Clay's Way

I love this book so much I’ve read it 10 times and have 3 copies in my house and 1 in my car. The dynamic of the relationship within in this book is something I cannot put in words but this author can. It captures a very unique viewpoint of a queer romance that feels validating and interesting to read.

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

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.

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.

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 supp