Hiding My Candy

If you haven't noticed, I tend to read books set in the areas I live in. My husband and I move around A LOT, which means I get a whole new city to explore through books! Our most recent move brought us to Savannah, Georgia. So obviously, I had to read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt. His book featured one of the most infamous characters, The Lady Chablis. I immediately grabbed a copy of her book, Hiding my Candy.

 

Now, if you haven't read Midnight or are not familiar with the drag scene in Savannah....then you probably have no idea who The Lady Chablis is. She was one of the biggest names on the Drag circuit in the late 1980s all throughout the 1990s. Her stage persona featured comedy, singing, and emceeing. She created a name for herself in show business.

Hiding My Candy details the early life of The Doll, a name The Lady Chablis likes to refer to herself as. Her story is unique for several reasons. I mean this woman was one of the first Trans performers to sashay her way into the spotlight. She let it be known that she was all woman and expected to be treated as such. Which was honestly such a power move, I mean it's the South in the '80s. The Lady Chablis was an all around bad bitch, in the truest sense of the word. She took no shit from anyone. She stayed true to herself and refused to let society change who she was.

 

Now, it was written in 1996, so a lot of the terminology she uses is outdated. But that doesn't change the overall message of her story. She walks us through every single decision she made and why she made it. She talks about discovering her sexuality and what it would mean for her future relationships. I'm positive The Lady Chablis lived the life she never dreamed possible, and she looked killer doing it.

Looking for other books featuring The Lady Chablis?

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil