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Faraway: A Suburban Boy's Story as a Victim of Sex Trafficking
One man's story of a subject so taboo, people rarely talk about it.When Kevin was fourteen years old, he was just starting to understand his orientation as a gay teen living in a suburb of St. Louis. Then he met someone who he thought was his friend. This man was no friend. Instead, he coerced Kevin into child prostitution.During this difficult time, Kevin befriended two boys also trapped in the thinly concealed underworld of sex trafficking. What he found surprised him - these friends gave him a gift that nearly forty years later has continued to shape his life.Co-written by Rev. R.K. Kline and author Daniel D. Maurer, this book is not only Kevin's memoir, but also a tribute to friendships that can shape a person's faith and worldview in the worst of situations. Dr. Ric Curtis and Dr. Anthony Marcus from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City offer an analysis on how underage prostitution has changed over the years and what remains the same.*****Narrative by his past, Kevin bravely retells his story of human trafficking as a child prostitute in urban St. Louis. Despite the tragedies endured, he discovers that the presence of a loving God was with him all along. Selling of boys continues to be a problem, despite the fact that access to them has changed through technologies such as the internet, boys today endure the same pain Kevin experienced in 1975.Short a world where people still purchase human beings for sexual gratification and abuse, Kevin (the co-author of the book) tells his side of human trafficking in the mid-1970s in urban St. Louis.
166 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 3, 2015
About the author
Daniel D. Maurer
10 books15 followersDaniel D. Maurer is a freelance writer living in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In addition to writing as "Dan the Story Man" and sharing transformational stories, he also writes for Sparkhouse and Amicus Publishing, both publishers for children's curriculum resources. He lives with three cats, two boys, one wife, and an exceptionally needy German Shorthaired Pointer.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 11, 2015
This is a heartbreaking, tragic, hard story to read. Intense, sad, brutally honest, which makes it a disturbing read. And yet it is a page-turner that I couldn’t put down. How does a boy who has faced such trauma find healing? This question propelled my reading. The subject of teenage male sex trafficking makes parts of this book wrenching and will make some readers uncomfortable. A book like this could easily become titillating or turn into an angry rant but Faraway never falls into these traps. While shedding important light on the tragedy of abuse, the book also offers hope. This is a story of how people survive horrible circumstances, about the friendships that sustain them, and about the faith that ultimately heals them.
March 12, 2015
Faraway provides a personal view into what it's like to be a gay teen struggling with society's views of homosexuality and the perception of your own sexuality. Kevin's story helps us to understand how the marginalization and outright brutalization of LGBT youth can end up leading them to look for acceptance in the wrong places. But sadly, sometimes those are the only places they can seem to find it.
The story is really a love story, and that part is both beautiful and sad. The manipulation is both shocking and honest. These aspects combined lend to a quick and compelling account about a hidden aspect of our society.
The story is really a love story, and that part is both beautiful and sad. The manipulation is both shocking and honest. These aspects combined lend to a quick and compelling account about a hidden aspect of our society.
July 27, 2015
In a window closing accident, I lost a review that took me two hours to write, which is a testament to the importance I attribute to this memoir. Just read it! What R.K. Kline and Daniel Maurer have to say is more important than anything I can say anyway.
March 22, 2026
A shocking story ruined by wrong-headed conclusions, a short length and a misleading subtitle (the author isn't really involved in sex trafficking). From the beginning words of this tiny memoir it's a propaganda piece used by ELCA ministers to push a gay agenda through stereotyping, lopsided conclusions, and abuse of truth.
This 140-page book covers just a couple of months from 1975, where the then 14-year-old author made a whole lot of bad decisions. While he spends the entire book blaming others for his choices and playing the victim, in truth he is the one that's responsible for most of his problems. Forty years later he concludes that everyone else in his world is to blame for the mostly self-inflicted trauma he still suffers from. Ironically the guy is now an ELCA minister, and I can't think of anything he is less qualified to do because he has no inner peace nor understanding of the Christian faith.
The core story is just too short. Kline gives readers hints at what his normal life was like back then, but most of it focuses on two months over the summer with older high school characters named Stevie and Squirrel, along with a creepy adult named Ray who is his pimp. The author, at that young age of 14, was already heavily drinking (starting at age 11) and doing marijuana. And he wanted to be sexually active, he was not forced into intimacy. This is a crucial point that the supposed religious experts that told him to publish his story fail to acknowledge.
Was he still considered a child? Yes. But he had already been playing around with other boys and got interested in going farther. He was a rebel that grew up in a caring, stable doctor's home with parents that had a huge flaw--they trusted him and never checked on what he said he was doing. He'd be gone late into the summer night or away for entire weekends and they would never question whether it was true. These were the same parents who agreed to buy him a gun that year when he started feeling suicidal. He obviously had major family problems and mental health issues.
Claiming he was "born this way" in terms of his being sexually active with men at age 14 is ridiculous, but the highly educated liberal ELCA experts that pushed him to write the book make the claims that he was simply living out his same-sex attraction that society had so terribly condemned. Kline himself misinterprets what others say or don't say into being disapproval of gays.
What's obvious from reading this is that Kline was a lonely boy with too much time and money from parents who ignored him, was already mentally warped from childhood alcohol and drug usage, and took the easy way out to having affection needs met through sleepovers with other boys. He just kept wanting more of that instead of showing interest in girls. Once he was hooked on making money off sex with older men at age 14, he wasn't going to ever go down the path of heterosexuality, so his environment certainly influenced his sexual choices and it's ignorant for the author and his cohorts to claim otherwise or blame society for his problems. He made his own choice to get thrills off of allowing adult men to have sex with him for money. And that was his choice, just as were his drinking and doing drugs.
These choices were not something forced on him (though there were a couple cases where the men forced him to do things he didn't like in the middle of sex). While "sex trafficking" is supposedly the subject of the book, it wasn't like this kid was kidnapped into it nor had to escape someone holding him against his will far away from home. The author would call his pimp to offer his services and the older man merely provided the 20-minute ride across town that Kline so dearly wanted in order to have intimate connections, make money, and see his two prostitution friends. Then he usually went home to sleep in his rich neighborhood.
The book doesn't give a lot of detail about the sexual situations he was in, and often his stories are frustratingly incomplete. He gets himself into bad situations and often never resolves them, instead moving on too quickly to the next chapter. In the end his two friends were destroyed and some of the blame is on bad decisions the author made. He internalized it and has spent the rest of his life suffering mentally from it.
As an adult the author couldn't hold down a job, so instead in his 30s he decided to become a Lutheran minister, with no real religious background or training, which makes no sense given how unstable he is mentally. I'm not sure how any ELCA representative could consider this something that makes the church look good--he's given a parish right out of seminary though he's woefully unprepared and still suffering mentally from his self-abuse. Kline summarizes the past 40 years of his life in just a few pages at the end of the book and leaves the reader wondering why he still is so bitter. There is no happy ending.
Kline lashes out at everyone--his parents, church, schools, city, police, and society. He claims that because no one would accept his gay nature when he was a teen that he was drawn to people like Stevie and Squirrel who totally accepted him. A couple problems: he never told his parents the truth to know how they would have reacted to it; those boys didn't even really know him, they were just friends with benefits; and Kline never gave anyone else a chance to accept him because he refused to reveal his sexuality to others. How can any gay guy claim society wouldn't have accepted him when he never gave others a chance?
The sex friends didn't know each other's real names, never went to each other's houses, didn't talk about school or friends, and when the two died he had no idea how to even go to their funerals. The only association the three had was sexual, which means they didn't really know Kline at all and he only valued them for accepting one narrow secret he refused to tell others about.
The people who really knew him in every other area outside of sex are the ones he blames for all his problems, even 40 years later. His blistering attack on them on page 136 is not only uncalled for but beneath any minister who supposedly is spreading a message of acceptance and love. Like many other liberal Christians that preach tolerance and welcoming all, he's incredibly intolerant of everyone in his life based on a perception that they wouldn't have accepted him if he told them the truth. He'll never know because he made the choice to not tell them at that age. Again, the problem is him, not them or the rest of society. (I know I'm repetitive, but someone needs to stand up and say this until people listen to what the problem really is!)
While the author wanted to publish the book to make us mad about how gays are mistreated and how he thinks St. Louis police mishandled people, instead this made me upset about politically-correct woke distortions made by crazed nominal ultra-progressive "Christians" that refuse to accept responsibility for their choices and don't really understand the gospel of Jesus. They are so busy preaching "tolerance" of a narrow group of people who make choices that harm themselves that they fail to show any true tolerance toward the majority who are trying to do good and right.
Certainly evil exists in the world, and there were a couple of bad characters that abused Kline's willingness to have sex, but he put himself in those situations. He was wrong, often doing bad and not being the pure-hearted good kid he repeatedly claims to be.
Some will argue that at age 14 he wasn't mature enough to understand his choices, therefore the adults are totally to blame. Would you say that about his drinking? Or the dope? Or the stealing? Or the repeated lying? Or the mocking of cops, to the point that he steals a police officer's cap from a squad car?
Or would you say "he wasn't mature enough" about a similar-aged school mass shooter, not blaming a killer for his decisions? In many states a 14-year-old can be tried as an adult for serious crimes. So don't pretend that a boy of 14 can't be held accountable for seducing older men to earn some money and fulfill his emotional needs.
The author should have shown remorse, suffered consequences, paid society back for the waste of police time, and apologized to all those he hurt. The book doesn't report any of that happening, and much of his supposed PTSD may be due to his failure to accept accountability for his actions.
One must also keep in mind that these are the author's recollections from over 40 years ago. He (and his co-writer) gives incredibly minute detailed conversations, virtually impossible to recall so many years later. Ask yourself how many specific words you can recall from when you were 14 or from 40 years ago? This book is made up of all sorts of specifics that are often hard to believe. He also is only giving his view of his story and we don't know how much of it is accurate. I take him at his word that this is his truth but know that these are things he's seeing through a glass darkly and that his own bitterness may have tainted what he tells us about the adults in his life or that he's trying to make himself look good.
