A review by jazhandz
Gay Bar: Why We Went Out, by Jeremy Atherton Lin
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
I have an admittedly bad habit of reading reviews before I read a book. As such I was surprised by how many reviews for Gay Bar were unhappy with the mixture of memoir and broader history. I am not a gay man but I identify as queer, and this book captures the essential connectedness of gayness. The bars he describes are snapshots of gay culture, and his experience is at once individual and intensely relatable. You can’t talk about the history of gay bars without talking about the people who go to them. You can’t talk about gay bars without talking about gay history. Sure, I would have preferred a different balance of the three, but you need all three.
As a whole I thought this book was lovely and honest and thoughtful, and full of so much love for the subject. Some parts of it resonates, other parts didn’t, and the author’s penchant for dropping in six-syllable words was a little annoying. But as a whole I hugely enjoyed reading this.
As a whole I thought this book was lovely and honest and thoughtful, and full of so much love for the subject. Some parts of it resonates, other parts didn’t, and the author’s penchant for dropping in six-syllable words was a little annoying. But as a whole I hugely enjoyed reading this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Hate crime
Moderate: Alcohol, Drug use, Racism, and Homophobia
Minor: Islamophobia