Home Books The House of Hidden Meanings

The House of Hidden Meanings

The House of Hidden Meanings

by RuPaul

Dey Street Books ·2024 ·256 pages
Maybe Someday
Maybe Someday
I Index
39/99
Maybe Someday

34/99

Critics' Rating Index

Maybe Someday

44/99

Readers' Rating Index

n/a

Scholars' Citation Index

77/99

Volume of Reviews

96/99

Volume of Reader Ratings

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About This Book

From international drag superstar and pop culture icon RuPaul, comes his most revealing and personal work to date—a brutally honest, surprisingly poignant, and deeply intimate memoir of growing up Black, poor, and queer in a broken home to discovering the power of performance, found family, and self-acceptance. A profound introspection of his life, relationships, and identity, The House of Hidden Meanings is a self-portrait of the legendary icon on the road to global fame and changing the way the world thinks about drag. Central to RuPaul's success has been his chameleonic adaptability. From drag icon to powerhouse producer of one of the world's largest television franchises, RuPaul's ever-shifting nature has always been part of his brand as both supermodel and supermogul. Yet that adaptability has made him enigmatic to the public. In this memoir, his most intimate and detailed book yet, RuPaul makes himself truly known. Stripping away all artifice, RuPaul recounts the story of his life with breathtaking clarity and tenderness, bringing his signature wisdom and wit to his own biography. From his early years growing up as a queer Black kid in San Diego navigating complex relationships with his absent father and temperamental mother, to forging an identity in the punk and drag scenes of Atlanta and New York, to finding enduring love with his husband Georges LeBar and self-acceptance in sobriety, RuPaul excavates his own biography, uncovering new truths and insights in his personal history. Here in RuPaul's singular and extraordinary story is a manual for living—a personal philosophy that testifies to the value of chosen family, the importance of harnessing what makes you different, and the transformational power of facing yourself fearlessly. If we're all born naked and the rest is drag, then this is RuPaul totally out of drag. This is RuPaul stripped bare.


Reviews

"Strikes a very different and altogether less congenial tone."

Becca Rothfeld· The Washington Post Read review ↗ Maybe Someday

"Touching also on belonging, love, and sobriety, this vibrant and multifaceted celebrity memoir will have readers rapt."

Annie Bostrom· Booklist Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"A memoir that is by turns shocking, poignant, fantastically egotistical and often wise ..."

Kathryn Bromwich· The Guardian Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"RuPaul paints wildly vivid city scenes ..."

Priscilla Kipp· BookPage Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"The meanings laid bare in the text contradict RuPaul's narration again and again."

Saeed Jones· The New York Times Read review ↗ Bottom of the Pile

"A highly candid, empowering celebrity self-portrait."

Kirkus Read review ↗ Near the Top

"A probing, emotionally raw memoir that's an introspective examination of RuPaul's family and the issues he confronted before embracing self-love."

Kevin Howell· Library Journal Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

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