What do you think?
Rate this book
Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius
Miss May Does Not Exist , by Carrie Courogen is the riveting biography of comedian, director, actor and writer Elaine May, one of America’s greatest comic geniuses. May began her career as one-half of the legendary comedy team known as Nichols and May, the duo that revolutionized the comedy sketch.
After performing their Broadway smash An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Elaine set out on her own. She toiled unsuccessfully on Broadway for a while, but then headed to Hollywood where she became the director of A New Leaf, The Heartbreak Kid, Mikey and Nicky, and the legendary Ishtar. She was hired as a script doctor on countless films like Heaven Can Wait, Reds, Tootsie, and The Birdcage. In 2019, she returned to Broadway where she won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in The Waverly Gallery. Besides her considerable talent, May is well known for her reclusiveness. On one of the albums she made with Mike Nichols, her bio is “Miss May does not exist.” Until now.
Carrie Courogen has uncovered the Elaine May who does exist. Conducting countless interviews, she has filled in the blanks May has forcibly kept blank for years, creating a fascinating portrait of the way women were mistreated and held back in Hollywood. Miss May Does Not Exist is a remarkable love story about a prickly genius who was never easy to work with, not always easy to love and frequently often punished for those things, despite revolutionizing the way we think about comedy, acting, and what a film or play can be.
After performing their Broadway smash An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Elaine set out on her own. She toiled unsuccessfully on Broadway for a while, but then headed to Hollywood where she became the director of A New Leaf, The Heartbreak Kid, Mikey and Nicky, and the legendary Ishtar. She was hired as a script doctor on countless films like Heaven Can Wait, Reds, Tootsie, and The Birdcage. In 2019, she returned to Broadway where she won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in The Waverly Gallery. Besides her considerable talent, May is well known for her reclusiveness. On one of the albums she made with Mike Nichols, her bio is “Miss May does not exist.” Until now.
Carrie Courogen has uncovered the Elaine May who does exist. Conducting countless interviews, she has filled in the blanks May has forcibly kept blank for years, creating a fascinating portrait of the way women were mistreated and held back in Hollywood. Miss May Does Not Exist is a remarkable love story about a prickly genius who was never easy to work with, not always easy to love and frequently often punished for those things, despite revolutionizing the way we think about comedy, acting, and what a film or play can be.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published June 4, 2024
About the author
Carrie Courogen
4 books39 followersCarrie Courogen is the author of Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood's Hidden Genius. She is a writer, editor, and director based in New York.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
June 9, 2024
I'm really torn about this book. As a big Elaine May fan, I believe she deserves to be better known and her place in Hollywood and comedy history celebrated. It's for this reason also that I only grew more ambivalent while reading MISS MAY DOES NOT EXIST. This is very well-researched (though I found some of the citations inconsistent in style), but the access issues permeate the text like it's being haunted. It's not exactly a fair comparison, but I couldn't help comparing this to the recent, very well-written (and oft-cited here) biography of Mike Nichols by Mark Harris. Harris had advantages with his subject that Courogen does not: Nichols is deceased, met the author several times before said passing, led a very public life with a lot of documentation to prove it. May, by contrast, is still alive, deeply private, and opted not to participate in this project multiple times. The resulting project is a book-long write-around profile that successfully puts together a complete CV of May's career in comedy, film, and theater. It's when Courogen dips into psychobiography to form a Grand Unifying Theory of Elaine that she loses me. The frequent shifts into second person - "You can hear the words too" "You could tell them instead" - are deployed to get the reader to fill in the gaps left by May with the reader's own feelings. Second person, to me, is a crutch that writers lean on when they want the reader to feel something but cannot actually provide evidence of that feeling in other, direct ways. The writing generally is a little too conversational and casual for my taste, especially a project drawing on this much research.
A good biography does absolutely not require the participation of its subject (and many great biographies are all the better for lacking it), but MISS MAY DOES NOT EXIST is home to one of the strangest relationships between author and subject that I've read in years. The introduction sets a worrying tone, where the author describes several borderline and textbook instances of stalking her subject over the course of three years. It opens on the author wearing a wig on a park bench across from May's apartment building, hoping for a glimpse of her subject. Later, she evidences: "I spent $200 printing and mailing her 341 pages of museum scans of old family documents she hadn't known existed, [...] walked by her building hoping I'd happen to see her coming out of it, attended events she RSVP'd to, then ghosted at the last possible moment." But a blessing ultimately doesn't matter to Courogen, because she asserts that May can't be trusted to be truthful:
Well, here it is mutual. The rest of the book is centered around a thesis of circular logic: May's truth has never been told, and I, her biographer, am the only one you can trust to tell it because May herself will tell you lies. The reader comes away with the impression that Courogen has cast herself as the Charles Kinbote to May's John Shade, the lone scholar-poet working to enlighten the most minor details of another life while also bending every piece of the text to fit her own, twisted theory. This reader, who was not at all uninformed about May's career going into this, came away wondering if I could trust the author any more than I could trust May herself.
Review copy provided by NetGalley.
A good biography does absolutely not require the participation of its subject (and many great biographies are all the better for lacking it), but MISS MAY DOES NOT EXIST is home to one of the strangest relationships between author and subject that I've read in years. The introduction sets a worrying tone, where the author describes several borderline and textbook instances of stalking her subject over the course of three years. It opens on the author wearing a wig on a park bench across from May's apartment building, hoping for a glimpse of her subject. Later, she evidences: "I spent $200 printing and mailing her 341 pages of museum scans of old family documents she hadn't known existed, [...] walked by her building hoping I'd happen to see her coming out of it, attended events she RSVP'd to, then ghosted at the last possible moment." But a blessing ultimately doesn't matter to Courogen, because she asserts that May can't be trusted to be truthful:
"With Elaine's penchant for elusive privacy, the facts she personally presents as true must always be taken with a grain of salt. We are all, to varying degrees, unreliable narrators of our own lives [...] Elaine, though, wants you to know that you're being set up, wants you to question what is a fact and what is a good story. It's the mark of someone both acutely aware of the mind's ability to present alternate versions of reality--and of someone so distrustful of others that she expects the feeling to be mutual."
Well, here it is mutual. The rest of the book is centered around a thesis of circular logic: May's truth has never been told, and I, her biographer, am the only one you can trust to tell it because May herself will tell you lies. The reader comes away with the impression that Courogen has cast herself as the Charles Kinbote to May's John Shade, the lone scholar-poet working to enlighten the most minor details of another life while also bending every piece of the text to fit her own, twisted theory. This reader, who was not at all uninformed about May's career going into this, came away wondering if I could trust the author any more than I could trust May herself.
Review copy provided by NetGalley.
June 23, 2024
It really does pain me that I didn’t love this book. I felt the biography has too much to say without having anything substantial backing it up. The most interesting bits were already legends that couldn’t exactly be proven true in this book, because it seems like the author didn’t get anyone in May’s life on the record. I still love Elaine May and consider her one of the best directors to grace Hollywood but this biography had nothing new to say. It felt like an overly long Wikipedia page at its worst and high level blogging at its best.
June 16, 2024
Without a doubt the worst biography of a major artist I’ve ever read.
If you read a biography such as Blake Bailey’s recent one of Philip Roth, you encounter novelistic pleasures: Bailey draws characters he’s never met with the indelible accuracy of John Singer Sargent because he clearly has lived life.
Carrie Courogen appears to have had one major relationship in her life: with her phone.
The crisis of millennials in media who don’t know much, who haven’t experienced much that isn’t mediated by the Internet, is on full, fierce display here.
The book is least painful assessing May’s four features, about which there is copious recorded material and so we are most spared listening to Courogen’s grating voice.
But when she is essaying May’s pre-fame days, or her pioneering improv era, or her last, theatre-centered two decades, the girl is cringe. (I am trying to use the mistress’ tools to deconstruct the mistress’ house there.)
She laments that May writing a KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS remake for Will Smith is “yet another ‘Are you the right person to be telling this story?’ moment in Elaine’s life.” She cringes over Mike and Elaine using “Alexander the Great was a fag?!” as a punchline in THE BIRDCAGE. (Just thinking about that line gives me a laugh.) She says “unhoused” and “died by suicide.”
But worst of all is Courogen’s conception of Elaine May. She views her as a victim of misogyny. Her own research shows that May’s genius only flourished briefly because all the people around her viewed her as a fragile flower in need of care, a shtik she played to the hilt. But clearly this book deal was pinned on the notion of May as a proto Greta Gerwig, brought low by toxic masculinists. Hearing this would probably make Elaine May punch Courogen in the face.
I take it back: worst of all is Courogen’s summary of May’s work. She clearly views May as a Gilmour Girl or a Magnificent Miss Maizel. Big mistake. Elaine May is more Chantal Akerman than Arthur Hiller—or, let us say, Nancy Meyers (no doubt a Courogen fave). There is nothing in her background (poverty, Yiddish theatre during the Depression, University of Chicago, raising a kid almost from teenagerdom) that would suggest that strange, inopportune kind of genius.
But Courogen doesn’t really care about out-of-fashion genius. She wants May to be a victim and for her bourgie-white-girl audience to say “Right on!” To be hideously frank, Courogen is such a lousy writer that she can’t close the deal.
If you read a biography such as Blake Bailey’s recent one of Philip Roth, you encounter novelistic pleasures: Bailey draws characters he’s never met with the indelible accuracy of John Singer Sargent because he clearly has lived life.
