Have you realized that your drama potential has crossed the line between harmless fun to a problem? Perhaps you're just looking for a book that will have you laughing along with each chapter.
Either way – and definitely much more on the funny side, Drama Queen bills itself as the “essential guide for recognizing, acknowledging and turning down the volume for every drama-loving man.” You'll be able to measure your 'drama-quotient' with a quick and easy test and by the end of the book you just might be able to find a “healthier option than accepting the worst and expecting the worst.”
Drama?
This book skirts the line between being a completely humorous look at drama in gay lives and being a self-help book for those of us who might need to work on toning down the level of drama we subject ourselves too.
As the author Patrick Prices says in the introduction, for many gays we have a unique and oft-misunderstood dynamics in our lives. The goal of the book isn't too make you boring, but to develop a better understanding of what our own personal drama is and to find a healthier perspective on life.
What do you find in the book?
There are seven chapters in this roughly 200 page book. Each delves into the various aspects of gay life and the drama contained within them. Throughout all of the chapters are various highlighted sections that are called out in text boxes. These tend to reinforce the idea presented in each chapter (such as “Drama' Petri Dish” or “Misery's Henchmen”).
The seven chapters include:
Drama is an Elective
The Friends We Keep
The Root of All Misery: Money
“I hate my job” is not a Healthy Mantra
Ready to Share the Wealth
Carry-On Baggage
Looking Ahead
As you can probably tell, the chapters follow a logical progression, from what drama is to how to move beyond having a fulfilling life that isn't quite so filled with drama.
What's interesting about this book is that it takes on serious topics like our careers, our friendships and our relationships and shows us in a funny way how acting like a drama queen simply isn't the healthiest way to approach situations. For something like compulsive shopping, Price doesn't just say it's a bad thing, we get to look at several different types of compulsive shoppers and while none of us may be quite as bad as the examples, there's a bit of us here and there. So when it comes to helping part, I think it gives you a better idea that even if you're not out spending on everything all the time, we could all use some help.
The same goes with a look at relationships. No relationship is going to always be a picnic and none will never be like a fairy tale. Instead they take work and they take effort and the book does a fairly good job at identify the major areas where being a drama queen is going to be counter-productive and end up hurting your relationship.
When you finish with Drama Queen you'll have been both entertained and educated a bit. I'd think that most people will find some helpful advice throughout the book beyond simply finding humor.
Thoughts
You might think from the cover of this book that it's all laughs and humor and while the topic of being a drama queen is looked at with a humorous slant, the real value of this book is that it actually can help you find a “healthier option than accepting the worst and expecting the worst.”
I won't try to argue that gay guys are bigger drama queens than others (I've seen some pretty big drama queens in the heterosexual population), but I think we have a unique set of circumstances that makes the drama sometimes worse – or at least it can manifest itself in plenty of destructive ways that we need to be aware of. The great part of this book though is that it doesn't approach the issue from a critical viewpoint of the individual reading the book – but instead simply presents the stereotypical drama and offers helpful advice for improving our lives. No one wants to be called a drama queen, but if we read something that's funny and helpful at the same time, I think we're more likely to take some of that helpful advice.
Final Thoughts
Drama Queen does an admirable job of identifying, explaining and offering advice for dealing with that various kinds of drama in our lives in a funny and humorous way.
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