In his new memoir, “Gay Bar,” Jeremy Atherton L documents his personal history and the history of queer inty by explorg gay bars around the world.
Contents:
- A NEW NOVEL REVENTS E.M. FORSTER’S CLASSIC GAY LOVE STORY ‘MRICE’
- A MEMOIR ABOUT QUEER INTY, TOLD ONE GAY BAR AT A TIME
- 13 VERY GAY AND VERY GOOD BOOKS YOU SHOULD READ THIS PRI MONTH
- THIS BOOK IS GAY
A NEW NOVEL REVENTS E.M. FORSTER’S CLASSIC GAY LOVE STORY ‘MRICE’
Forster’s novel featured a rare happy endg for gay characters. William di Canz’s new book, “Alec,” picks up and ntu their story. * gay book review *
Forster’s “Mrice” offered a rarefied view of queer possibily: a happy endg for gay men, wh the book’s protagonist, the wealthy and well-ted stockbroker Mrice Hall, fdg love wh the young groundskeeper Alec Scudr. Th, he watched his ially ntemporary novel age to an embalmed perd piece about the cripplg, self-nnibalizg anxieti that homosexual men lived wh early-20th-century England.
A MEMOIR ABOUT QUEER INTY, TOLD ONE GAY BAR AT A TIME
* gay book review *
AdvertisementSKIP Jeremy Atherton LWhen you purchase an penntly reviewed book through our se, we earn an affiliate 9, 2021GAY BARWhy We Went OutBy Jeremy Atherton LHistory, as is tght, is a straight le of domo fallg — the relentls clack of fact htg fact, an orrly que of aly stretchg on forever. History, as is lived, is a reelg spiral of flight and return; the erative reawakeng of new selv faiar plac; a never-endg terrogatn of our own nfed and nfg motiv; a msy slather of dots on a graph where the center n be plotted only Atherton L’s betiful, lyril memoir, “Gay Bar: Why We Went Out, ” cloaks this lived history that learned history, examg an objective subject — gay bars — to create a highly subjective object: a book about his life, flensed down to jt the bs that ma past the chapter foc on one particular gay bar (jumpg om London to Los Angel to San Francis and back), s history and s place the trajectory of Atherton L’s life.
As Atherton L remds , “disassociatn is a gay rual as much as any other.
“Gay Bar” danc on the edge of that third space between fictn and nonfictn, a space often rerved for poetry. Atherton L himself is renred only relatn to the bars he walks through; you’ll fd yourself hard-prsed at the end to say where he was born or how many siblgs he has (and you won’t re) Atherton L has a five-octave, Mariah Carey-que range for discsg gay sex.
13 VERY GAY AND VERY GOOD BOOKS YOU SHOULD READ THIS PRI MONTH
Celebrate wh the bt LGBTQ books and books wh gay characters or om LGBTQ thors. Empower yourself by addg the spirg books to your readg list. * gay book review *
Like any good gay bar, this book has a bouncer, and his name is is Atherton L’s first book, but benefs om his extensive experience as an sayist and an edor of Failed Stat, a journal about plac.
“Gay Bar” is well crafted (which is pecially pleasg nsirg this is a memoir about stctur), wh a strong thorial hand that mak the rear feel refully shepherd through the text, even as Atherton L jumps s and ntents. When he discs an important 1966 prott at the historic Greenwich Village gay bar Juli’, he c a New York Tim article to talk about the “tr of activists” volved — not realizg that the article left out a fourth man, Randy Wicker (the only one still alive, cintally enough) a half page later, though, Atherton L warns that spe the activist claim that gay bars “should be kept open to facilate knowledge passg between generatns, ” he himself had never really received gay wisdom “on a barstool. ” This book is not about history, the subject you study, but history, that thg you have wh that guy by the jebox whose name you n’t the fal chapter of “Gay Bar, ” Atherton L grappl wh gog to a new generatn of bars, created by very different forc, meetg very different needs.
THIS BOOK IS GAY
Advertisement - Contue Readg Below16Cy of Night by John Rechy16Cy of Night by John RechyNow 12% OffCred: Grove PrsTake a trip to the unrground world of gay htlers, drag queens, and sex workers this book that sndalized the lerary world when first me out but went on to bee a mt-read. You n fe-tune your search by searchg for sub genr like LGBT Fictn, Gay, LGBT Nonfictn, Queer Characters, Transgenr, Bisexual, and LGBT Eroti book reviewers.
As soon as I saw gay polil marriage, I knew I had to requt an arc.