Rating: 
Summary: Sweet, wise, gritty, sexy, and real
Review: Matt, the narrator of this wonderful, heart wrenching book, is trying to find his way as a gay teenager in homophobic surroundings: his religious mother think's he's sinful; even his boyfriend, Chris, just thinks of him as his pretty boy. When Chris goes off to college, Matt, who cannot afford to do so, goes to live at the beach with Tiger (his 'black sheep' relative) and Mark, his lover. Tall, slender, and beautiful, Matt learns the surveying business (terms from which the book's title is derived) and how to surf, as he searches for sex and love. Mr. Quinn has a natural, easy ear for the soft southern dialect of North Carolina, and that of teenagers. His descriptions are cinematic, and there is much poetry, wisdom, and warmth tucked away in his magical, down-to-earth tale.Matt's surfing becomes a metaphor for his life: he takes of lot of hits in learning the ropes but, once he finds his balance, it is a real high. Still, he is reminded that he must respect its power to destroy as well. He maintains, despite some battering and life-induced skepticism, his innocent dream of security and warmth, aided by the watchful Tiger and Mark. The strength and power of their union is a beacon. A new family takes shape as Mark and Tiger take in two more 'strays' to care for. When Matt finds Jeep, he learns that love has the power to heal, not just hurt. And the reader is treated to some of the sexiest, and most tender, love making in literature. Metes and Bounds is ultimately about families. Not the kind church and state preach, but those formed by acts of love.
Rating: 
Summary: Mr. Quinn Has Something To Say
Review: METES AND BOUNDS is the story of the young Matt who leaves home after high school and goes to live with his uncle Tiger and his lover Mark on the North Carolina shore. Mr. Quinn tells a good tale. In fact, he is a better storyteller than a writer although his prose is certainly adequate. He gets the Southern experience right-- with sweet tea, Pepsi and Aqua Velva; and rows are "hard to hoe." A toboggan is a cap worn in winter, something that few people outside the South have ever heard about; and coffee keeps kids from getting "wormy." Mr. Quinn is dead right-- no pun intended-- in the funeral home scene. Rural Southerners have traditionally been as attracted to funerals as truckers to country music. The author writes about surfing too with complete authority; Matt's surfing accident seems totally believable.
Although I find this story a tad too rosy-- is it possible that two adult men can live together with two male children under the age of 13 in a small coastal area of North Carolina in 1983 and not be run out of the county? Maybe not. I don't know. Certainly Mr. Quinn has a perfect right to see life in any color he chooses and doesn't have to have the dark world view of say a Jim Grimsley or Andrew Holleran. I can see a teenaged gay boy coming across this novel and being blown away. He would find the sex scenes, as Matt would say "totally awesome" and would take comfort in knowing that there is gay life outside the major Eastern cities and that people like him live in the small towns of the "red states." That alone makes this novel worth reading and a welcomed addition to "coming out" stories.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent coming of age book.
Review: Speaking as a open heterosexual, I found this book outstanding, a great read, and very honest. I hope somebody will have the courage to make this into a movie some day and get rid of the "American Pie" copy cats. This is real honest feelings about growing up gay. Getting laid is secondary in this book, but Matt does get some! But the sexual exploits are more honest. Everyone in this seem very real as are the emotions. Everyone loves and everyone hurts. I love the way how Matt goes from family to a beach family that functions like a surf party. Tiger and Mark are the dads; Shane is Mark's real son who doesn't judge or feel embarassed by his dad; Billy who is Shane's young friend who slowly moves into the household and becomes one of the family. I would love to see a sequel to this book to see how everyone turns out 20 years later. Good work, Jay Quinn! Keep on writing!!
Rating:
Summary: Metes and Bounds
Review: The emotional & sexual coming of age of Matt, a gay eighteen-year-old who moves from his home inland to live & work with his uncle, a land surveyor & surfer.
Rating:
Summary: The Joy of Coming Out.................................
Review: There's a lot of coming-of-age stories being written today but many of them are not told in a very positive light. Most are told in a negative way with suffering, lost of friends & family, and rejection by peers. The young gay person finds himself usually moving to the big city, where he can find acceptance with other urban gay men. He no longer feels wanted in his small hometown. I was excited about Jay Quinn's debut novel because it tells the story of a young man, Matt, discovery he is gay and being accepted in an intelligent & positive way by the people who have always loved him before his coming out. More and more young people today are discovering their sexually at a younger age than ever before. It would be nice if all young people could be accepted like Matt is in this story. Matt, the story's narrator, is an 18 year old from a small town by the coast in North Carolina. He's just graduated from High School and is not too sure what he's going to make of his life yet. So he goes to live with his gay Uncle Tiger and his lover, Mark, a pilot, at their house by the shore. He plans to work for Uncle Tiger's surveying business for a year and earn some money for his college education. Mark's son, Shane, who is straight, also lives with them. Matt finds total acceptance in his new all male family. He learns how to surf & finds great pleasure in his new sport. He goes to his first gay bar and has his first sexual experiences. All of his sexual experiences are written in a beautiful, exciting, loving & intensely erotic way.
If you're not from the South it may take a little while to get use to some of the Southern manners of speech. I believe this makes the story more authentic and totally realistic. It's great to read a book from a Southern gay perspective for a change. I think Jay Quinn with this debut novel, "Metes and Bounds" has proven himself to be one of the best new talented & engaging writers out there today. I certainly enjoyed his other two books, "The Mentor", a memoir and "Rebel Yell", a collection of stories by various Southern authors. I eagerly await his future endeavors. Make sure this book is on the top of your "To be Read list." A truly enjoyable read!
Rating:
Summary: excellent, heartfelt and amazing........
Review: this book is the story of a young gay surfer, who has learned to come to terms with HIS reality, of being gay and having to be open and honest with his family....he's on a soul searching journey that will take him through rocky relationships and eventually put him on the path toward finding the real thing.....i can't praise the author JAY QUINN enough for an exceptional piece.......
Rating: 
Summary: SURF N SNOOZE
Review: This book makes better bed time reading than beach reading. That is to say it put me to sleep every time I tried to dip into it. I give it two stars instead of one because you get the feeling the author is a good story teller just not a very good writer. Too much like a made for TV movie only harder to picture the characters. Maybe I was expecting too much based on the good reviews here but I found this book a big time disappointment.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting tale
Review: This book relates a moderately interesting coming-of-age and "coming out" story about a gay teen surfer. Careless proofreading resulted in sometimes distracting typographical errors. The author's decision to follow the currently trendy route of jumping around between different time periods in the story without any transition leads to an occasionally bumpy ride, but by the middle of the book one becomes adjusted to this device and it doesn't get in the way of following the story. Not bad for a first novel, but the author will undoubtedly pick up more polished technique as he writes more.
Rating:
Summary: A Book Well Worth Your Time
Review: This book was a pleasure to discover. It feels real, as if you know Matt, his experiences were especially familiar to me. Although I'm not a surfer, I grow up around a beach resort where surfing was commonplace and surfers were everywhere. Jay Quinn captures this world and the small town world of the south very realistically. The coming-of-age story unfolds beautifully.
Rating:
Summary: Very good read
Review: This book was definitely a good read, although it sounded a bit over-positive. The accent was not really a problem for me, neither were the flashbacks (two complaints that previous readers had). I'm glad I bought the book. It's cool!
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