Título: Gay Bar: Why We Went Out
Autor: Jeremy Atherton Lin
Sinopse: Los Angeles Times bestseller
National Book Critics Circle Award Winner
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY: The New York Times * NPR * Vogue * Gay Times * Artforum *
“Gay Bar is an absolute tour de force.” –Maggie Nelson
"Atherton Lin has a five-octave, Mariah Carey-esque range for discussing gay sex.” –New York Times Book Review
As gay bars continue to close at an alarming rate, a writer looks back to find out what’s being lost in this intimate, stylish, and indispensible celebration of queer history.
Strobing lights and dark rooms; throbbing house and drag queens on counters; first kisses, last call: the gay bar has long been a place of solidarity and sexual expression—whatever your scene, whoever you’re seeking. But in urban centers around the world, they are closing, a cultural demolition that has Jeremy Atherton Lin wondering: What was the gay bar? How have they shaped him? And could this spell the end of gay identity as we know it?
In Gay Bar, the author embarks upon a transatlantic tour of the hangouts that marked his life, with each club, pub, and dive revealing itself to be a palimpsest of queer history. In prose as exuberant as a hit of poppers and dazzling as a disco ball, he time-travels from Hollywood nights in the 1970s to a warren of cruising tunnels built beneath London in the 1770s; from chichi bars in the aftermath of AIDS to today’s fluid queer spaces; through glory holes, into Crisco-slicked dungeons and down San Francisco alleys. He charts police raids and riots, posing and passing out—and a chance encounter one restless night that would change his life forever.
The journey that emerges is a stylish and nuanced inquiry into the connection between place and identity—a tale of liberation, but one that invites us to go beyond the simplified Stonewall mythology and enter lesser-known battlefields in the struggle to carve out a territory. Elegiac, randy, and sparkling with wry wit, Gay Bar is at once a serious critical inquiry, a love story and an epic night out to remember.
Contexto da obra
Como livro em inglês, esta obra costuma ganhar também uma camada própria de interesse editorial e linguístico. “Gay Bar: Why We Went Out”, de Jeremy Atherton Lin, publicado pela editora Back Bay Books, em 2022 e com 320 páginas, integra a categoria Livros em Inglês. Por isso, o interesse da obra tende a se ampliar quando o leitor considera também a relação com a língua em que ela circula.
Editora: Back Bay Books
Páginas: 320
Ano: 2022-05-31
Edição:
Linguagem: en
ISBN: 0316458759
ISBN13: 9780316458757
Sobre a editora
Os livros da editora Back Bay Books oferecem uma experiência de leitura marcada por narrativas que transitam entre histórias pessoais intensas, biografias detalhadas e ficção que explora relações humanas complexas. O catálogo sugere obras que combinam dramas familiares, conflitos internos e contextos históricos, frequentemente ambientados em cenários realistas, como cidades contemporâneas ou períodos marcantes do século XX. Há também espaço para narrativas mais densas, como relatos de espionagem e investigações políticas, que mantêm um ritmo tenso e envolvente. As sinopses indicam uma atenção especial a personagens multifacetados, cujas jornadas emocionais são apresentadas com linguagem acessível, mas sem perder profundidade.