Carrie Courogen appears to have had one major relationship in her life: with her phone.
The crisis of millennials in media who don’t know much, who haven’t experienced much that isn’t mediated by the Internet, is on full, fierce display here.
The book is least painful assessing May’s four features, about which there is copious recorded material and so we are most spared listening to Courogen’s grating voice.
But when she is essaying May’s pre-fame days, or her pioneering improv era, or her last, theatre-centered two decades, the girl is cringe. (I am trying to use the mistress’ tools to deconstruct the mistress’ house there.)
She laments that May writing a KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS remake for Will Smith is “yet another ‘Are you the right person to be telling this story?’ moment in Elaine’s life.” She cringes over Mike and Elaine using “Alexander the Great was a fag?!” as a punchline in THE BIRDCAGE. (Just thinking about that line gives me a laugh.) She says “unhoused” and “died by suicide.”
But worst of all is Courogen’s conception of Elaine May. She views her as a victim of misogyny. Her own research shows that May’s genius only flourished briefly because all the people around her viewed her as a fragile flower in need of care, a shtik she played to the hilt. But clearly this book deal was pinned on the notion of May as a proto Greta Gerwig, brought low by toxic masculinists. Hearing this would probably make Elaine May punch Courogen in the face.
I take it back: worst of all is Courogen’s summary of May’s work. She clearly views May as a Gilmour Girl or a Magnificent Miss Maizel. Big mistake. Elaine May is more Chantal Akerman than Arthur Hiller—or, let us say, Nancy Meyers (no doubt a Courogen fave). There is nothing in her background (poverty, Yiddish theatre during the Depression, University of Chicago, raising a kid almost from teenagerdom) that would suggest that strange, inopportune kind of genius.
But Courogen doesn’t really care about out-of-fashion genius. She wants May to be a victim and for her bourgie-white-girl audience to say “Right on!” To be hideously frank, Courogen is such a lousy writer that she can’t close the deal.
April 30, 2024
Carrie has succeeded in an imposingly difficult task: looking squarely at the life and work of one of the mammoth *living* institutions of U.S. comedy and cinema, one of our true blue geniuses (the name, tagged to Albert Brooks, Toni Morrison, Brian Wilson, makes one shudder, but there it is: no two-ways about it: the G word!), taking her silence and her reticence seriously, separating her myth from her work, and synthesizing Elaine May's difficult and complicated-to-follow life, shrouded in understandable recluse, recounting it to us as if over an overpriced glass of West Village wine in a sceney summer terrace.
There's a complaint here that Carrie divulges too much in the "you". Well, what did you want? She's private, yes, but her life is of clear historical/artistic importance. The facts are all out there; all this is is the first major compiling-into-one, PLUS a well-told yarn about the lengths we go to achieve a whole work (which, in the end, isn't whole anyway! and that's ok!) To NOT use the "you", to presume total knowledge and total insight of a person (which isn't what Carrie is doing—this obviously will not be the last word on Elaine, nor is she pretending it is), is a dangerous, banal, and losing game—this is even *if* they invite you into your life. Carrie is constantly being reminded, and reminding us, that she (we) are outside Elaine's private group of friends, who have good insight on her but also can cloud her relationship with the outside world, *as any friends will do.* See Hawks's RIO BRAVO: a squad can lift, but it will also be necessarily a limited squad, hyping each other up at the expense of the outside world. Only our best friends get to see *this*. You don't know that person. For good reason. It's fresher to be on the outside, to be constantly reminded that one is not playing inside baseball. Anyway: good on Carrie for telling it loosely, casually, like a bloody *story* and not some philosophical treatise on comedy or some fact-clogged, exclusive-access exposé approved by seven different estates.
I am leery of biographies, much as I love them, because they can be so boringly written, so literal, make the life into a compilation of facts that pleases 37 people at the expense of the rest of us. This is not that. Carrie's May biography is never boring. It's very casual. It's written with no-bullshit intelligence, it's not fawning but it's not flattening or passionless, it's as dutiful and exactingly precise as May was with her legendary bits. Her life, and this I only could really see through Carrie's writing, was truly a crazy ass screwball movie!
Can't ask for anything more—it's a perfect length. Read it for sure. And watch her four films, all of them masterpieces!
Off I go to the NYPL to watch her Waverly Gallery performance, because I was too poor when I first moved to the city to see her live. Wish I had charged the card anyway. YOLO...
There's a complaint here that Carrie divulges too much in the "you". Well, what did you want? She's private, yes, but her life is of clear historical/artistic importance. The facts are all out there; all this is is the first major compiling-into-one, PLUS a well-told yarn about the lengths we go to achieve a whole work (which, in the end, isn't whole anyway! and that's ok!) To NOT use the "you", to presume total knowledge and total insight of a person (which isn't what Carrie is doing—this obviously will not be the last word on Elaine, nor is she pretending it is), is a dangerous, banal, and losing game—this is even *if* they invite you into your life. Carrie is constantly being reminded, and reminding us, that she (we) are outside Elaine's private group of friends, who have good insight on her but also can cloud her relationship with the outside world, *as any friends will do.* See Hawks's RIO BRAVO: a squad can lift, but it will also be necessarily a limited squad, hyping each other up at the expense of the outside world. Only our best friends get to see *this*. You don't know that person. For good reason. It's fresher to be on the outside, to be constantly reminded that one is not playing inside baseball. Anyway: good on Carrie for telling it loosely, casually, like a bloody *story* and not some philosophical treatise on comedy or some fact-clogged, exclusive-access exposé approved by seven different estates.
I am leery of biographies, much as I love them, because they can be so boringly written, so literal, make the life into a compilation of facts that pleases 37 people at the expense of the rest of us. This is not that. Carrie's May biography is never boring. It's very casual. It's written with no-bullshit intelligence, it's not fawning but it's not flattening or passionless, it's as dutiful and exactingly precise as May was with her legendary bits. Her life, and this I only could really see through Carrie's writing, was truly a crazy ass screwball movie!
Can't ask for anything more—it's a perfect length. Read it for sure. And watch her four films, all of them masterpieces!
Off I go to the NYPL to watch her Waverly Gallery performance, because I was too poor when I first moved to the city to see her live. Wish I had charged the card anyway. YOLO...
June 11, 2024
It is not an exaggeration to say that I’ve been waiting for a major biography of Elaine May forever. What Carrie Courogen does with this book is so special, and as a reader I couldn’t have asked for anything more, especially considering May has worked so hard to disappear.
Miss May Does Not Exist is not just an excellent chronicle of a genius’s life, work, and struggles with an industry that constantly undervalued her singular point of view, but a complete and undeniable argument that many Elaine May fanatics have been making about the importance of her unrecognized legacy for years. It reflects how May’s career doubles as a history of comedy in America and filmmaking in the 20th century, showing up like a hostile Forrest Gump at the exact right moment to change the course of culture time and time again. Throughout the book, Courogen reckons with how May both transfixed and terrified Hollywood in equal measure, by bucking expectations of how cutting & complex she could be compared to the “nice girl” she presented as. She would not let the world flatten her into something easier to understand or perceive, something her male contemporaries were able to do without getting sent to director jail.
Last night, I was lucky enough to attend a packed screening of Mikey and Nicky and got to see the Elaine May renaissance in action. Seeing that many people, just as passionate about her work as I am, crowded into a theater to celebrate her legacy was truly beautiful. If this book does anything, I hope it continues to bring more recognition to someone who is far overdue.
Miss May Does Not Exist is not just an excellent chronicle of a genius’s life, work, and struggles with an industry that constantly undervalued her singular point of view, but a complete and undeniable argument that many Elaine May fanatics have been making about the importance of her unrecognized legacy for years. It reflects how May’s career doubles as a history of comedy in America and filmmaking in the 20th century, showing up like a hostile Forrest Gump at the exact right moment to change the course of culture time and time again. Throughout the book, Courogen reckons with how May both transfixed and terrified Hollywood in equal measure, by bucking expectations of how cutting & complex she could be compared to the “nice girl” she presented as. She would not let the world flatten her into something easier to understand or perceive, something her male contemporaries were able to do without getting sent to director jail.
Last night, I was lucky enough to attend a packed screening of Mikey and Nicky and got to see the Elaine May renaissance in action. Seeing that many people, just as passionate about her work as I am, crowded into a theater to celebrate her legacy was truly beautiful. If this book does anything, I hope it continues to bring more recognition to someone who is far overdue.
June 23, 2024
Miss May Does Not Exist by Carrie Courogen
Story and Content: B
Writing: B
Narration: A-
Best Aspect: Lots of details and mentions many wonderful films from over many decades.
Worst Aspect: Very long, but I learned a lot about a person I never heard of.
Recommend: Yes.
Story and Content: B
Writing: B
Narration: A-
Best Aspect: Lots of details and mentions many wonderful films from over many decades.
Worst Aspect: Very long, but I learned a lot about a person I never heard of.
Recommend: Yes.
June 27, 2024
This reads more like an extended PR puff piece or a doctoral dissertation. It is a collection of every event in Elaine May’s life documented with almost 1500 footnotes. Did I read every chapter? Definitely not. After slogging through the first third, I skipped and skimmed to the last five chapters and feel confident I got the gist of May’s life and career. The irony of course is the title suggesting May wants to keep her personal life hidden while this super fan does everything she can to undermine her efforts.
