Gay Bar: Why We Go Out. Jeremy Atherton Lin

A superb and original book. It manages, and very successfully, to be several approaches in one. But it does not feel like a mess or muddle, rather it expertly combines several different types of writing, all combined in a masterly fashion.

One aspect is the autobiographical element as the author tells us about himself and where he has been. He has some perceptively self-aware remarks about himself at various stages of his life, gay-focused and otherwise.

Another aspect is something of a history of gay rights and experiences and how these have changed over the years. This is often refracted through the personal/ experience of the author so that personal history and gay history become intertwined. Closely linked with this are vivid personal reminiscences of the various bars and establishments, in the UK and the USA that he knows and has experienced. Remarks about these are invariably very time-specific and each place represents a different part, social and historical of the gay experience, both for the writer, the reader and the gay community in general.

And finally it is something, with a combination of all of the above elements, of a sociological study (but not in a negative way) as all these elements when combined in the way they are here manage to help answer the question implicitly posed in the first two words of the book title.

A marvelous book and VERY highly recommended.