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A review by hmmalexa
Deep House by Jeremy Atherton Lin
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
“by then, we’d been an item for three years, but we didn’t have the receipts. not the right ones, like a utility bill. we’d have fared better with that kind of official proof of living together (even illegally) than a stack of love letters. . .you could draw me a picture. i could write you a sentence. these acts meant the world to us, and nothing to the world.” (151)
i really liked this book ! the queer history woven in w atherton lin’s personal life worked really well for me and it felt like a real tapestry trying to represent the gayest love story ever told. i for the most part loooooved the writing in this book, at times it felt a little self indulgent BUT if i was writing abt something so personal to me and my life like my nearly 30 year long relationship i too would probably be a bit self indulgent. sometimes the way he wrote abt sex took me out of it, not for it being out of place or anything but at one point i read “squishy buns” and i did have to laugh. overall i really enjoyed this book ! it was less memoir ish than i was expecting but i don’t think that’s a bad thing, I really loved how well researched the different historical sections were, and honestly i’m still thinking abt his writing on clive boutilier -> “surely all this would have been impossible to conceive of by four young people on coney island amid a lost weekend that should have never been found” (106).
loved atherton lin’s voice and style of writing, it’s made me want to read so so much more by him. it felt so swooning at times while still being anchored into reality and the stress of their situation/the present political moment, but even w that there was room for humour and tenderness too, even w the underlying cynicism and anxiety. love !!
i really liked this book ! the queer history woven in w atherton lin’s personal life worked really well for me and it felt like a real tapestry trying to represent the gayest love story ever told. i for the most part loooooved the writing in this book, at times it felt a little self indulgent BUT if i was writing abt something so personal to me and my life like my nearly 30 year long relationship i too would probably be a bit self indulgent. sometimes the way he wrote abt sex took me out of it, not for it being out of place or anything but at one point i read “squishy buns” and i did have to laugh. overall i really enjoyed this book ! it was less memoir ish than i was expecting but i don’t think that’s a bad thing, I really loved how well researched the different historical sections were, and honestly i’m still thinking abt his writing on clive boutilier -> “surely all this would have been impossible to conceive of by four young people on coney island amid a lost weekend that should have never been found” (106).
loved atherton lin’s voice and style of writing, it’s made me want to read so so much more by him. it felt so swooning at times while still being anchored into reality and the stress of their situation/the present political moment, but even w that there was room for humour and tenderness too, even w the underlying cynicism and anxiety. love !!