I am old enough to have watched the Nichols and May routines for myself. I also watched the documentaries cited in the book. I acknowledge they were a refreshing new style at the time but frankly that was presented and discussed effectively in the first few chapters. Then came a iconstant stream of gushing interviews with peers which merely confirmed the original thesis. Sometimes there is overkill and this is a prime example.
Do yourself a favor and watch a few routines, read the Wikipedia entry and let it go at that. Your time is valuable too.
I am old enough to have watched the Nichols and May routines for myself. I also watched the documentaries cited in the book. I acknowledge they were a refreshing new style at the time but frankly that was presented and discussed effectively in the first few chapters. Then came a iconstant stream of gushing interviews with peers which merely confirmed the original thesis. Sometimes there is overkill and this is a prime example.
Do yourself a favor and watch a few routines, read the Wikipedia entry and let it go at that. Your time is valuable too.
June 21, 2024
As an avowed lover of difficult women, this is a new holy text
July 4, 2024
The Publisher Says: Miss May Does Not Exist, by Carrie Courogen, is the riveting biography of comedian, director, actor and writer Elaine May, one of America’s greatest comic geniuses. May began her career as one-half of the legendary comedy team known as Nichols and May, the duo that revolutionized the comedy sketch.
After performing their Broadway smash An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Elaine set out on her own. She toiled unsuccessfully on Broadway for a while, but then headed to Hollywood where she became the director of A New Leaf, The Heartbreak Kid, Mikey and Nicky, and the legendary Ishtar. She was hired as a script doctor on countless films like Heaven Can Wait, Reds, Tootsie, and The Birdcage. In 2019, she returned to Broadway where she won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in The Waverly Gallery. Besides her considerable talent, May is well known for her reclusiveness. On one of the albums she made with Mike Nichols, her bio is “Miss May does not exist.” Until now.
Carrie Courogen has uncovered the Elaine May who does exist. Conducting countless interviews, she has filled in the blanks May has forcibly kept blank for years, creating a fascinating portrait of the way women were mistreated and held back in Hollywood. Miss May Does Not Exist is a remarkable love story about a prickly genius who was never easy to work with, not always easy to love and frequently often punished for those things, despite revolutionizing the way we think about comedy, acting, and what a film or play can be.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: A biography of a living person, one famously Private and Reclusive, faces an uphill battle when that person declines to participate in the project. The issues become apparent early. I felt put off by one tic the author has: Referring to her subject as "Elaine" seemingly in an attempt to give a spurious sense of her own intimacy with the steadfastly unavailable Miss May.
This is really a minor stylistic issue in most cases of biography. When Miss May simply won't show up...apparently a habit of hers, as the author rather disconcertingly learns via stalking the woman...it looms large because there is nothing of a personal connection in the biographer's tale. This is a very well-researched and capably written dissection of a classic parasocial relationship. Miss May is a public figure as an actress of stage and screen fame. The ways in which the author collects information about her subject are available to other members of the public. Miss May therefore maintains control of the master narrative available to the author, as to the rest of the world. The amount of research required to write this book is, as it must be to make any kind of a story, deep. The border between that depth and stalking is blurry in all cases. I was, however, pushed into "really? Ew!" territory when the author used her own artist connections to find out when and where her subject would be attending public events and getting herself invited to them.
My own personal line was crossed when I read that. I saw the project in a very different light afterwards.
How the heck do you tell The Truth about someone who so values her privacy that she will invent stuff for public dissemination, decline to interact with people in any unmediated fashion, and simply not show up at invitation-only public events? This is someone who doesn't want people rummaging in her drawers. I expect that, like those Victorian folks who directed that their records be burned after their deaths, we will discover that this level of erasure is Miss May's wish as well. So the public record as ably collated and presumptiously contextualized (possibly inaccurately and unfairly, I doubt we will ever be allowed to know) by the author might very well be the only formal record of the long and excellent career of an unfairly overlooked and undervalued creative force.
That will, I expect, have to do. The work she did will speak for itself in the long run; absent a change of heart or a sudden betrayal of Miss May, here is a record of the truth she wanted the audience to know. Fellow pedants please note the citation style is inconsistent and incompletely explanatory.
After performing their Broadway smash An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Elaine set out on her own. She toiled unsuccessfully on Broadway for a while, but then headed to Hollywood where she became the director of A New Leaf, The Heartbreak Kid, Mikey and Nicky, and the legendary Ishtar. She was hired as a script doctor on countless films like Heaven Can Wait, Reds, Tootsie, and The Birdcage. In 2019, she returned to Broadway where she won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in The Waverly Gallery. Besides her considerable talent, May is well known for her reclusiveness. On one of the albums she made with Mike Nichols, her bio is “Miss May does not exist.” Until now.
Carrie Courogen has uncovered the Elaine May who does exist. Conducting countless interviews, she has filled in the blanks May has forcibly kept blank for years, creating a fascinating portrait of the way women were mistreated and held back in Hollywood. Miss May Does Not Exist is a remarkable love story about a prickly genius who was never easy to work with, not always easy to love and frequently often punished for those things, despite revolutionizing the way we think about comedy, acting, and what a film or play can be.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: A biography of a living person, one famously Private and Reclusive, faces an uphill battle when that person declines to participate in the project. The issues become apparent early. I felt put off by one tic the author has: Referring to her subject as "Elaine" seemingly in an attempt to give a spurious sense of her own intimacy with the steadfastly unavailable Miss May.
This is really a minor stylistic issue in most cases of biography. When Miss May simply won't show up...apparently a habit of hers, as the author rather disconcertingly learns via stalking the woman...it looms large because there is nothing of a personal connection in the biographer's tale. This is a very well-researched and capably written dissection of a classic parasocial relationship. Miss May is a public figure as an actress of stage and screen fame. The ways in which the author collects information about her subject are available to other members of the public. Miss May therefore maintains control of the master narrative available to the author, as to the rest of the world. The amount of research required to write this book is, as it must be to make any kind of a story, deep. The border between that depth and stalking is blurry in all cases. I was, however, pushed into "really? Ew!" territory when the author used her own artist connections to find out when and where her subject would be attending public events and getting herself invited to them.
My own personal line was crossed when I read that. I saw the project in a very different light afterwards.
How the heck do you tell The Truth about someone who so values her privacy that she will invent stuff for public dissemination, decline to interact with people in any unmediated fashion, and simply not show up at invitation-only public events? This is someone who doesn't want people rummaging in her drawers. I expect that, like those Victorian folks who directed that their records be burned after their deaths, we will discover that this level of erasure is Miss May's wish as well. So the public record as ably collated and presumptiously contextualized (possibly inaccurately and unfairly, I doubt we will ever be allowed to know) by the author might very well be the only formal record of the long and excellent career of an unfairly overlooked and undervalued creative force.
That will, I expect, have to do. The work she did will speak for itself in the long run; absent a change of heart or a sudden betrayal of Miss May, here is a record of the truth she wanted the audience to know. Fellow pedants please note the citation style is inconsistent and incompletely explanatory.
April 5, 2024
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher St. Martin's Press for an advance copy of this biography on one of the most creative people to ever work in the arts or entertainment, and yet is little known for her achievements, which is exactly the way she wants it.
Elaine May should be famous, and not just known to people in the know. Many of the things we use to distract ourselves from the world, plays, television, comedy, and especially movies have either been influenced, or even created by Ms. May. Working early with Mike Nichols she brought improv comedy, and the idea of women in comedy to the masses. May was a writer of films, credited and script doctor of many, uncredited. May wrote plays, skits, worked with famed directors to bring their vision to life, directed three movies, two classics and one infamous. Yet May has tried to avoid the spotlight, the fame and everything that goes with it. And even today May is still hard at work, and finally getting some recognition for all her achievements. Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius by Carrie Courogen is a look at the person, what she created, and how the world was changed by her creations, all without losing what made her, for better or worse.
Elaine Berlin was born in Philadelphia but with a family in entertainment, moved all over the country, attending different schools, which didn't give Elaine much interest in school, but a love of reading gave her an education. Elaine's father died before she was a teen, and her mother moved them to California, where Elaine gave up on school for good, taking a job and getting married and having a daughter. The marriage did not last and Elaine now May decided to go to Chicago, for colleges there would let her attend even without a high school diploma. May never enrolled, attending classes that interested her, and finding like minded people in the drama department, which led her to joining an acting troupe where she met Mike Nichols. The two were made for each other, creative muses who shared a soul, and a talent to entertain. Within a short period they worked as a duo, cut albums, made money, and broke up. That's when May really started to shine, well shine from the shadows where she was comfortable. Slowly she wrote, directed a movie, that was rough, began to script doctor in Hollywood for no credit, directed a second movie that had over 260 hours of film. Worked with Warren Beatty on Heaven Can Wait, and Reds. And also Ishtar, which sidelined May for a time. But, never stopped her.
An fascinating biography about a woman who knew everyone, scared many, was used as muse, collaborator, friend, and yet still was haunted by a childhood that one could only describe as very rough. What Courogen does best is show how good May is. The little things, about looking at a scene and knowing things are too short. A sound editor saying May's ears were the best he ever worked with. The list of movies that May helped create, or helped make better, some expected, some completely unexpected. Ghostbusters, Labyrinth, movies that still are being made, remade, in many cases badly, all had a bit of May in them. Courogen is a very good writer, getting people to tell their tales of May, even if May didn't want to. To think of all that May did, with the handicap of being a woman in comedy, in Hollywood is just amazing. And for May to do it on her terms, stealing film reels, ignoring players, making sure to credit other writers, is astonishing. May deserves every accolade, as does Courogen for writing a interesting biography that really gets to the soul of the person.