This book did not provide the conclusion that the authors and their ministerial associates wanted to push on readers. Instead, this simplistic stereotyping used to promote a woke political agenda ends up making those involved in liberal Christian ministries appear clueless as to what's actual truth. It proves that even an ordained minister can fail to accept himself, his past, and the real gospel that starts with a person repenting for their own wrong choices and sins (though these ELCA ministers seem to run from that word, especially when dealing with sexuality).
In this author's case two lives were ended, possibly because of his choices, and the reputation of many others was unfairly maimed--those are things R. K. Kline needs to answer to internally instead of pretending these faraway stories are everyone else's fault.
This 140-page book covers just a couple of months from 1975, where the then 14-year-old author made a whole lot of bad decisions. While he spends the entire book blaming others for his choices and playing the victim, in truth he is the one that's responsible for most of his problems. Forty years later he concludes that everyone else in his world is to blame for the mostly self-inflicted trauma he still suffers from. Ironically the guy is now an ELCA minister, and I can't think of anything he is less qualified to do because he has no inner peace nor understanding of the Christian faith.
The core story is just too short. Kline gives readers hints at what his normal life was like back then, but most of it focuses on two months over the summer with older high school characters named Stevie and Squirrel, along with a creepy adult named Ray who is his pimp. The author, at that young age of 14, was already heavily drinking (starting at age 11) and doing marijuana. And he wanted to be sexually active, he was not forced into intimacy. This is a crucial point that the supposed religious experts that told him to publish his story fail to acknowledge.
Was he still considered a child? Yes. But he had already been playing around with other boys and got interested in going farther. He was a rebel that grew up in a caring, stable doctor's home with parents that had a huge flaw--they trusted him and never checked on what he said he was doing. He'd be gone late into the summer night or away for entire weekends and they would never question whether it was true. These were the same parents who agreed to buy him a gun that year when he started feeling suicidal. He obviously had major family problems and mental health issues.
Claiming he was "born this way" in terms of his being sexually active with men at age 14 is ridiculous, but the highly educated liberal ELCA experts that pushed him to write the book make the claims that he was simply living out his same-sex attraction that society had so terribly condemned. Kline himself misinterprets what others say or don't say into being disapproval of gays.
What's obvious from reading this is that Kline was a lonely boy with too much time and money from parents who ignored him, was already mentally warped from childhood alcohol and drug usage, and took the easy way out to having affection needs met through sleepovers with other boys. He just kept wanting more of that instead of showing interest in girls. Once he was hooked on making money off sex with older men at age 14, he wasn't going to ever go down the path of heterosexuality, so his environment certainly influenced his sexual choices and it's ignorant for the author and his cohorts to claim otherwise or blame society for his problems. He made his own choice to get thrills off of allowing adult men to have sex with him for money. And that was his choice, just as were his drinking and doing drugs.
These choices were not something forced on him (though there were a couple cases where the men forced him to do things he didn't like in the middle of sex). While "sex trafficking" is supposedly the subject of the book, it wasn't like this kid was kidnapped into it nor had to escape someone holding him against his will far away from home. The author would call his pimp to offer his services and the older man merely provided the 20-minute ride across town that Kline so dearly wanted in order to have intimate connections, make money, and see his two prostitution friends. Then he usually went home to sleep in his rich neighborhood.
The book doesn't give a lot of detail about the sexual situations he was in, and often his stories are frustratingly incomplete. He gets himself into bad situations and often never resolves them, instead moving on too quickly to the next chapter. In the end his two friends were destroyed and some of the blame is on bad decisions the author made. He internalized it and has spent the rest of his life suffering mentally from it.
As an adult the author couldn't hold down a job, so instead in his 30s he decided to become a Lutheran minister, with no real religious background or training, which makes no sense given how unstable he is mentally. I'm not sure how any ELCA representative could consider this something that makes the church look good--he's given a parish right out of seminary though he's woefully unprepared and still suffering mentally from his self-abuse. Kline summarizes the past 40 years of his life in just a few pages at the end of the book and leaves the reader wondering why he still is so bitter. There is no happy ending.
Kline lashes out at everyone--his parents, church, schools, city, police, and society. He claims that because no one would accept his gay nature when he was a teen that he was drawn to people like Stevie and Squirrel who totally accepted him. A couple problems: he never told his parents the truth to know how they would have reacted to it; those boys didn't even really know him, they were just friends with benefits; and Kline never gave anyone else a chance to accept him because he refused to reveal his sexuality to others. How can any gay guy claim society wouldn't have accepted him when he never gave others a chance?
The sex friends didn't know each other's real names, never went to each other's houses, didn't talk about school or friends, and when the two died he had no idea how to even go to their funerals. The only association the three had was sexual, which means they didn't really know Kline at all and he only valued them for accepting one narrow secret he refused to tell others about.
The people who really knew him in every other area outside of sex are the ones he blames for all his problems, even 40 years later. His blistering attack on them on page 136 is not only uncalled for but beneath any minister who supposedly is spreading a message of acceptance and love. Like many other liberal Christians that preach tolerance and welcoming all, he's incredibly intolerant of everyone in his life based on a perception that they wouldn't have accepted him if he told them the truth. He'll never know because he made the choice to not tell them at that age. Again, the problem is him, not them or the rest of society. (I know I'm repetitive, but someone needs to stand up and say this until people listen to what the problem really is!)
