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A review by moodswinger
Clay's Way by Blair Mastbaum
1.0
For much of Clay's Way, I wondered just what in the world I was reading. John Rechy, a highly lauded writer, is quoted in the backcover as saying, "A gay Catcher in the Rye." Certainly, it's not hard to picture readers ranking Holden and Sam as equally annoying, teenaged main characters. However, Salinger is an amazing writer and Mastbaum is not.
Blair Mastbaum was trying very hard to infuse his novel with some meaning. And so I can't tell if the utterly trite metaphors and similes employed are intentional, because Sam is such a vapid stoner, or because Mastbaum really can't write anything better. Regardless, this pastiche of a novel is composed of about 100 pages of Sam forcing his way into Clay (the boy he likes)'s life, in just about the creepiest manner I've ever read. This is followed by around 80 pages of a camping trip in which we learn that Clay is just as unhealthily obsessed with Sam. And for the last act, the reader is treated to 50 pages of Sam attempting to impersonate Clay (to his mom and acquaintances!) and 20 pages where Clay, not entirely unreasonably given the aforementioned events, literally kicks Sam out of his life.
The section in which Sam impersonates Clay, in particular, was extremely contrived. I'm a big fan of chamaleon chracters who just become other people, but this was weird. The whole book was weird and going down routes that struck me as implausible.
Reading over my own summary, I once again wonder what the point of all this was. It's not romance because it's impossible to root for Sam and Clay to make it. It's too trite to be adult lit. Perhaps a coming-of-age YA novel, an exceptionally messy one.
Blair Mastbaum was trying very hard to infuse his novel with some meaning. And so I can't tell if the utterly trite metaphors and similes employed are intentional, because Sam is such a vapid stoner, or because Mastbaum really can't write anything better. Regardless, this pastiche of a novel is composed of about 100 pages of Sam forcing his way into Clay (the boy he likes)'s life, in just about the creepiest manner I've ever read. This is followed by around 80 pages of a camping trip in which we learn that Clay is just as unhealthily obsessed with Sam. And for the last act, the reader is treated to 50 pages of Sam attempting to impersonate Clay (to his mom and acquaintances!) and 20 pages where Clay, not entirely unreasonably given the aforementioned events, literally kicks Sam out of his life.
The section in which Sam impersonates Clay, in particular, was extremely contrived. I'm a big fan of chamaleon chracters who just become other people, but this was weird. The whole book was weird and going down routes that struck me as implausible.
Reading over my own summary, I once again wonder what the point of all this was. It's not romance because it's impossible to root for Sam and Clay to make it. It's too trite to be adult lit. Perhaps a coming-of-age YA novel, an exceptionally messy one.