Customer Reviews

Clay's Way: A Novel

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Wow. Having finished this book I can say only that the blurbs and synopsis just don't do it justice. If you've read as many works of gay-themed fiction as I have, you'll probably read all the buzz on this one and think "Yeah, whatever," feeling like you've seen it all before and know exactly where this one's going and what it's got going on. And you will be wrong. This book will kick your ass.

Who is Blair Mastbaum, and where did he learn to write like this? His main character, Sam, is such a tremendous achievement on so many levels -- from his pitch-perfect narrative voice and dialog to the absolutely spot-on descriptions of his behavior -- that I am astonished to think that this could be Mastbaum's first published work of fiction. For those of us who have never been to Hawaii, the idea of living there would seem like paradise. Mastbaum shows us how it can be supremely confining and possibly even drive you mad. Most of all, though, he creates a cast of very real characters, especially Sam. Sam is no one-note "rebel kid," but a knowing, articulate youth on the verge of manhood, whose actions and feelings embody honesty and complexity while sometimes throwing in a bit of the contradictory. In other words, an actual person. It is thrilling to read a book that features such a fully realized main character.

One of the hallmarks of a classic story is its ability to evoke the universal. "Clay's Way" is just such a novel. At its core, it is a story about what can happen when an attraction to your ideal is suddenly fulfilled, only to push you further towards the limits of infatuation and obsession. We are along for the ride as Sam pursues and, in a manner of speaking, wins Clay, but as the story unfolds, Sam must ultimately face whether he has been as true to himself as he could have been.

A particularly brilliant passage in the book presents an extended sequence where Sam, without Clay, drive's Clay's truck to visit Clay's home and then a house party full of Clay's friends, pushed so hard by events and feelings that he has become utterly consumed by Clay, channeling his personality and mannerisms and interacting with Clay's mom and friends as though possessed. Mastbaum finds a way for Sam to describe his actions in his own, true voice, while at the same time expressing as much amazement as anyone at what is happening. The virtuosity of this writing is breathtaking, not least because it seems so effortless and true.

At the center of all the action, of course, is the character of Clay. As I read along, it started to dawn on me that maybe Clay wasn't really so worthy of Sam's devotion, as charming as he seemed on the surface and as happy as he was making Sam through much of the story. How much of what Sam was feeling was based on what he really knew of Clay, and how much was just what he wished Clay to be? It is not until the book's final pages that we learn what is really going on with Clay and where his allegiances truly lie. One of the supporting characters hints to Sam (and us) that maybe this is where things are leading, yet when the scene finally erupts it is still a shocker.

Along the way we encounter other people in Sam's world. Deserving special mention are Susan, Clay's mom; Kendra, a mutual friend of Sam's and Clay's; and Anar, a sexy and mysterious boy who is both Sam's rival for Clay as well as his seducer. Anar especially would be worth a book of his own, but all of these characters are fully three-dimensional with their own distinct personalities.

It would be easy to go on and on about this book and the promise it holds for whatever Blair Mastbaum publishes next. There is nary a sour note anywhere. Descriptions of people and places arise naturally out of the context of the story, appropriately detailed. And this sense of the natural includes Sam's sexuality. The fact that Sam is gay is just another aspect of his character. This is not a coming-out novel -- Sam's pursuit is not about self-acceptance, but about completeness. He is not "out" to everyone in an unrealistic way, but his attraction to other guys doesn't keep him up at night either. And I have to say that it is refreshing to read sexual scenes that are truly, profoundly sexy. And as always they are fully within the context of events and seem as right as they are hot.

A note about availability: for some reason, my search for this title in the "big box," brick-and-mortar bookstores was futile. Perhaps Alyson Books just doesn't have its distribution channels set up like the major publishing houses. For that reason I'm grateful that it was ultimately a click away.

In all honesty, I wasn't expecting to like this book because it was about surfers and wanna-be punk skateboarders. I ordered it only because of the rave reviews it received here on Amazon.

I'm glad Amazon has the extensive review system that it does.

It's rare for gay teen sexuality to be dealt with so openly as Mastbaum deals with it here. Other books I've read, that I've also enjoyed, deal mainly with coming out and emotional issues. The carnal and erotic aspect of their sexuality seems to get left out. I'd wondered about that, thinking that in today's ultra-conservative watchdog America such literature would be frowned upon by publishers. Thankfully, Alyson Publications did not.

The main character, Sam, so brilliantly written without what has almost become in this genre archetypal angst or self-pity, "spoke" openly about his intense sexual urges, his erections, his orgasms, his anger, his hatred, and his obsessions. Again - all without angst or self-pity. For Mastbaum to pull that off is a wonder. Sam was possibly the most honest character I've yet to come across in fiction of any genre.

Not to harp on sexuality, but so many books and films, even those that aren't dealing with gay/coming out issues, completely gloss over that a teenager has sexual urges. I've found this intensely frustrating, as both a reader and a writer, because - duh - I was a teenager and remember vividly what my experience was like. I also remember the experiences of my peers - both those that I knew and those that I didn't. At that age, it's very for guys to walk around with erections 24/7, and sex is almost all they think about. I knew intelligent guys that were so obsessed with sex that they found themselves wallowing with C averages instead of the A average they should have had.

