Americas
![Jeremy Atherton Lin - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B08CZYPW58.jpg)
Gay Bar: Why We Went Out
One of the New York Times Critics' Top Books of 2021
An indispensable, intimate, and stylish celebration. "Gay Bar is an absolute tour de force." (Maggie Nelson)
"Beautiful...Atherton Lin has a five-octave, Mariah Carey-esque range for discussing gay sex." –New York Times Book Review
Strobing lights and dark rooms; throbbing house and drag queens on counters; first kisses, last call: the gay bar has long been a place of solidarity and sexual expression-whatever your scene, whoever you're seeking. But in urban centers around the world, they are closing, a cultural demolition that has Jeremy Atherton Lin wondering: What was the gay bar? How have they shaped him? And could this spell the end of gay identity as we know it?
In Gay Bar, the author embarks upon a transatlantic tour of the hangouts that marked his life, with each club, pub, and dive revealing itself to be a palimpsest of queer history. In prose as exuberant as a hit of poppers and dazzling as a disco ball, he time-travels from Hollywood nights in the 1970s to a warren of cruising tunnels built beneath London in the 1770s; from chichi bars in the aftermath of AIDS to today's fluid queer spaces; through glory holes, into Crisco-slicked dungeons and down San Francisco alleys. He charts police raids and riots, posing and passing out-and a chance encounter one restless night that would change his life forever.
The journey that emerges is a stylish and nuanced inquiry into the connection between place and identity-a tale of liberation, but one that invites us to go beyond the simplified Stonewall mythology and enter lesser-known battlefields in the struggle to carve out a territory. Elegiac, randy, and sparkling with wry wit, Gay Bar is at once a serious critical inquiry, a love story and an epic night out to remember.
An indispensable, intimate, and stylish celebration. "Gay Bar is an absolute tour de force." (Maggie Nelson)
"Beautiful...Atherton Lin has a five-octave, Mariah Carey-esque range for discussing gay sex." –New York Times Book Review
Strobing lights and dark rooms; throbbing house and drag queens on counters; first kisses, last call: the gay bar has long been a place of solidarity and sexual expression-whatever your scene, whoever you're seeking. But in urban centers around the world, they are closing, a cultural demolition that has Jeremy Atherton Lin wondering: What was the gay bar? How have they shaped him? And could this spell the end of gay identity as we know it?
In Gay Bar, the author embarks upon a transatlantic tour of the hangouts that marked his life, with each club, pub, and dive revealing itself to be a palimpsest of queer history. In prose as exuberant as a hit of poppers and dazzling as a disco ball, he time-travels from Hollywood nights in the 1970s to a warren of cruising tunnels built beneath London in the 1770s; from chichi bars in the aftermath of AIDS to today's fluid queer spaces; through glory holes, into Crisco-slicked dungeons and down San Francisco alleys. He charts police raids and riots, posing and passing out-and a chance encounter one restless night that would change his life forever.
The journey that emerges is a stylish and nuanced inquiry into the connection between place and identity-a tale of liberation, but one that invites us to go beyond the simplified Stonewall mythology and enter lesser-known battlefields in the struggle to carve out a territory. Elegiac, randy, and sparkling with wry wit, Gay Bar is at once a serious critical inquiry, a love story and an epic night out to remember.
Editorial Reviews
One of the New York Times Critics' Top Books of 2021
New York Times Editors' Choice
NPR's Best Books of 2021
Artforum's Best Books of 2021
Vogue's Best Books of 2021
LitHub's Most Anticipated Books of 2021
Cosmopolitan's Best LGBTQI+ Books of 2021
Debutiful's Best Books of February
Queerty's Best Holiday Reads
"A beautiful, lyrical memoir…Atherton Lin has a five-octave, Mariah Carey-esque range for discussing gay sex."
―NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
"A remarkable debut. . . it's a difficult book to pin down, but that's what makes it so readable and so endlessly fascinating. . . Each observation is sharp and phrased beautifully; Atherton Lin wastes no words, and the ones he chooses are carefully considered. Gay Bar is a book that's beyond impressive, and Atherton Lin's writing is both extremely intelligent and refreshingly unpretentious."
