense of panic that 1 was losing every­
own feelings, because I’ve always found that
thing we’d ever built together. And he was very
when 1 do that I con n ect best with the read­
calm and loving through the whole process and
ers. But the n otion is not so much to illum i­
constantly reassuring me that I was loved as much
nate my own life as to illum inate the lives of
as I’d ever been. The circumstances of our lives
others through conclusions that I’ve com e to.
had changed but not the love. And I was realiz­
ing it in the course of writing The Night Listener.
RW: I ’m probably not the only reader who
Several places throughout the novel, Gabriel
felt he was sort of hanging at the end. Is there
Noone says, “How can I write this when 1 don’t
another book, a sequel to this book, maybe.7
know the end.7” Well, I was feeling that during
A M : I didn’t want you to he hanging so
that process myself. Terry knew from the begin­
much as swirled back into the center of the
ning that writing would be the best way for me to
bixik. W hen 1 was 15 years old, 1 saw Vertigo,
work through the experience, and he encouraged
and my life was changed immeasurably. Now
me to do so— not only encouraged me but was my
that I’m the age of Jimm y Stewart in that
chief muse and btxister when the inevitable
movie, 1 find that it said so much that I’d
morning came and 1 thought: “1 can’t do this.
always wanted to say through my own work. I
This is just too hard. 1 can’t do this.” And, of
think o f The Night Listener as sort of a thriller
course, Terry’s been marketing and promoting the
of the heart where what’s really being dealt
novel and traveling throughout Britain and
with is the nature o f love lost, but all wrapped
America with me. We have a love and respect for
up in a mystery story.
each other that is so much greater than it’s ever
been in the past. i n
RW: S o that’s a no?
A M : S o that’s a no. I consider it to be com ­
NOTE: This is just an excerpt of a much longer
plete in and o f itself. T h at’s not to say that I
interview;
full text at www.gaywired.com.
wouldn’t resurrect Gabriel N oone, but it’s high­
ly unlikely. Terry watched me through the
whole process o f this one, and it was one of the
toughest things I’ve ever had to do, because
there was the likelihood that people would see
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