Shannon Mason

Guest Privileges is a finely-balanced work of charming personal memoir and dedicated investigative journalism, expertly threaded with a building tension of self-knowledge and personal risk. Adams seeks out his queer subjects throughout the Gulf and fondly, urgently, carefully tells their stories, but this is not sensational or reckless---it's not Gonzo. As the title promises, Adams can never forget that he's not at the centre of these stories, and that his intersections with them are limited by more than time. So it's even more impressive that he's weaved this book throughout with his own funny and humble telling of a formative decade of his career, friendships, and love life, without ever losing that thread of self-awareness. I searched for this book at Blackwell's in Oxford the week it came out, having been assured they had a copy in stock. I looked in the LGBTQ+ and Middle East sections, Biography and Memoir, Travel, and I went through New Hardcovers several times. On the cover it has a picture of a guy doing a handstand, but I still couldn't find it that day. This book belongs on all of those shelves, and by whichever direction you come to it you're sure to find something unexpected and fascinating.