I can't believe that Blair Mastbaum is twenty-five years old. He writes with assurance and poise that would make experienced writers jealous. Being thirteen years his senior, and sparsely published, I "know of what I speak".

I've spoken about the intense sexuality in this book, but there's far more to it than that, or Mastbaum's incredible way with words. Sam is utterly, absolutely obsessed and in love with Clay from the very beginning, although as the book progresses it becomes quite clear that it may be more obsession than love. Even Sam wonders if he's in love with Clay, or in love with who Clay is - if he simply wants to be as cool and self-assured as Clay is. The irony in all of this is that Clay isn't nearly as self-assured as he appears on the surface, and we see this as the novel progresses. That said, I wish we had gotten into Clay's head a little more. True, when he admits that his girlfriend caught him masturbating while looking at a picture of Sam, this is a significant revelation. We should be intuitive enough to guess at the rest - and we are. It's just that Sam was so potent, so full of anger, so confused, so obsessed, and we know that Clay was experiencing a tremendous amount of confusion. While we know that, I would have liked to *see* it. True, Clay broke out into a fit of hysterical crying at one point, cried more than once at others, and this speaks volumes to the disarray of his sexuality. Still, I can't help but wish that we saw something more akin to Sam's emotions, which were so raw on every page that they seemed to rent the pages, in Clay.

That's my only complaint, and I can hardly call it a complaint. I breezed through this book, and was sad to see it end - but heartened that a sequel is in the works. It would be very interesting to see a sequel written, telling the same story, from Clay's perspective.

Read this book. It is, from what I've read so far, the most honest gay teen novel I've read.

"Clay's Way" is an absolutely wonderful novel, full of imagery and vivid characters. I'm in college now, but in rendering his protagonist Sam, Mastbaum created a character that could have easily been one of my stoner/skater group of friends. I'd just like to add that the before-mentioned group of people (painting with a broad brush) are some of the most accepting people you'd ever want to meet. This is, I believe at least partly responsible for Sam's sexual orientation being a non-issue - the other reason is that people of my generation are less concerned with identity politics - it's like having brown hair or choosing Converse over Etnies, it's just not a big deal anymore. Clay is a more complicated case, rather than give him any sort of label I'd say that he is at turns massively confused and in deep denial. I wouldn't say that the Sam-Clay dynamic is entirely Sam's projection - I believe that on some level Clay really does love Sam but that it just wasn't meant to be. As a favorite teacher once told me when I was asking for boyfriend advice "high school isn't where you meet THE ONE anyways." In writing Clay's Way, Blair Mastbaum has written a novel that I believe most people of my generation can identify with and I'll predict it has enough within it's pages to be value to a future generation.

While Mastbaum's book is lauded as a great gay novel, I would like to expand on that and say that it's a great novel, period. The characters may be gay, but their emotions are universal - I felt the same angst, anguish, confusion, lust, love, happiness and sadness when I was a teenage girl. And while the book is also described as raw and dangerous, I would also like to point out that it is extremely tender. I think this is a wonderful novel by a truly talented writer.

Teenage nihilism and love torn angst is the subject of this smart, emotionally charged first novel from Blair Mastbaum. Set against the backdrop of Hawaii's Oaho and Kauai islands, Clay's Way tells the story of fifteen-year-old Sam, an earthy, volatile skater boy, and his obsession with Clay, an older pothead, surfer boy who has his own demons to contend with. Narrated in the first person with an all-most stream of consciousness style, Clay's Way takes the reader on Sam's journey of self-discovery as he battles for Clay's unrequited love.

Sam is an unusually aware teenager. He spurns his middle class, bourgeois parents, who are more concerned about picking their stock options than worrying about him. And while he yells profanity and rebels against at them, he secretly writes love torn haiku poetry and pines for the next time he sees Clay. Clay is the epitome of the local cool boy - he has the obligatory blonde girlfriend, the butch truck, the muscled body, the shark-toothed necklace, and the tattoos. The impressionable Sam is absolutely besotted with him. And Clay secretly likes Sam, but he's a cool boy, a "cool dude" who plays punk rock music from his truck stereo, and surreptitiously seduces and beguiles Sam whenever he has the chance.

Sam is driven to so many extremes over his crush. In one instance, he violently mutilates himself in Clay's truck, and in another instance, he surreptitiously creeps into Clay's home, hides in his bedroom, and spies on Clay and his girlfriend Tammy having intimate relations. The reader soon learns that Sam's life is full of sexual angst and confusion, "maybe I'm too young to be in this sort of position," and even though his weirdness and self-deprecation is shocking, one cannot help but like him.

The strength of Clay's Way is the way Mastbaum really gets to the heart of Sam's psyche, and as all the action is filtered through Sam's eyes, one gets a totally raw and discerning view of a teenager's conflicted world. Love for Sam is indirect motivation, uncontrollable lust, and he forgets to feel that love as just a simple emotion. Mastbaum is also incredibly clever at Sam's sensory descriptions of Clay - from his dirty tee shirts, to the smell of his car, and his skin; it's as though the author is describing a wild animal on heat. The story takes lots of twists and turns amidst the seedy paradise of the Honolulu suburbs and its alcohol and drug-fueled teenage parties.