Recommended for people who enjoy reading about Hollywood, the arts, and woman who don't let anything get in the way of their art. A great Mother's Day gift, heck a great gift in general. Also a great book to give to a young artist and show them the work is important, don't let them bring you down. One might fail, one might succeed, one might do both. But one won't know unless you do it. Just like Elaine May does.
Elaine May should be famous, and not just known to people in the know. Many of the things we use to distract ourselves from the world, plays, television, comedy, and especially movies have either been influenced, or even created by Ms. May. Working early with Mike Nichols she brought improv comedy, and the idea of women in comedy to the masses. May was a writer of films, credited and script doctor of many, uncredited. May wrote plays, skits, worked with famed directors to bring their vision to life, directed three movies, two classics and one infamous. Yet May has tried to avoid the spotlight, the fame and everything that goes with it. And even today May is still hard at work, and finally getting some recognition for all her achievements. Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius by Carrie Courogen is a look at the person, what she created, and how the world was changed by her creations, all without losing what made her, for better or worse.
Elaine Berlin was born in Philadelphia but with a family in entertainment, moved all over the country, attending different schools, which didn't give Elaine much interest in school, but a love of reading gave her an education. Elaine's father died before she was a teen, and her mother moved them to California, where Elaine gave up on school for good, taking a job and getting married and having a daughter. The marriage did not last and Elaine now May decided to go to Chicago, for colleges there would let her attend even without a high school diploma. May never enrolled, attending classes that interested her, and finding like minded people in the drama department, which led her to joining an acting troupe where she met Mike Nichols. The two were made for each other, creative muses who shared a soul, and a talent to entertain. Within a short period they worked as a duo, cut albums, made money, and broke up. That's when May really started to shine, well shine from the shadows where she was comfortable. Slowly she wrote, directed a movie, that was rough, began to script doctor in Hollywood for no credit, directed a second movie that had over 260 hours of film. Worked with Warren Beatty on Heaven Can Wait, and Reds. And also Ishtar, which sidelined May for a time. But, never stopped her.
An fascinating biography about a woman who knew everyone, scared many, was used as muse, collaborator, friend, and yet still was haunted by a childhood that one could only describe as very rough. What Courogen does best is show how good May is. The little things, about looking at a scene and knowing things are too short. A sound editor saying May's ears were the best he ever worked with. The list of movies that May helped create, or helped make better, some expected, some completely unexpected. Ghostbusters, Labyrinth, movies that still are being made, remade, in many cases badly, all had a bit of May in them. Courogen is a very good writer, getting people to tell their tales of May, even if May didn't want to. To think of all that May did, with the handicap of being a woman in comedy, in Hollywood is just amazing. And for May to do it on her terms, stealing film reels, ignoring players, making sure to credit other writers, is astonishing. May deserves every accolade, as does Courogen for writing a interesting biography that really gets to the soul of the person.
Recommended for people who enjoy reading about Hollywood, the arts, and woman who don't let anything get in the way of their art. A great Mother's Day gift, heck a great gift in general. Also a great book to give to a young artist and show them the work is important, don't let them bring you down. One might fail, one might succeed, one might do both. But one won't know unless you do it. Just like Elaine May does.
April 4, 2024
If I've learned one thing about comedy legend Elaine May from reading Carrie Courogen's "Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood's Hidden Genius," it's that the hidden icon doesn't want to talk to me.
Or you.
Or, for that matter, Carrie Courogen.
An icon who has never really acted like one, Elaine May was a successful female in Hollywood before Hollywood was ready to accept the idea of a successful female. May wasn't just talented. Hollywood could deal with it. May was someone who demanded control of her craft and her creativity, a control not given easily by Hollywood and given even less easily to a female who would prove wondrously talented at acting, directing, writing, and pretty much everything else she tried.
In the first few pages of "Miss May Does Not Exist," we're rather humorously informed that Miss May wasn't so much opposed to this biography as she just plain didn't cooperate with it. Courogen would have stops and starts, scheduled interviews and no shows along the way to creating what is undeniably the most comprehensive account of May's life.
May began her career as one-half of the legendary comedy team Nichols and May. Nichols, esteemed director Mike Nichols, and May would revolutionize comedy before initially parting ways after their Broadway smash 'An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May." It was grand, of course, and May would remain loyal to Nichols throughout her career.
After toiling around Broadway for a bit, May would have a breakthrough in Hollywood directing such films as "A New Leaf," "The Heartbreak Kid," and the criminally underappreciated "Mikey and Nicky." It might be fair to say that "Ishtar" is her most remembered film for reasons not quite as pleasant. It was a largely unsupported film by the studio that was misunderstood by audiences and critics. Years later, the critical and box-office bomb has gained new fans, myself included, and is starting to get the respect it long deserved.
On one of the albums she made with Nichols, her bio reads "Miss May does not exist." Indeed, this seems to be largely how she's lived even her professional life. She's been hired as a script doctor on such films as "Heaven Can Wait," "Reds," "Tootsie," and "The Birdcage." Yet, she often shuns credit for her writing. Well respected as a script doctor in Hollywood, it's likely safe to say that a good majority of America has no clue just how present May's writing is in some of our best films in recent decades.
Now 91-years-old, May won a Tony Award as recently as 2019 for Best Leading Actress in The Waverly Gallery. She's also won a BAFTA, a Grammy, an honorary Oscar, and numerous other awards.
It's unlikely that May will ever tell us whether or not Courogen has accurately captured her life, though it's most certainly clear that Courogen has researched relentlessly. At right around 400 pages, a good 1/3 of "Miss May Does Not Exist" consists of Courogen's source material and over 1,500 footnotes.
Yikes.
While May herself may have never cooperated with "Miss May Does Not Exist," I chuckle at the idea that somewhere in the weeks to come she'll be hovering over the book wishing she could have edited it.
An absolute must-read for fans of Elaine May and those who want to gain insights into the ways that women were mistreated and held back in Hollywood, "Miss May Does Not Exist" is an engaging, extensively researched, and revealing biography that proves once and for all that Elaine May does exist and she's made all of our lives so much better.
Or you.
Or, for that matter, Carrie Courogen.
An icon who has never really acted like one, Elaine May was a successful female in Hollywood before Hollywood was ready to accept the idea of a successful female. May wasn't just talented. Hollywood could deal with it. May was someone who demanded control of her craft and her creativity, a control not given easily by Hollywood and given even less easily to a female who would prove wondrously talented at acting, directing, writing, and pretty much everything else she tried.
In the first few pages of "Miss May Does Not Exist," we're rather humorously informed that Miss May wasn't so much opposed to this biography as she just plain didn't cooperate with it. Courogen would have stops and starts, scheduled interviews and no shows along the way to creating what is undeniably the most comprehensive account of May's life.
May began her career as one-half of the legendary comedy team Nichols and May. Nichols, esteemed director Mike Nichols, and May would revolutionize comedy before initially parting ways after their Broadway smash 'An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May." It was grand, of course, and May would remain loyal to Nichols throughout her career.
After toiling around Broadway for a bit, May would have a breakthrough in Hollywood directing such films as "A New Leaf," "The Heartbreak Kid," and the criminally underappreciated "Mikey and Nicky." It might be fair to say that "Ishtar" is her most remembered film for reasons not quite as pleasant. It was a largely unsupported film by the studio that was misunderstood by audiences and critics. Years later, the critical and box-office bomb has gained new fans, myself included, and is starting to get the respect it long deserved.
On one of the albums she made with Nichols, her bio reads "Miss May does not exist." Indeed, this seems to be largely how she's lived even her professional life. She's been hired as a script doctor on such films as "Heaven Can Wait," "Reds," "Tootsie," and "The Birdcage." Yet, she often shuns credit for her writing. Well respected as a script doctor in Hollywood, it's likely safe to say that a good majority of America has no clue just how present May's writing is in some of our best films in recent decades.
Now 91-years-old, May won a Tony Award as recently as 2019 for Best Leading Actress in The Waverly Gallery. She's also won a BAFTA, a Grammy, an honorary Oscar, and numerous other awards.
It's unlikely that May will ever tell us whether or not Courogen has accurately captured her life, though it's most certainly clear that Courogen has researched relentlessly. At right around 400 pages, a good 1/3 of "Miss May Does Not Exist" consists of Courogen's source material and over 1,500 footnotes.
Yikes.
While May herself may have never cooperated with "Miss May Does Not Exist," I chuckle at the idea that somewhere in the weeks to come she'll be hovering over the book wishing she could have edited it.
An absolute must-read for fans of Elaine May and those who want to gain insights into the ways that women were mistreated and held back in Hollywood, "Miss May Does Not Exist" is an engaging, extensively researched, and revealing biography that proves once and for all that Elaine May does exist and she's made all of our lives so much better.
May 22, 2024
The biography Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood's Hidden Genius by Carrie Courogen shows Carrie's undying appreciation for the work of Miss May.
