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March 19, 2021 - Booked Solid by Terri Schlichenmeyer

Gay Bar: Why We Went Out

by Jeremy Atherton Lin

c.2021, Little, Brown and Company

$28.00 / $36.00 Canada

320 pages

The stool over by the window is all yours.

Might be because you've spent a lot of time there. It's the right height, you can easily watch the door from there, and the bartender knows your favorites, so why not? As in the new book Gay Bar by Jeremy Atherton Lin, it's one of the best places to be.

Long before it was legal for him to go there, Jeremy Atherton Lin, like most teenage boys, imagined going to the bar—though in his case, Lin imagined what it was like in a gay bar. Ironically, he says, "I can't remember my first."

As someone with a foot in each of two continents, he does have favorites, places that are now closed, re-named, or been moved. He's danced in them, had sex in them, drank and moved through gay bars with his "companion, the Famous Blue Raincoat," and anonymously, and with friends-not-friends.

Some bars were carved out of a back room or basement, or a place that used to be something else, maybe another bar. They're cavernous; or they're small and packed with men dancing or doing drugs; or they're thick with bachelorette parties and tourists, to the annoyance of the gay men who've claimed that bar. Those usurpers don't know the legacy of feeling gay, but "[I]t goes pretty deep." Some bars have opened just for the night. Others were raided once upon a time, or will close before a month has passed. Overall, they're an important part of being a gay man, pre-Stonewall, pre-AIDS, post-epidemic, and now.

And yet, says Lin, "...there does remain something embarrassing about a gay bar." Still, try to stop him from fondly remembering nights in the Castro or Los Angeles or London….

Absolutely, you could be forgiven for wondering what you got yourself into while reading the first couple dozen pages of Gay Bar. Unabashedly, without preamble, author Jeremy Atherton Lin leaps right into a hazy description of a night out or two, in a chapter that seems fragmented, like a broken strobe light. Clarity comes, but later, and it's fragile.

Part of the haze might be due to the autobiographical nature of Lin's story: there are bars in his tales, but the focus here is more going to bars, with the implied assumption that readers are familiar with those he mentions or others exactly like them. This, of course, may not be true; still, Lin's sex-and-booze-filled tales of drag, dance, and la dolce vita are compelling, woven with gay history, interesting then-and-now comparisons, and blisteringly explicit tales of being a young gay man.

And then again, while these stories take readers through the doors of a gay bar, once we've literarily entered, there are times when we're abandoned, the music's too loud, and we want to just go.

Like a song you don't particularly like, though, that won't last long. Really, the surreality of Gay Bar is not insurmountable; in fact, if you wait it out, you'll be mostly glad you did. So look for it—and take a seat.

Terri Schlichenmeyer has been reading since she was three years old and never goes anywhere without a book. Always Overbooked, she lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 15,000 books.

‹ March 19, 2021 - Spotlight on the Arts by Doug Yetter up March 19, 2021 - Historical Headliners by Ann Aptaker ›

Past Issues

Issues Index

  • April 16, 2021 - Issue Index
  • March 19, 2021 - Issue Index
    • March 19, 2021 - Cover to Cover with Issuu
    • March 19, 2021 - The Way I See It by Beth Shockley
    • March 19, 2021 - In Brief
    • March 19, 2021 - Out In Delaware by David Mariner
    • March 19, 2021 - Intentionally Inclusive by Wesley Combs
    • March 19, 2021 - CAMP News
    • March 19, 2021 - A Shot In the Arm by Ed Castelli
    • March 19, 2021 - Community News
    • March 19, 2021 - It's My Life by Michael Thomas Ford
    • March 19, 2021 - Who's That?... That's CAMP! by Anita Broccolino
    • March 19, 2021 - CAMP Houses by Rich Barnett
    • March 19, 2021 - Health and Wellness by Marj Shannon
    • March 19, 2021 - Health & Wellness Classes & Events
    • March 19, 2021 - Guest Column by Clarence Fluker
    • March 19, 2021 - Dining Out by Fay Jacobs
    • March 19, 2021 CAMPShots Gallery 1
    • March 19, 2021 - Out & About by Eric C. Peterson
    • March 19, 2021 - Out & Proud by Stefani Deoul
    • March 19, 2021 - Straight Talk by David Garrett
    • March 19, 2021 - LGBTQ+ YA Column by Barbara Antlitz
    • March 19, 2021 - Looking at the Score by Matty Brown
    • March 19, 2021 - Spotlight on the Arts by Doug Yetter
    • March 19, 2021 - Booked Solid by Terri Schlichenmeyer
    • March 19, 2021 - Historical Headliners by Ann Aptaker
    • March 19, 2021 - The Real Dirt by Eric W. Wahl
    • March 19, 2021 - We Remember
  • February 19th, 2021 - Issue Index
  • CAMP Rehoboth Visual Arts
  • Sirens of Spring
  • Ten More Queer Women in Art and History Who Changed the World (Virtual Presentation)

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