{"product_id":"gay-bar-1","title":"Gay Bar","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestseller\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e National Book Critics Circle Award Winner\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY: The New York Times * NPR * Vogue * Gay Times * Artforum *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “\u003ci\u003eGay Bar\u003c\/i\u003e is an absolute tour de force.” –Maggie Nelson\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Atherton Lin has a five-octave, Mariah Carey-esque range for discussing gay sex.” –\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAs 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.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 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 \u003ci\u003ewas\u003c\/i\u003e the gay bar? How have they shaped him? And could this spell the end of gay identity as we know it?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eGay Bar,\u003c\/i\u003e 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. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 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, \u003ci\u003eGay Bar\u003c\/i\u003e is at once a serious critical inquiry, a love story and an epic night out to remember. \u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Little, Brown Paperbacks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41717635612850,"sku":"9780316458757","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0536\/7418\/0786\/files\/O_bf57b49d-b01c-4a0c-8e0e-3a8551ccff25.jpg?v=1773817731","url":"https:\/\/shop.hachettebookgroup.com\/products\/gay-bar-1","provider":"Hachette Book Group","version":"1.0","type":"link"}