While the author wanted to publish the book to make us mad about how gays are mistreated and how he thinks St. Louis police mishandled people, instead this made me upset about politically-correct woke distortions made by crazed nominal ultra-progressive "Christians" that refuse to accept responsibility for their choices and don't really understand the gospel of Jesus. They are so busy preaching "tolerance" of a narrow group of people who make choices that harm themselves that they fail to show any true tolerance toward the majority who are trying to do good and right.
Certainly evil exists in the world, and there were a couple of bad characters that abused Kline's willingness to have sex, but he put himself in those situations. He was wrong, often doing bad and not being the pure-hearted good kid he repeatedly claims to be.
Some will argue that at age 14 he wasn't mature enough to understand his choices, therefore the adults are totally to blame. Would you say that about his drinking? Or the dope? Or the stealing? Or the repeated lying? Or the mocking of cops, to the point that he steals a police officer's cap from a squad car?
Or would you say "he wasn't mature enough" about a similar-aged school mass shooter, not blaming a killer for his decisions? In many states a 14-year-old can be tried as an adult for serious crimes. So don't pretend that a boy of 14 can't be held accountable for seducing older men to earn some money and fulfill his emotional needs.
The author should have shown remorse, suffered consequences, paid society back for the waste of police time, and apologized to all those he hurt. The book doesn't report any of that happening, and much of his supposed PTSD may be due to his failure to accept accountability for his actions.
One must also keep in mind that these are the author's recollections from over 40 years ago. He (and his co-writer) gives incredibly minute detailed conversations, virtually impossible to recall so many years later. Ask yourself how many specific words you can recall from when you were 14 or from 40 years ago? This book is made up of all sorts of specifics that are often hard to believe. He also is only giving his view of his story and we don't know how much of it is accurate. I take him at his word that this is his truth but know that these are things he's seeing through a glass darkly and that his own bitterness may have tainted what he tells us about the adults in his life or that he's trying to make himself look good.
This book did not provide the conclusion that the authors and their ministerial associates wanted to push on readers. Instead, this simplistic stereotyping used to promote a woke political agenda ends up making those involved in liberal Christian ministries appear clueless as to what's actual truth. It proves that even an ordained minister can fail to accept himself, his past, and the real gospel that starts with a person repenting for their own wrong choices and sins (though these ELCA ministers seem to run from that word, especially when dealing with sexuality).
In this author's case two lives were ended, possibly because of his choices, and the reputation of many others was unfairly maimed--those are things R. K. Kline needs to answer to internally instead of pretending these faraway stories are everyone else's fault.
March 17, 2015
FARAWAY by R. K. Kline and Daniel D. Maurer
Publisher: Two Harbors Press
Date published: February 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-63413-207-7
Nonfiction
Paperback
Reviewed by Lynne
http://www.itascabooks.com/faraway.html
http://www.amazon.com/Faraway-Suburba...
Obtained via Speakeasy
Rating: 5
FARAWAY by R. K. Kline and Daniel D. Maurer is the true, life changing story of a fourteen-year-old gay male, Kevin, who suddenly finds himself caught up in the sex trafficking trade, yet all the while living at home with his loving family.
During the summer of 1975, Kevin, sexually curious as most teens are, finds himself duped by a man he believes is a friend, only to discover otherwise. Yet along this horrific journey Kevin finds himself befriended by two other boys, Squirrel and Stevie, who accept him for who he is and go out of their way to protect him and help him feel secure. Despite being used by self-serving adults, Kevin feels a deep bond of love and friendship for these boys he has never felt before. Nor has he ever found it again.
Through the beauty of this relationship is harsh reality as Kevin learns the danger of the sex trafficking industry. When tragedy strikes, disrupting everything Kevin holds dear, only then does Kevin break away from the horrors of this lifestyle.
FARAWAY by R. K. Kline and Daniel D. Maurer is a rare, thought-provoking look at a side of sex trafficking that few people ever hear about. The sex trafficking of young boys.
FARAWAY by R. K. Kline and Daniel D. Maurer is raw and brutally honest in its telling, well written, and a page turner. It kept me riveted and horrified, all at the same time. That such things go on middle class America, right under our noses, shocks me to the core.
FARAWAY by R. K. Kline and Daniel D. Maurer gives an insightful glimpse into the pain and suffering of the gay population as these boys, made in the image of God, struggle to find their place in society. Were parents more accepting of their children, as they are, perhaps there would be no reason for them to be forced into a lifestyle that none of them want or would even choose for themselves.
FARAWAY by R. K. Kline and Daniel D. Maurer is heartbreaking in its scope. Kevin’s story is so vivid in its telling, with nothing held back, that one can not help but feel his pain and grief at his eventual loss of those he loves.
FARAWAY by R. K. Kline and Daniel D. Maurer is a story of broken dreams. Dreams that many who are caught up in sex trafficking ever get to achieve. Boys are raped, innocence stolen, and dreams all but annihilated. That Kevin managed to free himself and move on with his life shows the intensity of his resolve to share his story with the world and live out whatever dreams he has left. What happened to him that summer of 1975 has affected him forever, yet it is a testimony to the love of Jesus Christ in his life, through it all.
