{"id":94,"date":"2009-11-12T09:57:56","date_gmt":"2009-11-12T15:57:56","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-03T18:21:13","modified_gmt":"2011-05-03T23:21:13","slug":"finlater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/finlater\/","title":{"rendered":"Finlater"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"bloglink\"><a href=\"http:\/\/worldcat.org\/oclc\/213316777\">Ruff, Shawn Stewart. <em>Finlater.<\/em> New York: Quote Editions, 2008. paperback. 300p. $15.50. ISBN: 9781604023954.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"bloglink\"><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; border: 0pt none initial;\" title=\"finlater\" src=\"http:\/\/coverart.oclc.org\/ImageWebSvc\/oclc\/+-+2221688675837_140.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"139\" height=\"193\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Cliffy, a gifted boy from the projects, finds himself one of only a few African-American kids in his accelerated classes at school. In his recently desegregated school, this is a tough position to maintain. As Cliffy starts to leave behind some of his old crowd, he meets a new friend: a similarly outcast Jewish classmate: Noah. Noah and Cliffy turn their backs on the persecution at school and their complicated home lives, and turn toward each other.<\/p>\n<p>As the novel progresses, Noah and Cliffy&#8217;s affection becomes unselfconscious sexual play, and eventually, as each boy grows up a bit, a more self-aware sexual and emotional relationship.<\/p>\n<p><em>Finlater<\/em> is Shawn Stewart Ruff&#8217;s debut novel, and winner of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lambdaliterary.org\/awards\/previous_winners\/paw_2008_2010.html#2008\">2008 Lambda Literary Award<\/a> for Debut Fiction. Ruff&#8217;s language is slangy and explicit, and the resulting roughness drives the story hard and fast over what might otherwise be drowsy spots in the plot. Although its main character is a young teen, <em>Finlater<\/em> is meant for adult readers; they will enjoy this fast, engaging read that turns a precociously mature eye on teenage love and lust. Ruff will surely continue to grow as a writer, but in <em>Finlater,<\/em> he has already produced a confident and appealing gay coming-of-age novel.<\/p>\n<p>Recommended.<\/p>\n<p><em>Reviewed by, <strong>Rose Yndigoyen<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ruff, Shawn Stewart. Finlater. New York: Quote Editions, 2008. paperback. 300p. $15.50. ISBN: 9781604023954. Cliffy, a gifted boy from the projects, finds himself one of only a few African-American kids in his accelerated classes at school. In his recently desegregated school, this is a tough position to maintain. As Cliffy starts to leave behind some [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1167,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[27,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}