Dirtbag Queen, Andy Corren
Dirtbag Queen, Andy Corren
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Dirtbag Queen

Author: Andy Corren

Narrator: Andy Corren

Unabridged: 10 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/14/2025


Synopsis

In this "utterly unhinged, hilarious" memoir, a son pays tribute to his larger than life 'zaftig good time gal' mother and his unusual childhood (Jenny Lawson, New York Times bestselling author).

“Because she was my mother, the death of zaftig good-time gal Renay Corren is newsworthy to me, and I treat it with the same respect and reverence she had for, well, nothing. A more disrespectful, trash talking woman was not to be found.”
  
 So began Andy Corren's unforgettable obituary for his mother, Renay Mandel Corren, in her hometown paper The Fayetteville Observer, a tribute that went on to touch the hearts of millions around the globe. In his brief telling of the life and legend that was Renay, a “loud, filthy‑minded (and filthy‑mouthed) Jewish lady redneck who birthed six kids,” Andy captured only a slice of his loving and fabulously unconventional mother.
   His obituary for Renay was just the tip of the iceberg. In this uproariously funny, deeply moving family portrait, readers meet the rest of his absurd clan: his brothers, affectionately nicknamed Asshole (whose terrible attitude permeates every room he enters), Twin (held back a year and constantly mistaken for Andy despite the fact that they look nothing alike), and Rabbi (the only one who had a Bar Mitzvah); his one-eyed pirate queen of a sister, Cathy Sue (a teen bride who lost an eye to a Pepsi bottle); and then there’s the mysterious Bonus, who Andy isn’t aware of until later in life since this mysterious oldest brother grew up at the Green Valley School for Emotionally Disturbed and Delinquent Children.
 A story of love and forgiveness, as well as a celebration of a woman who “didn't cook, didn't clean, and was lousy with money” but was “great at dyeing her red roots, weekly manicures, filthy jokes, pier fishing, rolling joints and buying dirty magazines," Dirtbag Queen is an entertaining and poignant portrayal of the complex and heartfelt humanity that unites us all—especially family.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Allie on November 12, 2024

The audiobook is a work of art, and I won’t be accepting any arguments.......more

Goodreads review by Kate on April 22, 2025

This is not a memoir like any I've read before. It's a hands-down, warts and all, nothing held back and nothing left out story of the life of Andy Corren's larger-than-life mother, Renay. I'm sure there are other people in this world who would recognise women like Renay, but I don't know any. I'd li......more

Goodreads review by britt_brooke on March 05, 2025

In a Venn diagram of hilarious southern storytellers, Corren is the intersection of David Sedaris and Leslie Jordan. In this sometimes dark, often humorous memoir, he details pivotal stories from childhood through his hot mess mother’s death. There’s a whole cast of siblings with funny nicknames. A......more

Goodreads review by Brendan on October 26, 2024

Andy Corren's mom died. It was very sad, but Corren decided to turn her obituary into a send-up to an irreverent and non-conventional mother. The obit caught fire and now we have Corren's memoir about his family in Dirtbag Queen. It says it is about his mother but it is really about his whole family......more

Goodreads review by Erin on March 03, 2025

Andy Corren's debut memoir was inspired by the viral obituary he wrote for his mother during the pandemic in The Fayetteville Observer. Dirtbag Queen is a love letter to a woman who didn't bother herself with any motherly or traditional housewife duties. Renay Mandel Corren was a chain-smoking, dirt......more


Quotes

"Here's something I can say with perfect certainty: Andy Corren has written the best scene I know of involving Donny Osmond, a standard poodle named Licorice, and a young man's sexual awakening. And lucky for us, he's written a whole lot more. Dirtbag Queen is an irreverent, laugh-out-loud look back at an outrageous childhood. It's also an exquisite love letter to a woman who broke every rule of motherhood and taught her children how to live." 
 —Grant Ginder, author of The People We Hate at the Wedding

"Fantastic. Utterly unhinged, hilarious, and unexpectedly heartbreaking.”—#1 New York Times bestseller Jenny Lawson

Dirtbag Queen is told with the kind of unyielding honesty, devastating humor and above all tender familial pride that makes a seemingly eccentric upbringing feel universal. You will not regret a moment you spend with this family—nor will you ever forget them.”—Steven Rowley, New York Times Bestselling author of The Guncle

"Buckle your seat belts, clear the decks, cancel all social obligations because once you start Andy Corren’s hilarious, sacrilegious, and brilliantly tenderhearted memoir, you won’t want to stop until the bittersweet end.”
 —Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, New York Times bestselling author of The Nest and Good Company

“Dirtbag Queen is so funny, smart and original that while I was reading Andy Corren's fantastic memoir I had to keep reminding myself that I didn't write it."
 —Alan Zweibel, Original SNL writer and Thurber Prize winning author of Laugh Lines: My Life Helping Funny People Be Funnier