Clay is a coming of age story that also chronicles a coming to
awareness at a time of social, racial, and environmental unease.
Twelve-year-old Luke and an older boy, Jimmy, become involved with a
longstanding but threatened Black community located near their
predominantly white enclave at the edges of New York City in the 1970s.
The overt threats come from developers (including Jimmy's father) and
from a nearby toxic landfill--and Luke gradually learns how much these
menaces are intertwined and how they are linked to his family and
community. Over one eventful summer that moves toward crisis and
confrontation, Luke learns deeper truths about his seemingly idyllic
town and the wider world beyond it.