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A review by jonscott9
Gay Bar: Why We Went Out by Jeremy Atherton Lin
2.0
I knew going in that this book is like cilantro: No one I know who's delved into it has a neutral or modest opinion on it. Two friends didn't draw to the end, put off by one thing or another, a few dozen pages in, and another finished and relished it.
Maybe I wanted this to be something more or else, or to have more diversity in it. It's largely based in London and Los Angeles, with some San Francisco friskiness. That's all fine, though the verbal and/or physical beatings depicted in the back part of the book, at the hands of presumably-straight UKers, including some members of the Muslim community, feel a bit overindexed on and yet not addressed in enough depth to warrant the coverage. Yes, queer people are persecuted by or suffer violence at the hands of other minorities, those with other dimensions of difference, but it felt within these pages like a bit of a referendum on at least one other people group.
I've bopped around some intriguing queer bars, whether they targeted gay men, LGBTQ inclusively, or whatever sub-sets of our tribe(s). Those are stories to tell, from my first one (an incredibly darkly lit leather bar) to others from New Orleans to Rome, Minneapolis to London, Toronto to Paris. That's not to say I'm so supremely well traveled or experienced in this respect. I am not. But what I probably hoped for, in part, was more bounding about different cities. I might like a book of vignettes from 10 to 12 different cities, even in the U.S. There's such a different vibe among queer bars in Chicago, Houston, New York, Washington, Dallas, Denver, Provincetown, Boston, Cincinnati. The beat goes on.
I did dig the sociological and anthropological aspects of it, and perhaps what I most appreciate is that it introduced me to three or four songs I'd not heard before, namely "Come to Me" by Frances Joli, "Close to Perfection" by Miquel Brown, and "He's on the Phone" by St. Etienne. For those, and some other aspects of this tome, I am thankful.
In general, there's a lot of fairly vague sex scenarios – group, trio, one on one, whatever. Those scenes are hardly interesting enough to warrant the repeated, then yawn-inducing, escapades of glory hole, drop-to-knees and/or sweaty sex acts. Breaking news: Some guys are skinny, some are hairy, and ... you get it.
Maybe I wanted this to be something more or else, or to have more diversity in it. It's largely based in London and Los Angeles, with some San Francisco friskiness. That's all fine, though the verbal and/or physical beatings depicted in the back part of the book, at the hands of presumably-straight UKers, including some members of the Muslim community, feel a bit overindexed on and yet not addressed in enough depth to warrant the coverage. Yes, queer people are persecuted by or suffer violence at the hands of other minorities, those with other dimensions of difference, but it felt within these pages like a bit of a referendum on at least one other people group.
I've bopped around some intriguing queer bars, whether they targeted gay men, LGBTQ inclusively, or whatever sub-sets of our tribe(s). Those are stories to tell, from my first one (an incredibly darkly lit leather bar) to others from New Orleans to Rome, Minneapolis to London, Toronto to Paris. That's not to say I'm so supremely well traveled or experienced in this respect. I am not. But what I probably hoped for, in part, was more bounding about different cities. I might like a book of vignettes from 10 to 12 different cities, even in the U.S. There's such a different vibe among queer bars in Chicago, Houston, New York, Washington, Dallas, Denver, Provincetown, Boston, Cincinnati. The beat goes on.
I did dig the sociological and anthropological aspects of it, and perhaps what I most appreciate is that it introduced me to three or four songs I'd not heard before, namely "Come to Me" by Frances Joli, "Close to Perfection" by Miquel Brown, and "He's on the Phone" by St. Etienne. For those, and some other aspects of this tome, I am thankful.
In general, there's a lot of fairly vague sex scenarios – group, trio, one on one, whatever. Those scenes are hardly interesting enough to warrant the repeated, then yawn-inducing, escapades of glory hole, drop-to-knees and/or sweaty sex acts. Breaking news: Some guys are skinny, some are hairy, and ... you get it.