FARAWAY by R. K. Kline and Daniel D. Maurer is not to be missed. It is a story that all parents should read and be aware of.
I applaud you, Kevin, for having the courage to share this. This is a wonderful book, and one I recommend to anyone else interested.
(Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.)
Publisher: Two Harbors Press
Date published: February 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-63413-207-7
Nonfiction
Paperback
Reviewed by Lynne
http://www.itascabooks.com/faraway.html
http://www.amazon.com/Faraway-Suburba...
Obtained via Speakeasy
Rating: 5
FARAWAY by R. K. Kline and Daniel D. Maurer is the true, life changing story of a fourteen-year-old gay male, Kevin, who suddenly finds himself caught up in the sex trafficking trade, yet all the while living at home with his loving family.
During the summer of 1975, Kevin, sexually curious as most teens are, finds himself duped by a man he believes is a friend, only to discover otherwise. Yet along this horrific journey Kevin finds himself befriended by two other boys, Squirrel and Stevie, who accept him for who he is and go out of their way to protect him and help him feel secure. Despite being used by self-serving adults, Kevin feels a deep bond of love and friendship for these boys he has never felt before. Nor has he ever found it again.
Through the beauty of this relationship is harsh reality as Kevin learns the danger of the sex trafficking industry. When tragedy strikes, disrupting everything Kevin holds dear, only then does Kevin break away from the horrors of this lifestyle.
FARAWAY by R. K. Kline and Daniel D. Maurer is a rare, thought-provoking look at a side of sex trafficking that few people ever hear about. The sex trafficking of young boys.
FARAWAY by R. K. Kline and Daniel D. Maurer is raw and brutally honest in its telling, well written, and a page turner. It kept me riveted and horrified, all at the same time. That such things go on middle class America, right under our noses, shocks me to the core.
FARAWAY by R. K. Kline and Daniel D. Maurer gives an insightful glimpse into the pain and suffering of the gay population as these boys, made in the image of God, struggle to find their place in society. Were parents more accepting of their children, as they are, perhaps there would be no reason for them to be forced into a lifestyle that none of them want or would even choose for themselves.
FARAWAY by R. K. Kline and Daniel D. Maurer is heartbreaking in its scope. Kevin’s story is so vivid in its telling, with nothing held back, that one can not help but feel his pain and grief at his eventual loss of those he loves.
FARAWAY by R. K. Kline and Daniel D. Maurer is a story of broken dreams. Dreams that many who are caught up in sex trafficking ever get to achieve. Boys are raped, innocence stolen, and dreams all but annihilated. That Kevin managed to free himself and move on with his life shows the intensity of his resolve to share his story with the world and live out whatever dreams he has left. What happened to him that summer of 1975 has affected him forever, yet it is a testimony to the love of Jesus Christ in his life, through it all.
FARAWAY by R. K. Kline and Daniel D. Maurer is not to be missed. It is a story that all parents should read and be aware of.
I applaud you, Kevin, for having the courage to share this. This is a wonderful book, and one I recommend to anyone else interested.
(Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.)
May 5, 2015
My interest in Faraway came after reviewing an earlier book by Daniel Mauer, the graphic novel, Sobriety, which explored twelve steps recovery. Here Maurer lends his skill as a freelance writer to aid an old seminary friend, R.K. Kline, in telling his story. Mauer and Kline were both ministers in the ELCA (Mauer left the ministry, Kline is still a pastor today). Faraway tells the story of the openly gay, Kline coming to terms with his sexuality in his teen years. It also tells a horrfiying tale of how he was groomed and recruited into prostitution at the age of 14.
It was the 1970s when Kline first discovered his same-sex attraction. With sleepovers and an active 'gaydar' he began to experiment sexually with other boys. One boy from school, named Tim groomed him and introduced him to Ray, the adult with a van who would become his pimp.
Some of Kline's experiences as a teenage hustler were enjoyable to him. Others were profoundly damaging and frightening. He found himself the victim of perversion and violence. But he also befriended two other boys, Stevie and Squirrel, who became his community and protection on the street. Kline would tell his parents he was sleeping over at a friend's family house, and then turn tricks in the park with Stevie and Squirrel.
By the end of the summer of 1975, Squirrel was beaten violently by a police officer, nd a few weeks later died in a tragic accident. By the fall, Stevie died of alcoholism on the street. Kline is suicidal (saved only because the gun he had access to was an 1860 replica muzzle loaded pistol and it was hard to commit suicide while drunk).
This isn't what you call a happy story and theologically I have my misgivings (I pastor in a denomination that is welcoming but not affirming of an LGBTQ lifestyle. But this is a human story. Kline struggles with the way his same-sex attraction cut himself off from the community (suburban Missouri was not exactly supportive of alternative lifestyles in the mid 1970s). As awful as it was for a fourteen-year-old to turn tricks, he finds acceptance with his fellow street hustlers. There was something broken in the lives of Stevie and Squirrel but there was also something beautiful about Kline's friendship with them and the way he pays tribute to their lives.
