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Gay Bar: Why We Went Out

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Los Angeles Times bestseller National Book Critics Circle Award Winner NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY: The New York Times NPR Vogue Gay Times Artforum “Gay Bar is an absolute tour de force.” –Maggie Nelson "Atherton Lin has a five-octave, Mariah Carey-esque range for discussing gay sex.” –New York Times Book Review As gay bars continue to close at an alarming rate, a writer looks back to find out what’s being lost in this intimate, stylish, and indispensible celebration of queer history. 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. Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Back Bay Books (May 31, 2022)


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0316458759


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 57


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.45 x 1.4 x 8.15 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #123,558 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #101 in LGBTQ+ Biographies (Books) #121 in LGBTQ+ Demographic Studies #291 in Literary Criticism & Theory


#101 in LGBTQ+ Biographies (Books):


#121 in LGBTQ+ Demographic Studies:


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If you place your order now, the estimated arrival date for this product is: Friday, Jun 6

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Top Amazon Reviews

    • History lessons with 1st hand accounts
The author gives his first hand accounts about going out to the gay bars and clubs while also discussing historical events and putting it into context. I bought the audio book at accompany this, and enjoyed the author’s work.
Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2022 by Scott K.
    • Interesting insight about the role of gay bars in LGBTQ culture
Interesting insight about the evolution of gay bars and their role in LGBTQ culture — focusing mostly on London, Los Angeles and San Francisco, so the work is naturally of particular interest to readers with an interest in those cities. The book provides an interesting blend of personal experiences and general analysis, with historical references and examples. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2022 by Mark Chesnut
    • A must read
Gives a clear picture of gay life in London and San Francisco from the eighties to present day, discussing the changes which are not necessarily for the better.
Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2021 by Timothy
    • Not terribly enjoyable. Easy to put down.
The author is clearly a competent writer, but this feels like required reading for a gay studies class at a small and elite liberal arts college. Lin’s writing feels a bit intellectual/superior/pedagogical. It’s like you are reading someone who loves the sound of their own voice…a self-annointed authority on the topic (what the exact topic is, I’m still not entirely sure). So, don’t expect a personal and relatable retrospective that covers a recent chapter in gay culture that men of an age thought would last forever. Another reviewer nailed it: The title of the book should be…”Gay Bars, Why I Went Out.” There’s not a lot of “we” in here. I know this is not meant to be homoerotica, but Lin’s expository style is so clinical, he makes gay life come across as self-serving, transactional, and shadowy…which is fun some of the time, but not all of the time. He actually comes across as a bit empty inside. He also seems to equate gay bars with sex clubs and bathhouses, which in reality are very different facets of urban gay life. Bottom line: This book is a bit joyless. I’m sure it’s meant to be empowering/liberating/enlightening, but it comes across to me a bit like internalized homophobia. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2022 by tim
    • GAY Argonauts!
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.
Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2021 by Niki
    • An Ode to a Forgotten Lifestyle
This book took me back years ago when I haunted lots of gay bars in “the good old days”. Enjoyable reflecting on my time in San Francisco and London.
Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2021 by richard waddell
    • Worth the trek
I'm not sure what I expected when I bought this book, other than that I have gone out to gay bars constantly for 20 years and it seemed appropriate that a book called "Gay Bar" should be displayed prominently in my home. A quarter of the way through, I'd already decided that I didn't like it, that it was just so exhausting and dense. I felt what some other reviews have commented on, pretentiousness; I'm not accustomed to having to constantly consult a dictionary when I read, and the frequency of literary references seemed in the early chapters less about adding context and more about showing off the author's intelligence. There were certainly times I paged ahead to see when the next break would be - how much longer I'd need to be going through the book on a given evening. I distinctly remember thinking, the author wouldn't like me and I probably wouldn't like him. If I met him in a gay bar, he'd probably make me feel bad about myself and I'd resent him. But as I continued reading, I felt less of those feelings and more engaged in the author's personal story; and by the end, when I finished, I immediately missed him. As it happened, I finished the book on the way back from a trip, and when I went to go back to page through it to write the review, I realized I left it in the cab and felt very sad about that - a book that in the beginning I wouldn't have at all minded parting with. Why the reversal? Perhaps because it's a memoir, and it was challenging for me to understand and identify with the author in his youth, but I can better identify with who he is now. There is a certain sadness at the end, as he reflects on how gay bars function today versus how they did in his youth, and I share that. And I couldn't help but pause near the end in a moment where he discusses jealousy and envy, and I realized how much I envied how so much of his story in nightlife happened alongside his partner, Famous. I'm single and have been for awhile, and I thought I was OK with that -- I've certainly had wonderful moments in nightlife out solo or with friends -- but reading about all his experiences with his partner, it made me question whether I am happy with that. It's hard to say that I "enjoyed" a book that was often technically difficult for me to read, and that left me feeling sad at the end - sad for the loss of his voice, sad for the gay bars and moments in my life that have passed, sad to be alone with my memories, looking at memoir of shared memories. But, somewhere along the line in reading this I developed a real appreciation for the author, how openly he shares himself and his story, the amount of work it took to produce this. Quite the opposite of when I started, I decided that I really liked him very much, and the book too. And having lost my copy, I'll happily purchase another. I'm eager to read it again with the appreciation I have now. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2021 by B. Williams
    • Great read
A wild ride. Loved the style and learned so much. I've never read anyone who describes dark rooms so eloquently <3
Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2021 by Jen Winston

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