Deep House

“Deep House goes from the pensoroso of the best history of marriage equality we have to the allegro of a very hot gay love story told in the funniest, most tender way.”—Edmund White

“Deep House is that rare and beautiful book—equally illuminating and pleasurable. I loved its luminous transcription of queer life, its incisive and intimate legal history of gay marriage in the U.S., its transcendently sexy and propulsive love story, and its portrait of social change that promises not the fantasy of permanent liberty, but that more ephemeral reward: joy. It is exactly the book we need right now.”—Melissa Febos, author of The Dry Season and Girlhood

“I love this book’s honesty and originality; the intricacy and intimacy with which it studies the politics of love and desire; its huge brain and dirty, beautiful heart.”

“Jeremy Atherton Lin artfully combines easily forgotten social history with vivid, intimate accounts of his own love life to show us how, for queer people, the often-impersonal political grandstanding around marriage equality, and liberation more generally, can intrude upon and shape the most personal corners of gay life. In writing that is both lyrical and informative, this book also manages to be bold and sexy.”

“A fabulously riveting hybrid memoir and queer history lesson…Atherton Lin writes knowing that the history of queer people, as is the case for most marginalized groups, exists between the lines. That, because queerness has been so often and systematically criminalized, queer lives, queer struggles and queer culture are documented furtively or euphemistically, if at all. Backed by a formidable array of sources, he combines the rigorously researched and the deeply personal to implode that gap and fill it with as much detail as possible.”—The New York Times

"A strong cocktail of memoir, legal history and sociology...Atherton Lin beautifully captures the Bay Area at the turn of the millennium: the creeping gentrification, the tech bros, the video shops, the aging hippies. He’s also not shy in his descriptions of sex of many kinds and configurations, with all the attendant sensations. (At times you can almost smell it.)"—The Washington Post

"Atherton Lin shrewdly braids the history of gay marriage into an account of his relationship with his husband in this gorgeous follow-up to Gay Bar...Stylish, sexy, and deeply moving, this blends beautiful prose and incisive social history to stunning effect."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Deep House is more than a historic archive or a love-obsessed confession. It’s not even an argument for marriage—gay or otherwise. Instead, Deep House is an argument for love unbridled by restraints."—The Brooklyn Rail

“Deep House is an enduring reminder to readers and to writers of memoir alike that our lives are best understood within the context of society and history...a masterclass in the ease with which the writer can blend the contextual and the personal. Perhaps more importantly, Deep House is a vivid example of quiet tenderness. It is, indeed, a love letter that details more than a decade’s worth of life from first date to marriage. But Mr. Atherton Lin never effuses, never shouts. Love is in the quiet details."

“The book pairs backstories of pioneering queer people who pursued marriage equality (like an American couple who filed the first legal case in 1979 to seek a same-sex marriage) alongside charged vignettes of passion found in sexual embrace...comes at a particularly apt time under the Trump administration’s ruthless anti-immigration agenda.”—The Observer US

“It is dedicated...to the subject of the viability and endurance of gay relationships. Lin uses his own long-term partnership as a prism through which to examine the issue.”—Literary Review

"The harsh reminder here is that queer people have long been pushed to the edges, forced to live across boundaries and borders—both seen and unseen. And at a time when queer rights are once again under threat, Lin’s story feels both timely and timeless."—Avocado Diaries

"A riveting hybrid of memoir and socio-cultural interrogation."—AnOther Magazine

"The incisive and uninhibited critical thinker Jeremy Atherton Lin follows up his National Book Critics’ Circle award winner, Gay Bar, with Deep House...An intellectually and emotionally powerful read today, this book will grow even more valuable in the future; its history lessons are wrapped in relatable passions."—Passport Magazine