I know you're asking yourself "Who in the world is Miss May?" and you wouldn't be the only one. Before reading this biography, I had never heard of Elaine May, but when I saw this offered by St. Martin's Press and read the description, I was interested in finding out. Being a movie and TV lover, I am fascinated by those in the Hollywood industry, and this biography reads like a novel, I could hardly wait to pick it back up again. There were a couple of sections where it kind of lagged, but Elaine's career had times where it lagged, so that seemed appropriate.
From Elaine's time on-stage as the undisputed Queen of Improv and her partnership with Mike Nichols, to her time directing, and being the go-to script doctor for anyone having script issues, May had a very long career...out of the spotlight. To her credit, movies and TV wouldn't be the same if Elaine May hadn't made her way from stage to movies and back to the stage. Nichols and May were highly sought after in the era of Jack Parr, and their on-stage improv sketches (written mostly by Elaine) paved the way for comedians and Saturday Night Live.
She was a prolific writer during her entire career, and even though industry people would come to her to fix their scripts, being a perfectionist she could never fix her own. You wouldn't know it, but she had a hand in some of the most popular and well-loved movies of all time. Ever heard of Labyrinth? Tootsie? Dangerous Minds? She put her stamp on those scripts to create what we know today.
During her enduring career, she worked with some of the best actors in the business. She gave Charles Grodin his start on-stage. Marlo Thomas was her best friend. She worked with Peter Falk and Dustin Hoffman; teamed up multiple times with Warren Beatty. She was well-loved but was also very hard to work for. One of the first female directors, her need for the perfect take made things go way over schedule and made for long days.
Towards the end of her career, she had a hand in The Birdcage (the first major movie to feature a gay couple) and Primary Colors. But you probably won't find her name attached to most things she worked on because she didn't want credit for a lot of it. Because of the highs and very lows of her career, she didn't like being in the spotlight. Critics were extremely harsh towards her once Nichols and May broke up their act, and she wanted to fly under the radar. The title of this book comes from a biography on a Nichols and May album where she wrote "Miss May Does Not Exist." And for the most part, she doesn't.
All in all, this is a love story to the greatness that is Elaine May. I don't read a lot of non-fiction, and I'm glad I chose this one. Elaine was such a fascinating woman, from being a genius ahead of her time to changing the comedy landscape, her contribution to Hollywood and the stage should be known...even if she doesn't want to and doesn't exist.
Thank you to @StMartinsPress and @NetGalley for both a digital review copy and physical copy for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.
I know you're asking yourself "Who in the world is Miss May?" and you wouldn't be the only one. Before reading this biography, I had never heard of Elaine May, but when I saw this offered by St. Martin's Press and read the description, I was interested in finding out. Being a movie and TV lover, I am fascinated by those in the Hollywood industry, and this biography reads like a novel, I could hardly wait to pick it back up again. There were a couple of sections where it kind of lagged, but Elaine's career had times where it lagged, so that seemed appropriate.
From Elaine's time on-stage as the undisputed Queen of Improv and her partnership with Mike Nichols, to her time directing, and being the go-to script doctor for anyone having script issues, May had a very long career...out of the spotlight. To her credit, movies and TV wouldn't be the same if Elaine May hadn't made her way from stage to movies and back to the stage. Nichols and May were highly sought after in the era of Jack Parr, and their on-stage improv sketches (written mostly by Elaine) paved the way for comedians and Saturday Night Live.
She was a prolific writer during her entire career, and even though industry people would come to her to fix their scripts, being a perfectionist she could never fix her own. You wouldn't know it, but she had a hand in some of the most popular and well-loved movies of all time. Ever heard of Labyrinth? Tootsie? Dangerous Minds? She put her stamp on those scripts to create what we know today.
During her enduring career, she worked with some of the best actors in the business. She gave Charles Grodin his start on-stage. Marlo Thomas was her best friend. She worked with Peter Falk and Dustin Hoffman; teamed up multiple times with Warren Beatty. She was well-loved but was also very hard to work for. One of the first female directors, her need for the perfect take made things go way over schedule and made for long days.
Towards the end of her career, she had a hand in The Birdcage (the first major movie to feature a gay couple) and Primary Colors. But you probably won't find her name attached to most things she worked on because she didn't want credit for a lot of it. Because of the highs and very lows of her career, she didn't like being in the spotlight. Critics were extremely harsh towards her once Nichols and May broke up their act, and she wanted to fly under the radar. The title of this book comes from a biography on a Nichols and May album where she wrote "Miss May Does Not Exist." And for the most part, she doesn't.
All in all, this is a love story to the greatness that is Elaine May. I don't read a lot of non-fiction, and I'm glad I chose this one. Elaine was such a fascinating woman, from being a genius ahead of her time to changing the comedy landscape, her contribution to Hollywood and the stage should be known...even if she doesn't want to and doesn't exist.
Thank you to @StMartinsPress and @NetGalley for both a digital review copy and physical copy for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.
June 5, 2024
BOOK REPORT
Received a complimentary copy of Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius, by Carrie Courogen, from St. Martin’s Press/NetGalley, for which I am appreciative, in exchange for a fair and honest review. Scroll past the BOOK REPORT section for a cut-and-paste of the DESCRIPTION of it from them if you want to read my thoughts on the book in the context of that summary.
I thought I would gain an appreciation for Elaine May by reading this book, even though I have weirdly vivid memories of loathing Heaven Can Wait, Tootsie, The Birdcage, and, of course, Ishtar back in the day.
Alas, this did not come to pass. Instead, about 37 ebook pages in, I realized that nothing I was reading—or was about to read—would make me appreciate her. That’s OK, she doesn’t need that from me. And me? Well, I don’t need to spend time reading a very dry book about someone I just don’t like.
So, Dear Readers, I closed it out there and went on with my life.
DESCRIPTION
Miss May Does Not Exist, by Carrie Courogen is the riveting biography of comedian, director, actor and writer Elaine May, one of America’s greatest comic geniuses. May began her career as one-half of the legendary comedy team known as Nichols and May, the duo that revolutionized the comedy sketch.
After performing their Broadway smash An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Elaine set out on her own. She toiled unsuccessfully on Broadway for a while, but then headed to Hollywood where she became the director of A New Leaf, The Heartbreak Kid, Mikey and Nicky, and the legendary Ishtar. She was hired as a script doctor on countless films like Heaven Can Wait, Reds, Tootsie, and The Birdcage. In 2019, she returned to Broadway where she won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in The Waverly Gallery. Besides her considerable talent, May is well known for her reclusiveness. On one of the albums she made with Mike Nichols, her bio is this: “Miss May does not exist.” Until now.
Carrie Courogen has uncovered the Elaine May who does exist. Conducting countless interviews, she has filled in the blanks May has forcibly kept blank for years, creating a fascinating portrait of the way women were mistreated and held back in Hollywood. Miss May Does Not Exist is a remarkable love story about a prickly genius who was never easy to work with, not always easy to love and frequently often punished for those things, despite revolutionizing the way we think about comedy, acting, and what a film or play can be.
Received a complimentary copy of Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius, by Carrie Courogen, from St. Martin’s Press/NetGalley, for which I am appreciative, in exchange for a fair and honest review. Scroll past the BOOK REPORT section for a cut-and-paste of the DESCRIPTION of it from them if you want to read my thoughts on the book in the context of that summary.
I thought I would gain an appreciation for Elaine May by reading this book, even though I have weirdly vivid memories of loathing Heaven Can Wait, Tootsie, The Birdcage, and, of course, Ishtar back in the day.
Alas, this did not come to pass. Instead, about 37 ebook pages in, I realized that nothing I was reading—or was about to read—would make me appreciate her. That’s OK, she doesn’t need that from me. And me? Well, I don’t need to spend time reading a very dry book about someone I just don’t like.
So, Dear Readers, I closed it out there and went on with my life.
DESCRIPTION
Miss May Does Not Exist, by Carrie Courogen is the riveting biography of comedian, director, actor and writer Elaine May, one of America’s greatest comic geniuses. May began her career as one-half of the legendary comedy team known as Nichols and May, the duo that revolutionized the comedy sketch.
After performing their Broadway smash An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Elaine set out on her own. She toiled unsuccessfully on Broadway for a while, but then headed to Hollywood where she became the director of A New Leaf, The Heartbreak Kid, Mikey and Nicky, and the legendary Ishtar. She was hired as a script doctor on countless films like Heaven Can Wait, Reds, Tootsie, and The Birdcage. In 2019, she returned to Broadway where she won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in The Waverly Gallery. Besides her considerable talent, May is well known for her reclusiveness. On one of the albums she made with Mike Nichols, her bio is this: “Miss May does not exist.” Until now.
Carrie Courogen has uncovered the Elaine May who does exist. Conducting countless interviews, she has filled in the blanks May has forcibly kept blank for years, creating a fascinating portrait of the way women were mistreated and held back in Hollywood. Miss May Does Not Exist is a remarkable love story about a prickly genius who was never easy to work with, not always easy to love and frequently often punished for those things, despite revolutionizing the way we think about comedy, acting, and what a film or play can be.
June 18, 2024
I didn't know who Elaine May was prior to reading this book. Do I need to apologize for that? I'm always on the lookout for a good (auto)biography/memoir, particularly when it's about a person new to me. What amazed me, the more I listened, was that I didn't know who she was. That could be related to the fact that I am of a younger generation and not quite so deeply interested in the performing arts. It could also be due to the fact that, as the title plainly states, Elaine May is hidden. Carrie Courogen does an excellent job of explaining why Elaine May is hidden, from honestly revealing Elaine May's own propensity to shun attention to calling out the places where sexism may well be at work.
Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius is not a quick read. This is befitting a subject whose career has spanned such a long number of years, beginning when she performed vaudeville with her father as a small child, running into the pandemic where she played a role in a movie made over Zoom! Carrie Courogen doesn't just gush over her subject, either. When Elaine needs to be called out, whether for sloppy work or sloppy dress, Carrie Courogen will do it. It makes for a better biography.
I wish I had access to the print copy so I could see where Carrie Courogen found all of her research material. (Not that I didn't thoroughly enjoy the audiobook. Erin Bennett was a wonderful narrator). Some of the quotes felt as if Carrie Courogen had been there herself to interview their speakers. I've been hearing a lot of press surrounding this book, describing it as a worthy tome doing justice to its subject. Now that I understand who Elaine May is, I would have to agree. I would like to thank Dreamscape Media for allowing me to experience this NetGalley audiobook.
Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius is not a quick read. This is befitting a subject whose career has spanned such a long number of years, beginning when she performed vaudeville with her father as a small child, running into the pandemic where she played a role in a movie made over Zoom! Carrie Courogen doesn't just gush over her subject, either. When Elaine needs to be called out, whether for sloppy work or sloppy dress, Carrie Courogen will do it. It makes for a better biography.
I wish I had access to the print copy so I could see where Carrie Courogen found all of her research material. (Not that I didn't thoroughly enjoy the audiobook. Erin Bennett was a wonderful narrator). Some of the quotes felt as if Carrie Courogen had been there herself to interview their speakers. I've been hearing a lot of press surrounding this book, describing it as a worthy tome doing justice to its subject. Now that I understand who Elaine May is, I would have to agree. I would like to thank Dreamscape Media for allowing me to experience this NetGalley audiobook.
June 6, 2024
I just finished Miss Day does not exist by Carrie Courogen - The life and work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s hidden genius.
Hands up, who had any idea who Elaine May is….. I had zero clues. When I received this book as a gift from @stmartinspress I was intrigued so I went to youtube and watched Elaine May in action…. She…is….HILARIOUS!!!! I was watching her skits from the 60s…. I laughed so hard my sides split. Elaine May is an actor, comedian, director and writer and she was a total smoke show back in her day and she aged so gracefully to boot. After I got my Elaine May education, I settled down to read her autobiography.
Firstly the book is so well written. Carrie Courogen is a master of her craft and I was drawn right into this precise and casual delve into the life of a woman who is very very private but has such a rich on screen persona. Elaine was a force to be reckoned with. She wasn’t managed, she controlled every aspect of her craft and she wasn’t going to give that up. I cannot believe I had no idea who this woman was until recently. Do I live under a rock? No but it does seem like it.
I wished the book was a bit more jazzy. The book was almost clinical in its writing and I would have loved it written in an edgier way. It almost had the feel of a biography/memoir, there seemed to be a lot of Elaine's influence in the book and it felt a little forced in areas. I don’t know if it's just me but I also felt like Elaine was a bit of a tyrant on set. The fact that she demanded perfection and there is a lot about that in the book that she comes across as over the top and I didn’t find anything like that about Elaine online so I don’t know if that's because she isn’t like that or it was so well hidden that Carrie uncovers this.
I know she is reclusive from what I could unearth and I really enjoyed reading about her in this book.
4 stars
Hands up, who had any idea who Elaine May is….. I had zero clues. When I received this book as a gift from @stmartinspress I was intrigued so I went to youtube and watched Elaine May in action…. She…is….HILARIOUS!!!! I was watching her skits from the 60s…. I laughed so hard my sides split. Elaine May is an actor, comedian, director and writer and she was a total smoke show back in her day and she aged so gracefully to boot. After I got my Elaine May education, I settled down to read her autobiography.
Firstly the book is so well written. Carrie Courogen is a master of her craft and I was drawn right into this precise and casual delve into the life of a woman who is very very private but has such a rich on screen persona. Elaine was a force to be reckoned with. She wasn’t managed, she controlled every aspect of her craft and she wasn’t going to give that up. I cannot believe I had no idea who this woman was until recently. Do I live under a rock? No but it does seem like it.
I wished the book was a bit more jazzy. The book was almost clinical in its writing and I would have loved it written in an edgier way. It almost had the feel of a biography/memoir, there seemed to be a lot of Elaine's influence in the book and it felt a little forced in areas. I don’t know if it's just me but I also felt like Elaine was a bit of a tyrant on set. The fact that she demanded perfection and there is a lot about that in the book that she comes across as over the top and I didn’t find anything like that about Elaine online so I don’t know if that's because she isn’t like that or it was so well hidden that Carrie uncovers this.
I know she is reclusive from what I could unearth and I really enjoyed reading about her in this book.
4 stars
May 17, 2024
First, thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy of this book. I must admit that while I'd heard of Elaine May, and see grainy black and white films of at least one of Nichols and May's routines, I really wasn't familiar with her, and only aware of him as a director. I was eager to learn more about both since they are acclaimed as actors and iconoclasts as well as some of the originators of Improv as we know it.
The book appears to be thoroughly researched with lengthy footnotes that occasionally add further information about the text, but often are citations to interviews the author used. Other reviewers have already discussed May's refusal to be interviewed or approve of the book, but I'm not certain the author would've been enlightened by her participation given her reputation for creating alternate truths about her past.
I enjoyed reading about her beginning and coming up through the various groups, their rapid rise to fame and projects. I did feel the book got bogged down in detailing her demands for perfection in her film-making. The point was made multiple times. May does not come off as very likeable, but part of the message is that being a woman meant she was not given the grace or the breaks a man might receive given the same behavior. If I'm to believe everything in the book about her behavior, I have to say that she took things too far and would have benefited from a little humility.
It was an interesting read, but it does not make me a fan of the subject. I do admire her in many ways, and I'm sure she broke ground for women, but there's little shown here to make her a likeable human being,
The book appears to be thoroughly researched with lengthy footnotes that occasionally add further information about the text, but often are citations to interviews the author used. Other reviewers have already discussed May's refusal to be interviewed or approve of the book, but I'm not certain the author would've been enlightened by her participation given her reputation for creating alternate truths about her past.
I enjoyed reading about her beginning and coming up through the various groups, their rapid rise to fame and projects. I did feel the book got bogged down in detailing her demands for perfection in her film-making. The point was made multiple times. May does not come off as very likeable, but part of the message is that being a woman meant she was not given the grace or the breaks a man might receive given the same behavior. If I'm to believe everything in the book about her behavior, I have to say that she took things too far and would have benefited from a little humility.
It was an interesting read, but it does not make me a fan of the subject. I do admire her in many ways, and I'm sure she broke ground for women, but there's little shown here to make her a likeable human being,
July 1, 2024
Though I’ve not had the pleasure to experience all of Elaine May’s oeuvre, I have experience enough of her brilliance to be fully “in” on reading a biography, especially knowing how she was not at all available or willing to participate in this writing of her story. I loved the author’s stalker-esque confessional in the introduction. It’s a wild start to telling the story of one wild woman storytelling genius of the early days of the Cold War (Nichols/May) into New Hollywood era and decades beyond.
Reading about her chaotic and harrowing (abusive and neglected) childhood, but one full of not just dangerous but colorful, damaged (and damaging) family members and other unsavory characters who not just informed her ways of navigating her personal life but also of her masterful storytelling, acting performance, staging and filmmaking. Becoming a mother so young and then a step mother to multiple children while singularly forging her talents in male dominated Hollywood (with many friends and supportive creative partners who withstood her quirks and hard driving work ethic because of her prolific and manifesting genius) was in and of itself so mind blowing to read. Even without Elaine’s voice in this book, Carrie Courogen does a solid job of integrating many sources into a very compelling narrative. It was hard to put this book down! I am even more admiring of Ms. May and can’t wait to watch the rest of these movies and rewatch and listen to Nichols and May. (Heaven Can Wait and Tootsie two of my all time favorite movies and loved learning she had much to do with the extraordinary screenplays of these two films).
Reading about her chaotic and harrowing (abusive and neglected) childhood, but one full of not just dangerous but colorful, damaged (and damaging) family members and other unsavory characters who not just informed her ways of navigating her personal life but also of her masterful storytelling, acting performance, staging and filmmaking. Becoming a mother so young and then a step mother to multiple children while singularly forging her talents in male dominated Hollywood (with many friends and supportive creative partners who withstood her quirks and hard driving work ethic because of her prolific and manifesting genius) was in and of itself so mind blowing to read. Even without Elaine’s voice in this book, Carrie Courogen does a solid job of integrating many sources into a very compelling narrative. It was hard to put this book down! I am even more admiring of Ms. May and can’t wait to watch the rest of these movies and rewatch and listen to Nichols and May. (Heaven Can Wait and Tootsie two of my all time favorite movies and loved learning she had much to do with the extraordinary screenplays of these two films).
June 12, 2024
MISS MAY DOES NOT EXIST is such a wonderful biography. Courogen created a compulsively fascinating and enlightening look into a Hollywood comedian, director, actor, and writer. The author opens the door into a life that until now has been more out of the spotlight than in it.