―NPR
"The treatment of time in the book - the way the present is peeled back to reveal the past - is beautiful, and original. Throughout there is a feeling of simultaneity, of queer lives and histories moving in parallel, of nightlife as a site of pleasure, play and resistance…How movingly he replicates it here, with his wide, strobing intellect, enlivening skepticism, rascally allure."
―Parul Sehgal, NEW YORK TIMES
"A beautiful amble through the world of gay bars . . . a rich tapestry of history, theory, and criticism."
―VANITY FAIR
"Brilliantly written . . . Atherton Lin writes as though he himself is a sign of the times. With gusto and a sense of abandon he describes his own hunger for excitement, with scenes that are gloriously locked in the present moment."
―Colm Tóibín, THE GUARDIAN
"For when you really miss going out… This book will make you miss it even more. Atherton Lin's stylish debut explores the history and cultural resonance of gay bars…It's a wistful exploration of queer life, history, liberation, and identity. And feels especially vital right now when we're all stuck inside."
―THE SKIMM
"A detailed, frank and brilliantly personal account…Already, <...
New York Times Editors' Choice
NPR's Best Books of 2021
Artforum's Best Books of 2021
Vogue's Best Books of 2021
LitHub's Most Anticipated Books of 2021
Cosmopolitan's Best LGBTQI+ Books of 2021
Debutiful's Best Books of February
Queerty's Best Holiday Reads
"A beautiful, lyrical memoir…Atherton Lin has a five-octave, Mariah Carey-esque range for discussing gay sex."
―NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
"A remarkable debut. . . it's a difficult book to pin down, but that's what makes it so readable and so endlessly fascinating. . . Each observation is sharp and phrased beautifully; Atherton Lin wastes no words, and the ones he chooses are carefully considered. Gay Bar is a book that's beyond impressive, and Atherton Lin's writing is both extremely intelligent and refreshingly unpretentious."
―NPR
"The treatment of time in the book - the way the present is peeled back to reveal the past - is beautiful, and original. Throughout there is a feeling of simultaneity, of queer lives and histories moving in parallel, of nightlife as a site of pleasure, play and resistance…How movingly he replicates it here, with his wide, strobing intellect, enlivening skepticism, rascally allure."
―Parul Sehgal, NEW YORK TIMES
"A beautiful amble through the world of gay bars . . . a rich tapestry of history, theory, and criticism."
―VANITY FAIR
"Brilliantly written . . . Atherton Lin writes as though he himself is a sign of the times. With gusto and a sense of abandon he describes his own hunger for excitement, with scenes that are gloriously locked in the present moment."
―Colm Tóibín, THE GUARDIAN
"For when you really miss going out… This book will make you miss it even more. Atherton Lin's stylish debut explores the history and cultural resonance of gay bars…It's a wistful exploration of queer life, history, liberation, and identity. And feels especially vital right now when we're all stuck inside."
―THE SKIMM
"A detailed, frank and brilliantly personal account…Already, <...
Readers Top Reviews
close readerM. G. Fu
This is a lot of pretentious, intellectualized (as opposed to intellectual) rubbish. The guy is obviously too young to really know what gay bars mean and have meant to past generations. And he can't write clearly enough to make what he does know understandable. Total waste of money.
Niki
After reading Maggie Nelson’s “The Argonauts” I wondered if another book might satiate me. I rather felt I had nowhere to go, until now. The blending of memoir, history and intellectual celebration of perversion-as-queer-identity certainly scratch this itch.
Jen Winston
A wild ride. Loved the style and learned so much. I've never read anyone who describes dark rooms so eloquently <3
J. Brantleyrichard w
This is not a scholarly book, more a memoir of the gay bar scene in the 70s, 80s and 90s. There are attempts at drawing poetic, insightful and even transcendent observations. Author went to ABC bars, describes their atmosphere, location and history; had sex with XYZ guys as a result.
