November 18, 2024
Playwright and actor Corren expands on his viral obituary of his mother, Renay Corren (1937–2021), in his wild and occasionally hilarious debut. Renay raised Corren and his four siblings on her own in Fayetteville, N.C., in an environment straight out of a John Waters movie: Corren and his brothers had nicknames like “Jewboy” and “Asshole,” and Renay often gambled or sold marijuana to keep everyone fed. When she came up short, Corren and his brothers stole food from wherever they could. Folded into Corren’s affectionate, off-color portrait of Renay—“a brilliant, beautiful, fat, horny, fertile, disrespectful, disobedient, book-obsessed gambling redhead who didn’t give two caramelized figs for society’s expectations”—is a tender account of his own coming-of-age, including his early discovery that he was gay while watching Donny Osmond on Donny & Marie. Given that Fayetteville was “a small, Southern town with very few gay safe spaces,” Corren made several attempts to move away, only to be drawn back into Renay’s orbit. Corren’s ribald sense of humor won’t be for everyone, but readers who go along for the ride will be moved to learn how his family endured significant hardships by sticking together. It’s a unique and memorable romp. Agent: Jennifer Gates, Aevitas Creative Management.
December 1, 2024
A doting son commemorates the life and legacy of his eccentric mother. Playwright and performer Corren's memory of his beloved mother, who died in late 2021 at 84, was immortalized by a pithy, comedic obituary that became a national social media sensation. His family memoir flamboyantly elaborates on her eventful life in Fayetteville, North Carolina, as a "plus-sized Jewish lady redneck" named Renay, mother to a kooky Southern brood. The author writes of being the youngest of six, exiled every summer throughout his childhood to his grandparents' Miami Beach home to entertain them with his celebrity impersonations. Corren establishes himself early on as an uproarious raconteur, having coined pet names for his siblings, according to their personalities, and sharing endless anecdotes about their misadventures getting backyard haircuts, their work in tandem with their mother at the local bowling alley, the family's time living in Japan, and their house evictions during sweltering Fayetteville summers. Corren retraces his mother's reckless early years as a nut-loving, "ravenous and ravishing redheaded" Southern woman who, when faced with trouble, "shot first, asked questions later" and was, surprisingly, a voracious reader. Unfortunately, Renay's divorce in 1975 became the event that unraveled her emotionally and financially. Despite their former devotion, Corren's siblings (and the author himself, on his 18th birthday) left Fayetteville forever. Though his queerness emerged throughout his youth, Corren divulges that he always knew he was special, "like a hothouse plant that needed a little extra attention," which his mother always lavished on him in her own unique and boisterous way. Though some will find Corren's delivery of rapid-fire anecdotes dizzying, he manages to downshift toward the book's conclusion, recounting a poignant trip back to Fayetteville, five months after his mother's death and 34 years after he'd permanently left the area, to organize a family memorial for Renay at the bowling alley she always adored. A matriarch's idiosyncratic life captured and besainted through a succession of hilarious memories.
COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
December 1, 2024
Playwright and performer Corren, who became famous for the obituary he wrote about his mother, Renay Mandel Corren, expands his family biography with this memoir. It encompasses his entire family this time, along with their history, stories, and relationships. Prepub Alert.
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December 1, 2024
Corren's obituary for his ""plus-sized Jewish lady redneck"" mother, Renay, went viral; here, he expands his tribute to the larger-than-life mother of six into a memoir of his own childhood and his mother's life story as he experienced it. As the youngest of Renay's children, and as a young, gay man so different from his older brothers, Corren grew up unusually close to his mother (therapists would later assure him he was not in love with her, to his great relief). Corren describes his childhood and his family's descent from the middle class with a sort of gallows humor but also with a somewhat rosy glow--the entire rowdy, crass brood of Correns revolved around the star that was Renay's well-manicured, bawdy, unconventional self. Beyond simple memoir, this is a raw, honest, funny story of family, forgiveness, and, in the end, letting go. The book would be of interest to fans of Doug Stanhope's Digging Up Mother and even David Sedaris' more family-focused stories.
COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.