Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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92 of 97 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beyond superb -- this is an author to watch, July 20, 2004
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.
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not just for gay readers, August 2, 2004
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.
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33 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Raw and honest beyond expectation, April 5, 2005
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.
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