I will say that I didn’t know much about May going into this book. Her relationship with Mike Nichols and some of the work she has been involved in interested me, so I thought I would give the book a chance. And boy am I glad I did. Elaine May’s life is filled with the ups and downs of any artist looking to push boundaries while still maintaining a level of artistic integrity. She has flaws and has stumbled. She has stood behind her work when others tried to change it. She seemed to always move forward even when there were roadblocks.
The way the author pieces together the life of this more reclusive artist is amazing. I found myself getting lost in the story, and at times, forgetting that this is in fact about a real person. I am so glad I found out more about Elaine May and her work. She is truly someone, women especially, should know about. There can never be too many strong and talented women in the arts.
Audiobook Note: Listening partly to this book was so enjoyable. Erin Bennett, the narrator, makes this biography feel like a bio-pic I would see on the screen—large or small. Her diction and pace are perfect. Not to mention how she brings Courogen’s words to life. So good!
Reviewer Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Highly Caffeinated Rating of… ☕ ☕ ☕ ☕
I will say that I didn’t know much about May going into this book. Her relationship with Mike Nichols and some of the work she has been involved in interested me, so I thought I would give the book a chance. And boy am I glad I did. Elaine May’s life is filled with the ups and downs of any artist looking to push boundaries while still maintaining a level of artistic integrity. She has flaws and has stumbled. She has stood behind her work when others tried to change it. She seemed to always move forward even when there were roadblocks.
The way the author pieces together the life of this more reclusive artist is amazing. I found myself getting lost in the story, and at times, forgetting that this is in fact about a real person. I am so glad I found out more about Elaine May and her work. She is truly someone, women especially, should know about. There can never be too many strong and talented women in the arts.
Audiobook Note: Listening partly to this book was so enjoyable. Erin Bennett, the narrator, makes this biography feel like a bio-pic I would see on the screen—large or small. Her diction and pace are perfect. Not to mention how she brings Courogen’s words to life. So good!
Reviewer Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Highly Caffeinated Rating of… ☕ ☕ ☕ ☕
July 8, 2024
The great irony of Elaine May’s refusal to take part in her own biographing is that it forced Carrie Courogen to take the Elaine May route: stubborn persistence. The great thing about this particular match of biographer and subject is that I think that came naturally to Courogen.
After all, no one else was going to chase down hundreds and hundreds of sources to sleuth together the history of an elusive auteur who downplayed that very history when she wasn’t busy actively hiding it behind credits not taken and questions not answered. And thank goodness Courogen did the work, because to read this story of Miss May’s life is nearly as insightful and entertaining as watching one of her movies. If it gets a little less interesting as it goes along, that’s largely a reflection of the unfair tapering of May’s late career by an industry that refused to fully accept her brilliance until it was too late. In looking at her with clear eyes, this book can’t help but testify to her genius — no honest examination ever could. Maybe Elaine will never read it, but here at last, she gets the flowers she so richly deserves.
(An older man in my elevator saw my book and started raving about her old routines with Mike Nichols on YouTube. Thanks for putting me on, Mister — and thanks Miss May for building intergenerational bridges on the UES.)
After all, no one else was going to chase down hundreds and hundreds of sources to sleuth together the history of an elusive auteur who downplayed that very history when she wasn’t busy actively hiding it behind credits not taken and questions not answered. And thank goodness Courogen did the work, because to read this story of Miss May’s life is nearly as insightful and entertaining as watching one of her movies. If it gets a little less interesting as it goes along, that’s largely a reflection of the unfair tapering of May’s late career by an industry that refused to fully accept her brilliance until it was too late. In looking at her with clear eyes, this book can’t help but testify to her genius — no honest examination ever could. Maybe Elaine will never read it, but here at last, she gets the flowers she so richly deserves.
(An older man in my elevator saw my book and started raving about her old routines with Mike Nichols on YouTube. Thanks for putting me on, Mister — and thanks Miss May for building intergenerational bridges on the UES.)
May 31, 2024
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and to Netgalley for providing me with early access to this ebook in exchange for an honest review.
How do you write a biography of a truly mad genius who doesn’t want the public to know anything about her?
Well, Carrie Courogen has seemingly done the impossible. The greatest achievement of this book is that it’s a biography worthy of its subject.
Honesty and chaos are central to Elaine May’s life and work, and while this book searches relentlessly for the former, it veers wildly and charmingly into the latter in the most exciting, entertaining way. Miss May Does Not Exist meticulously tracks May’s movements from Chicago, to Los Angeles, back to Chicago, to New York, and is told in a casual, playful manner that makes the reader feel like they’re hearing the latest gossip from a friend. Along the way, Courogen shows great admiration and reverence for the woman who helped to revolutionize comedy, got bored, and then terrorized Hollywood studios, without ever deifying her.
This book strives to untangle the web of truths, half-truths, and lies that she has told to the public over the years, and then to weave it all back together into a tapestry that tells a narrative that any Elaine May fan will be unable to put down.
How do you write a biography of a truly mad genius who doesn’t want the public to know anything about her?
Well, Carrie Courogen has seemingly done the impossible. The greatest achievement of this book is that it’s a biography worthy of its subject.
Honesty and chaos are central to Elaine May’s life and work, and while this book searches relentlessly for the former, it veers wildly and charmingly into the latter in the most exciting, entertaining way. Miss May Does Not Exist meticulously tracks May’s movements from Chicago, to Los Angeles, back to Chicago, to New York, and is told in a casual, playful manner that makes the reader feel like they’re hearing the latest gossip from a friend. Along the way, Courogen shows great admiration and reverence for the woman who helped to revolutionize comedy, got bored, and then terrorized Hollywood studios, without ever deifying her.
This book strives to untangle the web of truths, half-truths, and lies that she has told to the public over the years, and then to weave it all back together into a tapestry that tells a narrative that any Elaine May fan will be unable to put down.
June 4, 2024
𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐬 𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝐃𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐄𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭 by Carrie Courogen is a nostalgic, historical, insightful biography of hidden genius, Elaine May. A name not well known to the general public, Elaine is a comedian, director, actor, and writer. As half of the comedic duo, Nichols & May, Elaine was a major player in the development of sketch comedy before she failed on Broadway and then headed out to Hollywood.
Her most known works include: Tootsie (LOVE IT!), The Birdcage (OBSESSED!!!), and Heaven Can Wait.
Elaine May has been called a recluse. She stays out of the spotlight if she can and even bamed her bio from an earlier album “Miss May does not exist.” Until now.
Carrie Courogen was gifted the chance to interview Elaine and find out all the nitty gritty details of an introvert in Hollywood. From mistreatments for being a women to admitting she was a prickly pear who was difficult to work with, Elaine laid it all bare in this once in a lifetime look into one of the female revolutionaries of the mid-late 20th Century.
Thanks so much to @stmartinspress and @carriecourogen for this physical arc of Miss May Does Not Exist. When I read that she helped on The Birdcage (which is a top 5 movie for me), I squealed. What an honor to read about the life of this difficult, yet extraordinary woman!
Her most known works include: Tootsie (LOVE IT!), The Birdcage (OBSESSED!!!), and Heaven Can Wait.
Elaine May has been called a recluse. She stays out of the spotlight if she can and even bamed her bio from an earlier album “Miss May does not exist.” Until now.
Carrie Courogen was gifted the chance to interview Elaine and find out all the nitty gritty details of an introvert in Hollywood. From mistreatments for being a women to admitting she was a prickly pear who was difficult to work with, Elaine laid it all bare in this once in a lifetime look into one of the female revolutionaries of the mid-late 20th Century.
Thanks so much to @stmartinspress and @carriecourogen for this physical arc of Miss May Does Not Exist. When I read that she helped on The Birdcage (which is a top 5 movie for me), I squealed. What an honor to read about the life of this difficult, yet extraordinary woman!
June 15, 2024
This book is just amazing!!! I don’t get the nitpicking of the style of this book! It’s written in such perfect form! Dare I say, this should be the DEFINITIVE Elaine May bio. We haven’t really gotten one, ever. It’s certainly overdue and I really don’t think we’re getting anymore, nor should we. Carrie Courgen does a helluva a job! Miss May did not participate in this bio, which isn’t really unusual. Most subjects do not participate in their bios, unless of course it’s an auto-bio. Unless Miss May writes her memoir (which I HIGHLY doubt given how private she is) this is as good as we ever going to get.
It’s interesting, Elaine May is 1 of 2 actresses I’ve been craving a memoir or at the very least biography written. The only other being Stockard Channing. There’s never been books on them, or at least nothing with substance. I highly doubt we’re getting a memoir from Stockard too, so maybe Courgen’s next book subject could be…
Elaine is one of our truest geniuses! Her work is impeccable and I could relate to her so much while reading this. She meticulous, tedious, even a perfectionist but it comes with the territory and the madness of the craft which results in some of greatest works ever born!
It’s interesting, Elaine May is 1 of 2 actresses I’ve been craving a memoir or at the very least biography written. The only other being Stockard Channing. There’s never been books on them, or at least nothing with substance. I highly doubt we’re getting a memoir from Stockard too, so maybe Courgen’s next book subject could be…
Elaine is one of our truest geniuses! Her work is impeccable and I could relate to her so much while reading this. She meticulous, tedious, even a perfectionist but it comes with the territory and the madness of the craft which results in some of greatest works ever born!
