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The House of Hidden Meanings

A Memoir

Audiobook
1 of 10 copies available
1 of 10 copies available

***An Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller!***

From international drag superstar and pop culture icon RuPaul, comes his most revealing and personal work to date—a deeply intimate memoir of discovery, found family, and self-acceptance. 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.

In The House of Hidden Meanings, RuPaul strips away all artifice and 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 life-story, 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.

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. "I've always loved to view the world with analytical eyes, examining what lies beneath the surface. Here, the focus is on my own life—as RuPaul Andre Charles," says RuPaul.

If we're all born naked and the rest is drag, then this is RuPaul totally out of drag. This is RuPaul stripped bare.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 4, 2024
      Drag queen RuPaul (GuRu) excavates his childhood, early romances, and rise to fame in this unvarnished personal history. He begins in 1960s San Diego, where he lived with his fiery mother, self-absorbed father, and three sisters until his parents divorced. At 15, he moved with his sister, Renetta, and her husband to Atlanta, where he eventually dropped out of high school and fell in with the city’s bohemian art scene. The memoir luxuriates in this period, recounting the author’s tumultuous affairs, early dabblings with drag, and eventual move to New York City, where he and his former Atlanta BFF Lady Bunny rose to rule the downtown scene. Unlike the performer’s featherweight previous autobiographies (including 1995’s Lettin’ It All Hang Out), the tone here is intimate, almost conspiratorial, which both helps and hurts. On the one hand, he discusses his substance abuse and lifelong sexual insecurity with sometimes-stunning candor; on the other, he offers up some alarming pop psychology pablum, including the assertion that his father’s provincial family were “still slaves” who were “afraid of everything.” Fans looking for dishy Drag Race drama will be disappointed—the volume ends well before the show’s premiere—but readers eager for a peek behind RuPaul’s glamorous persona will get just what they came for. Agent: Cait Hoyt, CAA.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Pop culture drag star RuPaul's soft narration opens with sensory details that evoke the power of memory. His gentle voice allows listeners to enter early scenes of his life in San Diego that are not always easy--waiting for his father who never shows up, arriving home for lunch to find a locked door. Within those scenes are wise reflections about the world around him and his place in it, especially when he goes to Atlanta and finally finds his tribe. As his evolving eccentricities gain him popularity, RuPaul leads listeners through eras of disco, punk, and new wave music. His candid warmth is an invitation to accompany him as he discovers fame, love, sobriety and, most importantly, his unvarnished self. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      March 1, 2025

      Known for his drag superstardom and over-the-top personality, Tony Award winner and 12-time Emmy winner RuPaul (GuRu; Lettin It All Hang Out) offers listeners a raw account of his childhood, dysfunctional family, and coming-of-age. From an unstable upbringing to coming into his own during the AIDS epidemic, RuPaul has always had to forge his path. Narrating his own work, RuPaul offers an intimate presentation as he traces his experience from outsider to self-proclaimed Queen of Drag, including his 1960s San Diego childhood, his teen years in Atlanta, and his eventual move to New York City. While this memoir only scratches the surface of RuPaul's tumultuous path to celebrity, listeners won't want to miss out on hearing his affecting account, told with just the right amount of emphasis and emotional punch. In true RuPaul fashion, the writing is often exuberant and outsized, but listeners will sense that this is a personal, important performance. VERDICT RuPaul's many fans will want to check out his self-narrated memoir, which offers a candid and sincere account of his experiences, reflections, and growth.--Elyssa Everling

      Copyright 2025 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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