This is a well written memoir. It is also graphic and disturbing. There are plenty of folks I would not recommend this book to and would issue disclaimers to those who I would. But it a real--ugly and beautiful and ultimately redemptive story. It is sad that Kline and his three friends were sexually misused in their teens. Sadder to that it still happens. I give this four stars.
Notice of material connection: I received this book from the publisher or author via SpeakEasy in exchange for my honest review.
It was the 1970s when Kline first discovered his same-sex attraction. With sleepovers and an active 'gaydar' he began to experiment sexually with other boys. One boy from school, named Tim groomed him and introduced him to Ray, the adult with a van who would become his pimp.
Some of Kline's experiences as a teenage hustler were enjoyable to him. Others were profoundly damaging and frightening. He found himself the victim of perversion and violence. But he also befriended two other boys, Stevie and Squirrel, who became his community and protection on the street. Kline would tell his parents he was sleeping over at a friend's family house, and then turn tricks in the park with Stevie and Squirrel.
By the end of the summer of 1975, Squirrel was beaten violently by a police officer, nd a few weeks later died in a tragic accident. By the fall, Stevie died of alcoholism on the street. Kline is suicidal (saved only because the gun he had access to was an 1860 replica muzzle loaded pistol and it was hard to commit suicide while drunk).
This isn't what you call a happy story and theologically I have my misgivings (I pastor in a denomination that is welcoming but not affirming of an LGBTQ lifestyle. But this is a human story. Kline struggles with the way his same-sex attraction cut himself off from the community (suburban Missouri was not exactly supportive of alternative lifestyles in the mid 1970s). As awful as it was for a fourteen-year-old to turn tricks, he finds acceptance with his fellow street hustlers. There was something broken in the lives of Stevie and Squirrel but there was also something beautiful about Kline's friendship with them and the way he pays tribute to their lives.
This is a well written memoir. It is also graphic and disturbing. There are plenty of folks I would not recommend this book to and would issue disclaimers to those who I would. But it a real--ugly and beautiful and ultimately redemptive story. It is sad that Kline and his three friends were sexually misused in their teens. Sadder to that it still happens. I give this four stars.
Notice of material connection: I received this book from the publisher or author via SpeakEasy in exchange for my honest review.
August 19, 2015
I thought Faraway by R. K. Kline & Daniel D. Maurer was a great story. Kline & Maurer offer a glimpse into the life of Kevin, a teenage male prostitute. The story takes place near St. Louis, Missouri in the seventies and tells how Kevin got into prostitution, his friendships and his experiences.
From the very beginning Faraway was hard to put down. R. K. Kline & Daniel D. Maurer have done a good job telling this story. I have always been curious how people get into prostitution and human trafficking. The way Kevin got into it was he was more or less looking for love in the wrong place and was tricked. Being a gay teenager in the seventies was harder than it is today. When people hear “human trafficking” they think people from other countries being kidnapped and forced to prostitute themselves. People do not realize that “human trafficking” is closer to home and happening in just about every major city in America. I wanted to jump in the story and save Kevin and his friends. He could have escaped the prostitution but I understand why he stayed. His friends Squirrel and Stevie did not have that option to escape and go back to a loving family. It is amazing that after all that, that Kevin turned out as well as he did.
In case you missed it, R. K. Kline is Kevin and this story is true. This story was obviously painful for Kevin to tell. If I could I would give Kevin a big hug and tell him I am proud that he is trying to help others with his story. I will definitely be recommending Faraway to people.
*I reviewed this book for Reader’s Favorite
From the very beginning Faraway was hard to put down. R. K. Kline & Daniel D. Maurer have done a good job telling this story. I have always been curious how people get into prostitution and human trafficking. The way Kevin got into it was he was more or less looking for love in the wrong place and was tricked. Being a gay teenager in the seventies was harder than it is today. When people hear “human trafficking” they think people from other countries being kidnapped and forced to prostitute themselves. People do not realize that “human trafficking” is closer to home and happening in just about every major city in America. I wanted to jump in the story and save Kevin and his friends. He could have escaped the prostitution but I understand why he stayed. His friends Squirrel and Stevie did not have that option to escape and go back to a loving family. It is amazing that after all that, that Kevin turned out as well as he did.
In case you missed it, R. K. Kline is Kevin and this story is true. This story was obviously painful for Kevin to tell. If I could I would give Kevin a big hug and tell him I am proud that he is trying to help others with his story. I will definitely be recommending Faraway to people.
*I reviewed this book for Reader’s Favorite
June 17, 2015
FAR AWAY
BY
Kevin Kline and Daniel D. Mauer
Far Away is a book about the Reverend Kevin Kline’s year on the street as a sex worker in 1975, with two young hustler friend’s who died on the streets, and about the “pimp” who brought him there. This is the story of a young man dealing with coming out in an age, a place, St. Louis, Missouri, where it was difficult, if not impossible at the time to find role models. He grew up in a typical suburban family, and being gay was not a part of the equation.
He had a sexual experience with a young friend, who then introduced him to a ‘pimp” as a “friend”, who had sex with him and for whom he had feelings, and then the man took him to Forest Park and basically “pimped” him out. He met two other young men, two street hustlers, with whom he became close friends. He had never been truly open with any of his other friends, they accepted him for who he was, and so that was the lure that kept him coming back to the Park that summer with the “pimp”. He saw the reality of prostitution—lawyers, policemen, politicians, the wealthy—who used young males for their satisfaction. He experienced the brutality of the police, and one policeman brutally beat up one of his young friends, who later committed suicide, and finally his other friend died a violent death as well. He returned to his suburban home, went to school, and was haunted by these experiences, and now they still touch him, and the deaths of his two young friends haunt him. His sexuality has been deeply colored by these experiences. And he suffers from PTSD from that summer, and the experience in a closeted society. They were the best friends he ever had. He is now a successful, openly gay pastor, his scars have healed like the scars on a piece of fine wood, and have made a piece of art out of his life.
For me this book took me back to that year. I was just beginning seminary serving a church fifty miles away. I was deeply in the closet, my former denomination is not even now open to people who are gay. I remember that year a young man coming to me struggling with being gay, and I, being the traditional pastor, gave him the answer of the church—it is a “sin”, and you need to find a therapist, stay celibate, and keep this a secret. He went to another church and they kicked him out because of his sexuality, and he committed suicide, and to this day I am haunted by this young man, haunted by how I let my own fears, lead to basically turning him a way , and I still feel as if I help put the gun to his head.
This took me back to my own coming out, and my years in prostitution. It brought home to me how those three years on the street are so hammered into my DNA that there is no way I can deny them, nor would I want to deny them. I am still a part of the street. I feel more comfortable on the street. The best friends I have ever had were those young guys I worked with—for we had no one else, and we had to be completely honest with one another—and it is still the same. The people I feel the closet to are the street kids, and they respond to me in the same way, for we know that we cannot pretend to be what we are not, and we accept each other for who we are. They know they can call me day or night and I will be there, they know they can stop by and I will feed them, and they know that I will not bring judgment of any kind on them—for that was my experience on the street as a hustler, I was accepted for who I was. A young man, whose name is “Gault” was eating with me in the Haight, and he said, “I have never told you this, but I knew the first time I met you, you were one of us, you hustle like all of us, and you know what it means to have people look down upon you, and try to “fix” you, I knew we were “family” that first day. “ And we are family.
Dorothy Day said that the system was “dirty and rotten,” and it is—it sets itself up to take care of people on its own terms, and that is why so many fall through the cracks. It’s one motive is profit, and which leads to tangible results. That is why I live between the “thin” lines—I work with the system where I can, I work it, I use, it, I “hustle” it, and I live with my mentality on the streets. I suffer with those who are victims of the “system”. The Crucified One stands with them outside the gates. Over my desk I have a painting of a person who has a bleeding heart, and over it the words “counselor”, and that is what I do, I bleed with them. We are all called to bleed with each other, it is in the bleeding that we find our humanness. The Velveteen Rabbit is my favorite story, for he does not become real until he is worn out.
People often asked me when I am in my street clothes if I am in my role as a street priest, and the truth is that is no role, I dress for other roles—in a suit, in dress shoes, in my yuppy clothes, when I am raising money, but my street clothes are my clothes, they are who I am—they are no role. I have experienced deep pain, deep scars as a result of homophobia, and of being a sex worker, as well as my years of ministry on the streets. I have PTSD as a result of the closeted environment I was in as a young man, I have PTSD as a result of the years of being on the streets and of working on the streets. I make no bones about it. There are nights I have night mares, I am haunted by fears, and as I have worked through them I see them as a reality that come from living, and also as scars that have healed and are healing in a piece of wood, that becomes a beautiful piece of art. I see life as art, and as art you have scars and in God shaping those scars he creates beauty, a beauty beyond compare. For example people are always asking me if I have ever wanted an intimate relationship, and I give my standard answer of serving God, but the reality is that the homophobia in which I was raised, and what I have gone through broke me in a way I did not want an intimate relationship, but I believe that God has used this to call me to the ministry where I have served thousands. Through the pain, and the healing of the scars I have been privileged to enter into a fuller relationship with Christ. And as I look back this was the calling for which I was born to in my mother’s womb. Through the suffering and pain God has called me to the ministry for which I was called in my mother’s womb.
Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
BY
Kevin Kline and Daniel D. Mauer
Far Away is a book about the Reverend Kevin Kline’s year on the street as a sex worker in 1975, with two young hustler friend’s who died on the streets, and about the “pimp” who brought him there. This is the story of a young man dealing with coming out in an age, a place, St. Louis, Missouri, where it was difficult, if not impossible at the time to find role models. He grew up in a typical suburban family, and being gay was not a part of the equation.
He had a sexual experience with a young friend, who then introduced him to a ‘pimp” as a “friend”, who had sex with him and for whom he had feelings, and then the man took him to Forest Park and basically “pimped” him out. He met two other young men, two street hustlers, with whom he became close friends. He had never been truly open with any of his other friends, they accepted him for who he was, and so that was the lure that kept him coming back to the Park that summer with the “pimp”. He saw the reality of prostitution—lawyers, policemen, politicians, the wealthy—who used young males for their satisfaction. He experienced the brutality of the police, and one policeman brutally beat up one of his young friends, who later committed suicide, and finally his other friend died a violent death as well. He returned to his suburban home, went to school, and was haunted by these experiences, and now they still touch him, and the deaths of his two young friends haunt him. His sexuality has been deeply colored by these experiences. And he suffers from PTSD from that summer, and the experience in a closeted society. They were the best friends he ever had. He is now a successful, openly gay pastor, his scars have healed like the scars on a piece of fine wood, and have made a piece of art out of his life.