Ultimately Clay's Way is a rather sad coming-of-age story, where Sam doesn't necessarily get want he wants out of life, and after the drinking, the drug taking, the violence, and the soul searching, he becomes a much more mature person. The final scene, full of spiritual meaning and beauty, is quite heart breaking as Sam looks up at the stars and declares a kind of goodbye to his youth. Mastbaum has written a wonderfully engaging novel, full of totally realistic characters, who are full of youthful dynamism, and conflicted with childish torment. Mike Leonard January 05.

This exquisite book took me by surprise. It also took me back in time, eyes filled with tears, to my 16th year when by turns I played the part of Clay and sometimes Sam in my own story of love and loss. No book of fiction Gay or otherwise has so accurately portrayed what actually goes on in the mind and with the body of a 16 year old boy. By turns funny and desperately sad, uplifting and bittersweet, Clay's Way left me lying awake on my bed remembering, not just with my mind, but with my whole being what it was like to be in love with another boy at 16.
Clay's Way is also a welcome departure from the "Gay-Boy-moves-to Big-City-Confronts-Aids" formulaic pulp so often peddled as "Gay Literature" This book is well written, suspenseful and very satisfying I recommend it heartily to ANYONE who was ever in love at any age.

This terrific debut novel turns the typical teenage coming out story on its ear by portraying its sixteen year old narrator, Sam, as completely self-loathing in every respect EXCEPT with regard to his sexuality (which he treats with extreme matter-of-factness). In many ways he is the typical rebellious teen, he hates his folks, his life, his appearance & is forever trying on different looks and identities in an awkward effort to express his individuality, but as the book follows his faltering romance and subsequent obsession with Clay, a hip and attractive local surfer, Sam turns into something more sinister. He goes beyond garden-variety teen stalking and, in a sense, actually attempts to become his lover. Clay is Sam's polar opposite in every way - he is completely comfortable in his own skin EXCEPT for his inablity to acknowledge his homosexuality.

Mastbaum has beautifully captured his teen narrator's voice; Sam is a fully realized, authentic character. Although you may find yourself cringing in places, it is difficult not to sympathize with him, even as he strays dangerously into Travis Bickle/Rupert Pupkin territory. I read this book in one day with very few breaks. On the one hand this is a testament to how quickly the writing engaged me but on the other, it also gave rise to my only complaint. Reading Sam's insistent, almost relentless, and highly emotive ranting in such concentration was a lot like taking a long train ride with a hopped up, loquacious youngster - completely exhausting.

I definitely recommend this one.

Clay's Way starts off as our main character Sam is waking up. He
then stands up on his bed and proceeds to take a leek out his window. I almost didn't read on, but I had to find out what makes this self absorbed, parent-hating kid tick.

Set in Oahu, Hawaii, Blair Mastbaum's debut novel gives the
reader a front row seat into the mind of a confused, drugged up 16 year old. Sam's in love with 18 year old drug supplier and surfing big shot, Clay. I felt like slapping Sam upside his head more times than I can count. Mastbaum did a great job making me not particularly care for his frustrating protagonist. Clay is equally messed up.

The book, from Alyson Publications, has at most two line errors,
but...it's riddled with continuity errors.

Two off the top of my head...

"...he found a shady spot to sit." Next line, he's taking off his
shirt because of the hot sun on his back.

Another...

"He got down off the rock and walked along the beach." Two sentences
later, Sam is climbing down off the (same) rock.

Throughout the book, I was distracted by these inconsistencies.

That said, Clay's Way is a worthwhile read if you want a peek into the lives of Hawaiian teen sk8brdrs and surfer dudes, and what's going on inside their heads...if anything. I will give Blair
Mastbaum's next book a try.

(Congratulations on being the Lambda Literary Award winner for the best men's fiction debut novel of 2004.)

Thank you Blair Mastbaum for not letting us down. This was my first "gay-themed" book. I was worried that a book would be a let down, like most gay movies seem to be (why can't they get it right?). Anyway, Clay's Way was very enjoyable and I would totally recommend it to eveyone, ok maybe not "eveyone". You know what I mean. But if you are reading these reviews, buy this book, you'll love it

A book that I had very high expectations for turned out to be a dud. The story starts off as interesting and engaging, but by part two it takes an annoying and painful turn for the worse. The story present a view not of reality but of hyper reality, the things the characters say and do are things people tend to think but would hardly, if ever, say or do out loud. Further more as you watch Clay's continued lack of acceptance of himself continuously escalates to a point where you can't help but to be angry at him, and Sam's bright eyed insistence on a happy ending in-spite of all evidence to the contrary is equally aggravating. The fact that the book ends in the matter that it does certainly doesn't help matters. All in all it starts off strong, but if you stop reading at the end of part one, you'll really be doing yourself a favor.