"Courogen delivers a vibrant biography of filmmaker Elaine May...This is a gem." — Publisher's Weekly (starred review)
“Carrie Courogen has written the biography Elaine May deserves. Shimmering with insight and grounded in deep research, this book is as iconoclastic, engaging, and challenging as Miss May herself.” — Claire Dederer, author of Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma
“In Miss May Does Not Exist, Carrie Courogen pulls off quite the feat; she manages to capture, with nuance and wit, the life of a woman who is as hilarious as she is complex, as sparkling as she is serious, as ambitious as she is aloof. Courogen makes an undeniable case for May's permanent place in the cinematic canon as a major director and singular comedic talent; after reading this book, I will be saying ‘justice for Ishtar!’ to anyone who will listen.” — Rachel Syme, Staff Writer, The New Yorker
"Carrie Courogen has achieved the impossible: she has written the first (and very likely last) full-scale biography of Elaine May, the most beguiling, infuriating, thrilling, comedy genius — and let’s not use that word casually — of the twentieth century, and she has done it splendidly, with admiration, welcome outrage, and scrupulous attention to detail. We all of us who have loved and wondered at this creature Elaine May owe Courogen our thanks, money, food — whatever she wants — for having written this book." — Sam Wasson, NYT Bestselling Author of The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood and Fosse
“What an upbeat, positive and perceptive take Carrie Courogen has given us on one of our funniest and most interesting film artists, the extraordinarily elusive and talented Elaine May! Her research has followed her subject’s “factual fiction” crumb-trails to hell and back with great love to elucidate on May’s truth, even if it means she’s going to get an excoriating tongue-lashing for giving a younger generation a story it needs to know if they want to be half as smart as May. We get the feeling that Carrie Courogen understands Elaine May really well. Their intelligence has no gender.” — Tina Weymouth, Tom Tom Club and Talking Heads
"Elaine May is simply one the funniest people to ever live on this planet." — Phil Rosenthal, creator of Everybody Loves Raymond and star of the Netflix hit Somebody Feed Phil
“I have loved Elaine May ever since I fortuitously saw A New Leaf at age eleven, just as I was discovering my own sense of humor. But I revere her even more now, after reading Carrie Courogen’s essential biography Miss May Does Not Exist. I already knew May was a force, but Courogen’s no-stone-left-unturned account enlightened me as to just how much her vision and inimitable voice have pervaded the culture for decades. And learning about May’s process and trajectory has galvanized me to dive back into my own creative self. Just as Nichols and May brought each other to life on the stage, Courogen and May bring each other to light on the page. And this book might just inspire you as well.” — Wendy Liebman, stand-up comedian, star of Showtime’s Wendy Liebman: Taller on TV
“Don’t miss Miss May Does Not Exist by Carrie Courogen, a brilliant mix of stalker-thriller, quest-saga, and awe-inspiring biography. Drop-dead talented, funny, singular, gorgeous, and imperious, Elaine May is a figure both elusive yet professionally impossible to overlook for women interested in standup, in humor, in comedy, in film, in theatre, in writing—and in the world. Spotlighting the grueling, finally triumphant trajectory of May’s inimitable career and strewn with new insights and commentaries from May’s friends and colleagues, Courogen’s well-researched book is at once hilarious and very, very important. In Miss May Does Not Exist, Elaine May is finally, wonderfully, and delightfully captured by Carrie Courogen.” — Gina Barreca, PhD , Board of Trustees and Distinguished Professor of English Literature at The University of Connecticut, author of They Used to Call Me Snow White, But I Drifted and It’s Not That I’m Bitter
★ 04/01/2024
Known for being highly intelligent and often prickly, Elaine May proved herself a multifaceted talent as she transitioned from comedian to writer/director/actor and sought-after script doctor. Working tirelessly for most of the last 70 years, May (born in 1932) has remained an enigmatic figure whose work has often gone uncredited. She has always valued her privacy and reportedly has a penchant for half-truths and humorous exaggerations, but writer/editor/director Courogen skillfully takes on the challenge of discovering the woman behind the legend. She found that May, a single mother at 18, asked her own character-inspiring mother to raise May's daughter while May partnered with Mike Nichols to revolutionize stand-up comedy and improvisation. She dabbled in acting and directing, most notably helming The Heartbreak Kid and Ishtar, which received advance reviews that sunk the film and created May's lifelong distrust of the press. On the other hand, her work saved numerous films, including Tootsie and Primary Colors, and her role in the Broadway revival of The Waverly Gallery led to a Best Actress Tony win in 2019 when she was in her late eighties. VERDICT The writing in this book is whip-smart and funny. It produces a fully realized portrait of a mysterious film genius.—Lisa Henry
