Mideast Piece

I just finished reading a book that readers of Mideast Piece will enjoy. Diary of a Drag Queen by Daniel Harris is about the gay author’s quest to cope with mid-life and a break-up by transforming himself into that most fearsome of creatures - the fishnet stocking-clad woman.

In diary “his/her” chapter format, Daniel, aka “Denial,” takes us through the underworld of being a New York City drag queen in the age of the Internet. Thanks to cyberspace, “straight” men are able to fulfill once off-limits fantasties after arranging an encounter with Denial. The book is filled with social and psychological commentary, much of it based on Denial’s romps with men of different ethnic and racial backgrounds (like this blog!).

“In the bedroom of the drag queen, the heterosexual and the homosexual, like the lion and the lamb, lie down on the same sheets,” writes Harris.

“Diary” is a sequin-studded page-turner if I ever saw one. The author is a true poet, and I devoured each page like the first plate at a Chinese buffet. Check out this opening sentence for a flavor of Daniel’s style:

“I remember the first time I did drag-not the sort of drag that I am doing now, but screeching, camp drag, fright drag, drag that expresses not the love of femininity, but the gay man’s triumph over effeminate stereotypes, which he defies by caricaturing them, performing a hygienic subcultural ritual in which he distances himself from the mannerisms of the limp-wristed fag.”

Amen to drag.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 25th, 2007 at 9:56 pm and is filed under Art, GLBTQ. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.