Elaine May receives the detailed biography she so richly deserves. Carrie Courogen scrupulously researches the life and career of one of America’s true comic geniuses. Courogen interviews everyone connected with Elaine May except for May herself. It wasn’t for lack of trying, as Courogen makes clear in an amusing history of her efforts to get May to speak on the record. The author diligently chronicles every fascinating facet of May’s life: her turbulent upbringing; her years essentially inventing improvisational comedy; her storied partnership with Mike Nichols; her vexed career as a screenwriter and director (for many years the only woman directing feature films in Hollywood), and her astonishing late triumph on the Broadway stage. Courogen regularly circles back to her powerful central point that May was branded as “difficult” while her male collaborators like Nichols and Warren Beatty engaged in the same behavior and were able to play the “genius” card. Yet May’s work holds up with theirs. Courogen is honest, calling out disappointments and missteps made by May, but always compassionate. She even squeezes humor into the footnotes. Mark Harris’s titanic Nichols biography now has company on the shelf, Nichols and May continuing to keep each other company. A treat to read.