Little, Brown and Company
"We go out to get some," writes Jeremy Atherton Lin in his new book,
Gay Bar. "We go out because we're thirsty. We go out to return to the thrill of the chase ... We go out for the aroma. Some nights just smell like trouble."
The subtitle of Atherton Lin's book is
Why We Went Out, and the London-based author offers plenty of reasons in this remarkable debut.
Gay Bar combines memoir, history and criticism; it's a difficult book to pin down, but that's what makes it so readable and so endlessly fascinating.
Atherton Lin's book starts off in a crowded room in a gay bar where he's gone cruising with his partner, whom he refers to throughout the book with the Leonard Cohen-inspired nickname Famous Blue Raincoat. Atherton Lin participates in a sexual encounter with a stranger, and reflects on what sets him apart from the tough-looking crowd: "I saw these men as being in their domain, depraved and sketchy, whereas I was just passing through. I'm the company I keep: a man over forty with a Friday night" erection, "passing as desirable in the dark."