Dirtbag Queen is a raucous joyride of a memoir. Andy Corren tells the story of his mother, Renay Corren, and the community of misfits who orbited her. He begins with the Correns and their eccentricities, or as he puts it: "These people. These beautiful, loud, leathery, Jewish people. My people." He progresses to a series of vignettes about getting along with his family, growing up queer in 1980s North Carolina, and burning bowling pins to keep warm each time the family failed to pay their power bill. And at the center of it all was Renay.
Corren is laughing-uncontrollably-on-public-transit funny, in the vein of comic masters like David Sedaris. His writing has an inherent poetic rhythm, a textual comedic timing. Layers of real tenderness give this offbeat comedy a surprising depth. One noteworthy aspect is how Corren portrays Renay as more than just a mother. He celebrates her for being flawed and messy, as he wrote in the widely read obituary that led to this memoir: Renay was a woman who "didn't clean, and was lousy with money," but was "great at dyeing her red roots, weekly manicures, filthy jokes, pier fishing, rolling joints and buying dirty magazines."
Dirtbag Queen is hilarious and poignant. Corren's big-hearted and generous telling shares with readers the magic of Renay and the people who were permitted the honor of being in her radiant presence. Under the fart jokes and self-deprecating humor, it's a touching tribute to what it means to be human, to love, and to be loved. --Carol Caley, writer