The House of Hidden Meanings is the perfect title for this memoir from the world’s most famous drag queen – RuPaul. I’ve been a RuPaul fan since I spent my maternity leave watching all episodes of the original American series of RuPaul’s Drag Race back-to-back. It’s such a joyful, fashion-savvy, entertaining show that wonderfully showcases the art of drag. There is also now a UK version of the show too, which is very pleasing.
The Library is Open
But back to the book! Despite my intro there, it’s interesting that in The House of Hidden Meanings, RuPaul doesn’t actually talk about Drag Race at all. This is a memoir of his time before that.
Starting when he was a child, we learn that RuPaul is his real name, his mother always knew he was destined for stardom so named him with a unique name accordingly.
Originally from San Diego, while close to his mother, he had a fractured childhood and ended up being cared for by his older sister Renetta moved to Atlanta with her.
As I only know RuPaul as a drag queen – or, as he says in this clip, The Queen of Drag – it was interesting to read about his career before he became the glamazon we know and love. For example, he was in the iconic Love Shack music video by The B-52’s, he fronted a band and had album deals, he danced on cable TV and has a love of cars due to one of his first jobs driving them cross-country for car dealers.
‘This currency I had as queen of Manhattan, I wasn’t spending intelligently.’
Everybody say love
It’s really interesting to hear (I listened to this on audiobook) him detail his rise to fame. It wasn’t always an easy journey though. He mentions a few times how he is at heart a positive, optimistic person and found it hard to make it in bitter, cynical New York, where he moved to after Atlanta, but he persevered and it was in NYC that his career kicked off.
In his line of work, partying was part and parcel – and he partied hard. In The House of Hidden Meanings, he details his relationship with drugs, and his path to sobriety.
I listened to The House of Hidden Meanings on audiobook, narrated by RuPaul himself, he added so much emotion and charm to his story. This was a great memoir, highly recommend!
- Audiobook narrated by RuPaul
- Running time: 7h 6mins
- Get your copy of The House of Hidden Meanings here;
- Published by HarperAudio 2024;
- 256 pages;
- My rating:
Books on the 7:47 