Reviews - Gay Bar: Why We Went Out

586 reviews for:

Gay Bar: Why We Went Out

Jeremy Atherton Lin

3.82 AVERAGE

himpersonal's review against another edition

3.0

emotional informative sad medium-paced

This is a 3 for me because I already knew a lot of the content, so I didn’t feel like I learned much. However, it’s a lot of great content for anyone less familiar with gay history and gay culture. While it touches on other genders and sexualities, it’s a light touch. It is primarily a book about gay men and what life has been like for them since before AIDS was a US crisis.

kurupiana's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

Here are the bars me and my man have sucked and fucked at, and this is why that's historically significant" Loved it naturally. Not for the faint of heart in keeping up with references. Maybe I'm just dumb, but you really gotta keep your googlefingers ready to catch some of the best jokes. Radicalized my belief that more gay bars need food

bostonbluenose's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 25%

While interesting, I found the writing too academic and not interesting enough to hold my attention.

will_meringue's review against another edition

4.0

If a twink were to ask about my first gay bar, I'd confess it may be a confabulation. I'd muse that I'm unsure what qual-ifies as a gay bar. They were never one thing. But whichever it was-the ex-gay bar, gossipy coffeehouse, past-its-glory nightclub-I can testify it was disappointing. Gradually, I learned to give in to the experience for what it is: tacky but effervescent, artificial, cutthroat, cringe. I discovered that gay bars are about potentiality, not resolution. Gay bars are not about arriving. The best ones were always a departure.

An interesting, well-written, often scattered book that I thought would be a history of gay bars but is largely a memoir. As history is personal is political, I understand this and appreciate reading from Atherton Lin's specific experience - but I wish the history had dived deeper. Still, I enjoyed this window into a world I don't recognise. I never felt anything in the gay bar - not at home, but not transported to anywhere else.