Reviews
"A beautiful, lyrical memoir...Atherton Lin has a five-octave, Mariah Carey-esque range for discussing gay sex." -- NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, "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, "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, "Utterly blown away. Jeremy Atherton Lin creates something new from a territory that feels so familiar and known. We can never have enough complex, intersectional writing about queer experience, and this is such a welcome, needed addition to the canon." -- NIVEN GOVINDEN, author of THIS BRUTAL HOUSE and DIARY OF A FILM, "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, "Masterful...[ Gay Bar ] has something for every reader...This superb, multifaceted book takes a close look at gay bars individually and as concept, in history and in the author's life, tackling big questions with wisdom and grace." -- SHELF AWARENESS, "Each page made me yearn for the dance floor and each chapter made me think about our need for queer spaces in new ways. I'm so glad that someone has written the definitive book about gay bars...but specifically, Atherton Lin, who has captured the subversiveness and sexiness that make these places what they are, or, tragically, were." -- AMELIA ABRAHAM, author of QUEER INTENTIONS, "I can't remember the last time I've been so happily surprised and enchanted by a book. Gay Bar is an absolute tour de force." -- MAGGIE NELSON, "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, 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, " Gay Bar is searching, erudite, and sexy. With verve and grace, it probes the past, present, and future of queer life while refusing easy binaries. Gay Bar is about pleasure, but deeply serious too. It is wonderful -- one of the best books I have read in ages." -- KATHERINE ANGEL, author of UNMASTERED and DADDY ISSUES, New York Times Editors' Choice 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, "A beautiful amble through the world of gay bars . . . a rich tapestry of history, theory, and criticism." -- VANITY FAIR, "One of the bestwriters I've encountered, remaking the world sentence by immaculate sentence." -- Olivia Laing, author of THE LONELY CITY and FUNNY WEATHER, 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 Wall Street Journal 's10 Best LGBTQ+ Books for Pride Month 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, "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 work of genius. Smooth and ferocious; tumescent and pounding; sweet, awkward, occasionally shy. Phenomenological social history at its most fuckable."-- Grace Lavery, author of PLEASE, MISS, "A grand, cross-continental adventure. . . . [Atherton Lin's] deep and vivid details bring his memories to life in a way that will make you feel like you are smack dab in the middle of those bars alongside him. His examination of these spaces from all sides will make you think about them in brand new ways." -- ASSOCIATED PRESS, "A kinetic bar crawl through space and time and subculture. . . . Gay Bar feels like a love letter, and of the realest sort -- one that expresses devotion through piercing, sustained attention, that takes delight in negotiating." -- BUZZFEED, " A book of rare dream-like power , an exacting anthropology of queer life. Brainy, audacious, funny, vulnerable, and sexy, Gay Bar is endlessly awake not just to codes and signs but to a culture that's changing faster than most of us are able to see." -- PAUL LISICKY, author of LATER: My Life at the Edge of the World, "Lively and dirty, intellectual and gossipy, Gay Bar is the rare book that feels both like a guilty pleasure and like it is making you considerably smarter as you read. A super-exciting debut and an important document of queer lives." -- MICHELLE TEA, author of BLACK WAVE and AGAINST MEMOIR, "Jeremy Atherton Lin's intimate history of gay culture -- from the 18th century to today -- is electric, immersive, and impossible to look away from. . . . It's an illuminating, sexy, vibrant examination of place and identity." -- BUZZFEED, "This deservedly award-winning, multifaceted book examines the role of the gay bar on both a micro and a macro level. Come for the history lesson, stay for the party ."-- WALL STREET JOURNAL, "A detailed, frank and brilliantly personal account...Already, Gay Bar reads like a cult classic." -- PAUL FLYNN, EVENING STANDARD, "Jeremy Atherton Lin's personal history of queer nightlife is shot with vibrant intellectual adrenaline. With keen original insight, he celebrates the gay bar as a site of ribald, sensuous, and urgent resistance. A must-read for all." -- CATHY PARK HONG, author of MINOR FEELINGS
