A young gay man bewildered and lost on the highways of Los Angeles; a sadomasochist Neo-Nazi in Berlin; a rent boy in Shanghai; a holiday romance in Mexico; a man from Dakar in a bathhouse in Paris; a love hotel in Tokyo; a darkroom in Rio; a hamam in Syria; the burning ghats on the Ganges; Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, Shinto and atheist; legal and illegal … blazing through 18 countries on six continents, 80 Gays Around the World is an explicit, upfront, edgy, often funny, travel adventure that will leave you seeing the world and yourself with different eyes. How do men sexually attracted to other men live in different parts of the world? How do they see themselves? How have they survived over the centuries, mostly in places hostile to them?
“Brent Meersman’s latest book is strong medicine … Part autobiography, part social theory, Meersman’s immersive study of sexual desire and the cultures that cloak and shape it, is a must for readers who like their truths hard-boiled …
By turns ruthlessly unsentimental, oddly tender and vulnerable, it is a richly informative account of gay life and its evolution — for sexual desire, as Meersman reminds us, morphs with the times … But to state that this book is the sole preserve of those interested in gay sex would be to diminish its power. Both self-critical and cruelly objective … in 80 Gays around the World, Meersman demonstrates his pedigree as a renowned journalist. But because this is also a deeply personal account, it gives us an intimate grasp of what it means to be human today ... We are truly privileged to have Meersman as our guide … His superb, far-reaching account stands as an invaluable marker for a yearning, churning, confused, and desperate world.
As "a rite of passage to sexual Elysium", 80 Gays around the World is an intrepid and honest journey.“
Ashraf Jamal – Business Day, 5 August 2014
“Brent Meersman’s latest book is strong medicine … Part autobiography, part social theory, Meersman’s immersive study of sexual desire and the cultures that cloak and shape it, is a must for readers who like their truths hard-boiled …
By turns ruthlessly unsentimental, oddly tender and vulnerable, it is a richly informative account of gay life and its evolution — for sexual desire, as Meersman reminds us, morphs with the times … But to state that this book is the sole preserve of those interested in gay sex would be to diminish its power. Both self-critical and cruelly objective … in 80 Gays around the World, Meersman demonstrates his pedigree as a renowned journalist. But because this is also a deeply personal account, it gives us an intimate grasp of what it means to be human today ... We are truly privileged to have Meersman as our guide … His superb, far-reaching account stands as an invaluable marker for a yearning, churning, confused, and desperate world.
As "a rite of passage to sexual Elysium", 80 Gays around the World is an intrepid and honest journey.“
Ashraf Jamal – Business Day, 5 August 2014
