The Clancys of Queens

A Memoir

By: Tara Clancy

Narrated by: Tara Clancy

A witty memoir that weaves an authentic coming-of-age tale into a bold portrait of New York’s working-class women.

Fifth-generation New Yorker, third-generation bartender, and first-generation author Tara Clancy was raised in three wildly divergent homes: a converted boat shed in working class Queens, a geriatric commune of feisty, Brooklyn-born Italians, and a sprawling Hamptons estate she visited every other weekend. This childhood triptych comes to life in The Clancys of Queens, an electric, one-of-a-kind memoir.

From scheming and gambling with her force-of-nature grandmother, to brawling with eleven-year-old girls on the concrete recess battle yard of MS 172, to hours lounging on Adirondack chairs beside an immaculate croquet lawn, to holding court beside Joey O’Dirt, Goiter Eddy, and Roger the Dodger at her Dad’s local bar, Tara leapfrogs across these varied spheres, delivering stories from each world with originality, grit, and outrageous humor.

But The Clancys of Queens is not merely an authentic coming-of-age tale or a rowdy barstool biography. Chock-full of characters who escape the popular imaginings of this city, it offers a bold portrait of real people, people whose stories are largely absent from our shelves. Most crucially, it captures—in inimitable prose—the rarely-heard voices of New York’s working-class women.

With a light touch but a hard hit, The Clancys of Queens blends savvy and wit to take us on an unforgettable strata-hopping adventure.

Wow

What did you love best about The Clancys of Queens?

Tara's personality shines through her writing and I loved that she read it herself. Full of individuality, love and realism, her book is one of the best I have listened to in a long while. I'm most sad that I can't find anything else by her.

A Joyous Outer-Borough Biography

Tara Clancy tells us her and her family's story as though we were on the next barstool in her favorite Queens tavern. We get to know Tara's: raucous foul mouthed Italian grandmother, lost tennis balls retrieving grandfather, sensitive hard drinking policeman father, independent cleaning lady - college graduate mother, mother's summers in the Hamptons boyfriend, kid and grown-up friends and the wisecracking, fiercely loved and loving girl to woman, herself.

Much love to my baby cousin Tara!

Amazing story telling, you are your father's daughter!! Miss you and love you!!! Congratulations, your big cousin Colleen Clancy!

Whooooooohooooooooo!

Heartwarming laughter provoking like being in a room with the most captivating and honest storytellers you ever did hear!❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

If memoirs are your jam, this is one of the best!

Any additional comments?

This book is right up there with My Southern Journey by Rick Bragg, which for me is saying a great deal. The author narrating her story in her own voice takes us inside her family, her history, and Queens itself, using her New York accent as the perfect tour guide.

Too many authors make the mistake of narrating their own audio books when they, and us, would be better served if they had selected a pro. With this book, no one in the world could have narrated it more perfectly than the author herself.

This young woman is an outstanding writer, story teller, and performer. I truly hope she writes another twenty books in my lifetime. Though her family is vastly different from my family, many moments of love and connection are the same; the way her grandmother so fiercely protects, and then grieves, her sister, truly broke my heart. Possibly one of the best memoirs I will ever read. Home run. A++