May 14, 2024
Only superficially familiar with the works of Nichols and May, I came to this book with few expectations. Written in a deceptively conversational style, this biography is full of detailed research (almost 1500 endnotes!) and is the fascinating and appropriately cinematic story of a genius. Elaine May lived a postmodern life, not caring what others thought about her, and appearing like an absentminded professor with mismatched socks, trailing cigar ash everywhere, and not seeming to care about money or recognition. Intimidatingly intelligent, she put many people off and attracted others like a powerful magnet. With Mike Nichols she invented a new kind of improv that was a comedy equivalent of walking a tightrope without a net. She acted, wrote screenplays and stage plays, directed movies, and punched up quite a few movie scripts, notably Tootsie. Like many brilliant people, she failed at least as often as she succeeded, but this didn't seem to faze her, and she was never afraid to try something new. Fabulous book - even the footnotes are worth reading! (Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital review copy.)
May 12, 2024
I want to thank Net Galley and St Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this as an ARC. Elaine May has had a long, storied career in theater, in comedy and in movies. She is known for being half of Nichols and May, one of the funniest , smartest comedy teams of all time. Go to you tube and watch their Telephone Operator routine, if you don't believe me.She worked on some of the best movies ( Tootsie) and some of the worst( Ishtar).Four years ago, she won a Tony for acting. She is witty, sarcastic and somewhat reclusive. This book gives an insight into her life and character. It is well written and well researched.Sadly, Miss May would not be interviewed for the book, which , in my opinion, makes it lacking a bit. There is a lot of quotes from previous works, and from friends and co workers, but it just left me wishing that the author had been able to get to meet her just once. Other than that, ( which can't be helped), it is a thorough , well thought out book. I am very glad that I read it.
June 8, 2024
Amazing biography of the brilliant but eccentric writer-director-actress Elaine May.
The author begins with an appropriately quirky intro in which she stakes out May’s apartment in one final attempt to get an interview for her book.
Despite May’s lack of cooperation, this is a thorough and incisive account of the life and career of a major show business figure, from the early days as a comic partner with Mike Nichols through her turbulent career as a director and on to her late in life triumph in the Broadway production of Kenneth Lonergan’s ‘The Waverly Gallery.’
The book shows how despite her legendary problems directing ‘Mikey & Nicky’ and ‘Ishtar’ May remained a potent force in Hollywood due to her great skill as an uncredited script doctor on hit films such as ‘Tootsie’ and ‘Reds.’
May fans will enjoy the deep dives into some of the performer’s less well known projects such as the stage production of ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’ with Mike Nichols at Connecticut’s Long Wharf Theatre.
The author begins with an appropriately quirky intro in which she stakes out May’s apartment in one final attempt to get an interview for her book.
Despite May’s lack of cooperation, this is a thorough and incisive account of the life and career of a major show business figure, from the early days as a comic partner with Mike Nichols through her turbulent career as a director and on to her late in life triumph in the Broadway production of Kenneth Lonergan’s ‘The Waverly Gallery.’
The book shows how despite her legendary problems directing ‘Mikey & Nicky’ and ‘Ishtar’ May remained a potent force in Hollywood due to her great skill as an uncredited script doctor on hit films such as ‘Tootsie’ and ‘Reds.’
May fans will enjoy the deep dives into some of the performer’s less well known projects such as the stage production of ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’ with Mike Nichols at Connecticut’s Long Wharf Theatre.
March 30, 2024
It's an incredible experience to spend time living in someone else's obsession. Witnessing the brilliance of Elaine May through Carrie Courogen's eyes is revelatory. It is the perfect pairing of subject and writer.
"Elaine liked words. She liked how she could lay them out in front of her like a path that would take her somewhere else, somewhere that wasn't here, deliver her to the truth. The longer the path, the more interesting it became."
Courogen also likes words, evident in her whip-smart prose and turns of phrase, and if you follow her down the path, then you will be rewarded with a "a love story about difficult women, the prickly broads who are not always easy to work with or easy to love, but inhabit their full humility anyway."
This book will long stand as a the definitive account of the singular, creative genius of Elaine May. It should also elevate May to her rightful place of worship by younger generations among other icons like Nora Ephron and Joan Didion.
"Elaine liked words. She liked how she could lay them out in front of her like a path that would take her somewhere else, somewhere that wasn't here, deliver her to the truth. The longer the path, the more interesting it became."
Courogen also likes words, evident in her whip-smart prose and turns of phrase, and if you follow her down the path, then you will be rewarded with a "a love story about difficult women, the prickly broads who are not always easy to work with or easy to love, but inhabit their full humility anyway."
This book will long stand as a the definitive account of the singular, creative genius of Elaine May. It should also elevate May to her rightful place of worship by younger generations among other icons like Nora Ephron and Joan Didion.
June 2, 2024
Upfront, let me say that I DNF this book. I got about 50% of the way done. I think that Carrie Courogen does a solid and well researched job discussing Elaine May. This is the whole reason I did not finish, this book is so dense that I could not get through it. It details life for Elaine May from the beginning in Philadelphia, her early years in Chicago, and beyond.
There was so much care and detail put into this book from the Nichols and May years, to each subsequent movie that Elaine worked on.
My biggest takeaway from this book is what a completely unique person that Elaine May is. She is a huge trailblazer for women, not only of her era, but even today. I was dumbfounded by her bravery to pursue her passion, even going so far to have her mother raise her daughter in the 50's, while she continued to work towards her goals. She is also seen as one of the founders of improv, along with Mike Nichols.
Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.
There was so much care and detail put into this book from the Nichols and May years, to each subsequent movie that Elaine worked on.
My biggest takeaway from this book is what a completely unique person that Elaine May is. She is a huge trailblazer for women, not only of her era, but even today. I was dumbfounded by her bravery to pursue her passion, even going so far to have her mother raise her daughter in the 50's, while she continued to work towards her goals. She is also seen as one of the founders of improv, along with Mike Nichols.
Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.
June 11, 2024
I wish I could say I liked this book, but I didn't. Th author has written a love letter to a woman she's obsessed with and actually stalked. Yes Elaine May was a genius but she was a horrible human being. To call her lifestyle bohemian is being kind. She was a self-absorbed unorganized rude mess. She was self-centered enough to walk out on her child in order to fulfill herself & her dream. Her body of work, except Ishtar, is incredible and her success a miracle. The author never made contact nor interview Elaine so what we have is a textbook sprinkled with tidbits from acquaintances. It didn't take long for me to realize that my dislike of Elaine as a person was tarnishing my appreciation of her body of work.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance reader copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
#MissMayDoesNotExist #CarrieCourogen #Netgalley #St.Martin'sPress
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance reader copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
#MissMayDoesNotExist #CarrieCourogen #Netgalley #St.Martin'sPress
July 7, 2024
To some degree, I knew what to expect, having heard the author interviewed on Jason Bailey’s “A Very Good Year.”
This is not a biography, but rather a lawyer’s brief/fan letter. Everything is viewed through the prism of fandom. It’s rife with speculative conversations and thoughts, mostly due to Ms. May’s aversion to publicity. As several other reviewers have pointed out, the author tries to pin everything on misogyny (which is partly true), comparing Ms. May to male directors. Yet, she offers no examples of male directors who engaged in the same or similar behaviors and who had lengthy careers. Of course, misogyny was rampant and significantly hindered her career but, if you’re going to compare your subject to men, give examples.
Again, this was clearly well-researched and a labor of love. I think the author would be better served by a subject with which she had less of a love affair.
This is not a biography, but rather a lawyer’s brief/fan letter. Everything is viewed through the prism of fandom. It’s rife with speculative conversations and thoughts, mostly due to Ms. May’s aversion to publicity. As several other reviewers have pointed out, the author tries to pin everything on misogyny (which is partly true), comparing Ms. May to male directors. Yet, she offers no examples of male directors who engaged in the same or similar behaviors and who had lengthy careers. Of course, misogyny was rampant and significantly hindered her career but, if you’re going to compare your subject to men, give examples.
Again, this was clearly well-researched and a labor of love. I think the author would be better served by a subject with which she had less of a love affair.
June 13, 2024
The last line of David Thomson's entry on Elaine May in his Biographical Dictionary of Film is:
"What one would give for a good book on what it has meant trying to be Elaine May."
Absent a book written by May, this volume does a good job meeting Thomson's demand, telling the story of one of the towering talents of the past 50+ years of entertainment.
Any kind of review of Elaine May's life will show a staggering amount of quality work, as well as an impertinence and an adherence to a code of personal honor that might seem incomprehensible to many. If this provokes more people to seek out her work, all to the better.
One more thing. This is the second book (after the Mark Harris biography on Mike Nichols) that makes a brief reference to May working in the private detective business. Who wouldn't kill to see some kind of work about Elaine May, Private Detective?
"What one would give for a good book on what it has meant trying to be Elaine May."
Absent a book written by May, this volume does a good job meeting Thomson's demand, telling the story of one of the towering talents of the past 50+ years of entertainment.
Any kind of review of Elaine May's life will show a staggering amount of quality work, as well as an impertinence and an adherence to a code of personal honor that might seem incomprehensible to many. If this provokes more people to seek out her work, all to the better.
One more thing. This is the second book (after the Mark Harris biography on Mike Nichols) that makes a brief reference to May working in the private detective business. Who wouldn't kill to see some kind of work about Elaine May, Private Detective?
Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews