NPR

The Mom-And-Pop Bookstore That Sold Gay Porn: 'Circus Of Books'

Rachel Mason and her siblings grew up unaware that their parents ran a gay bookstore. Her "affectionate but thinly realized" documentary skims the surface of stories that deserve deeper dives.
For years, Karen and Barry Mason ran a Los Angeles bookshop that sold and distributed gay pornography.

"We own a bookstore."

For her entire childhood and most of her adolescence, that's all that Rachel Mason knew about what her parents did for a living and all she cared to understand. Kids tend not to sweat the particulars of how they have food on the table, clothes on their backs, and a roof over their heads, and the Masons, Karen and Barry, were perfectly content with her incuriosity and that of her two brothers, too.

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