For me this book took me back to that year. I was just beginning seminary serving a church fifty miles away. I was deeply in the closet, my former denomination is not even now open to people who are gay. I remember that year a young man coming to me struggling with being gay, and I, being the traditional pastor, gave him the answer of the church—it is a “sin”, and you need to find a therapist, stay celibate, and keep this a secret. He went to another church and they kicked him out because of his sexuality, and he committed suicide, and to this day I am haunted by this young man, haunted by how I let my own fears, lead to basically turning him a way , and I still feel as if I help put the gun to his head.
This took me back to my own coming out, and my years in prostitution. It brought home to me how those three years on the street are so hammered into my DNA that there is no way I can deny them, nor would I want to deny them. I am still a part of the street. I feel more comfortable on the street. The best friends I have ever had were those young guys I worked with—for we had no one else, and we had to be completely honest with one another—and it is still the same. The people I feel the closet to are the street kids, and they respond to me in the same way, for we know that we cannot pretend to be what we are not, and we accept each other for who we are. They know they can call me day or night and I will be there, they know they can stop by and I will feed them, and they know that I will not bring judgment of any kind on them—for that was my experience on the street as a hustler, I was accepted for who I was. A young man, whose name is “Gault” was eating with me in the Haight, and he said, “I have never told you this, but I knew the first time I met you, you were one of us, you hustle like all of us, and you know what it means to have people look down upon you, and try to “fix” you, I knew we were “family” that first day. “ And we are family.
Dorothy Day said that the system was “dirty and rotten,” and it is—it sets itself up to take care of people on its own terms, and that is why so many fall through the cracks. It’s one motive is profit, and which leads to tangible results. That is why I live between the “thin” lines—I work with the system where I can, I work it, I use, it, I “hustle” it, and I live with my mentality on the streets. I suffer with those who are victims of the “system”. The Crucified One stands with them outside the gates. Over my desk I have a painting of a person who has a bleeding heart, and over it the words “counselor”, and that is what I do, I bleed with them. We are all called to bleed with each other, it is in the bleeding that we find our humanness. The Velveteen Rabbit is my favorite story, for he does not become real until he is worn out.
People often asked me when I am in my street clothes if I am in my role as a street priest, and the truth is that is no role, I dress for other roles—in a suit, in dress shoes, in my yuppy clothes, when I am raising money, but my street clothes are my clothes, they are who I am—they are no role. I have experienced deep pain, deep scars as a result of homophobia, and of being a sex worker, as well as my years of ministry on the streets. I have PTSD as a result of the closeted environment I was in as a young man, I have PTSD as a result of the years of being on the streets and of working on the streets. I make no bones about it. There are nights I have night mares, I am haunted by fears, and as I have worked through them I see them as a reality that come from living, and also as scars that have healed and are healing in a piece of wood, that becomes a beautiful piece of art. I see life as art, and as art you have scars and in God shaping those scars he creates beauty, a beauty beyond compare. For example people are always asking me if I have ever wanted an intimate relationship, and I give my standard answer of serving God, but the reality is that the homophobia in which I was raised, and what I have gone through broke me in a way I did not want an intimate relationship, but I believe that God has used this to call me to the ministry where I have served thousands. Through the pain, and the healing of the scars I have been privileged to enter into a fuller relationship with Christ. And as I look back this was the calling for which I was born to in my mother’s womb. Through the suffering and pain God has called me to the ministry for which I was called in my mother’s womb.
Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
April 27, 2022
Fascinating - albeit tragic. The author and main focus of the memoir Daniel Maurer made this hard to put down. I really connected with him (not just being from St. Louis and gay), but in his curious and open nature. This was a book I won't ever forget.
August 5, 2018
Well done
The book was good in that Kevin told his story and dealt with the person and the effects of all of his actions.
The book was good in that Kevin told his story and dealt with the person and the effects of all of his actions.
July 24, 2019
Harrowing story of vulnerable kids being brutalized in a homophobic society that permits the trafficking of young gay kids. I cried.
September 5, 2022
Very powerful story, Thank you for telling it.
February 1, 2017
Haunting account of adolescence and transformation
This is an excellent book! I am the same age as the protagonist, Kevin, and therefore could relate to the mid-70's suburban adolescence. But I am also naive; to think that what happened to Kevin happens "here" is alarming. This is a well-written story not only about the obvious events "given away" in the title, but also of family, friendship, growing up, and growing into the person Kevin is today.
This is an excellent book! I am the same age as the protagonist, Kevin, and therefore could relate to the mid-70's suburban adolescence. But I am also naive; to think that what happened to Kevin happens "here" is alarming. This is a well-written story not only about the obvious events "given away" in the title, but also of family, friendship, growing up, and growing into the person Kevin is today.
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