Lambda Award-winning novelist Blair Mastbaum (Clay’s Way) returns with a story of sexual obsession turned violent in Manhattan’s East Village. Kurt Smith can’t get over the split with his ex-boyfriend. When Kurt’s failure to reconnect becomes more than he can handle, the line between fantasy and reality is blurred-and even Kurt can’t be sure he’s not responsible for the killings making local headlines.
Blair Mastbaum’s first book, “Clay’s Way” so I could not wait to read his new novel “Us Ones in Between” a story of violent sexual obsession. It is nothing like the wonderful “Clay’s Way” but it stands on its own. It is set in Manhattan’s East Village and we meet Kurt Smith who cannot get over the split with his ex-boyfriend and for him the lines between reality and fantasy become excessively blurred. As we enter the mind of the narrator, Smith, we are taken on quite an adventure.
This is a dark book and Mastbaum explores certain youth cultures which, in their own way, have a great deal of influence on the formation of the individual. As the author examines how certain styles separate people, we see the whole issue of “non-existence”. We enter a world where people are desired just by being seen and people seem to be strangled by the need to be themselves. With Kurt Smith, our hero, we find him in a situation where the personality of his “ex” takes hold of him so that he is almost unable to move.
The author also looks at the ennui of people today and their motivations and desperations. Without giving the plot away, I will just say that this is more than a book—it is an experience.
