In the days of my youth I was told what it means to be a man : a memoir / Tom Junod.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Junod, Tom, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cloth or Hardcover.

Biography / Autobiography.

Memoirs.

Dysfunctional families.

Editors, Journalists, Publishers.

Journalists--United States--Biography.

Journalists.

Fathers and sons--Biography.

Fathers and sons.

Masculinity.

Traveling sales personnel.

Fatherhood.

Man-woman relationships.

Journalists--United States.

Abusive men--New York (State)--Biography.

Abusive men.

Adulterers--New York (State)--Biography.

Adulterers.

Sportswriters--United States--Biography.

Sportswriters.

Parent and child.

Junod, Tom.

Junod, Lou, 1919-2006.

Junod, Lou.

Genre:

Autobiographies.

Physical Description:

ix, 404 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First Doubleday hardcover edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Doubleday, 2026.

Summary:

A memoir by Tom Junod examining his relationship with his father and the lasting impact of family dynamics on identity and masculinity. The narrative recounts the author's efforts to understand his father's life, including personal relationships and hidden aspects of his past, while reflecting on themes of memory, family, and self-definition.

"Big Lou Junod dominated every room he entered. He worshipped the sun and the sea, his own bronzed body, Frank Sinatra, and beautiful women. He was a successful traveling handbag salesman who carried himself like a celebrity. He'd return from the road with stories of going to nightclubs where the stars--Ava Gardner, maybe Liz Taylor--"couldn't keep their eyes off . . . your father." He had countless affairs and didn't do much to hide them. Lou could be cruel to Fran, his wife of fifty-nine years, but he loved his youngest son. Tom was a skin-and-bones, nervous boy, devoted to his mother, but Lou sought to turn him into a version of himself. He showered him with advice about how to dress ("A turtleneck is the most flattering thing a man can wear"), how to be an alpha male, and especially, how to attract and bed women. His parting speech when Tom went to college was: "Do yourself a favor and date a Jewish girl. They're all nymphos." Tom wrestled with Lou's imposing presence all his life. When one of Lou's mistresses stood up at his funeral and announced, "Can we all . . . just agree . . . that this . . . was a man," Tom set off to learn the facts of his father's life, and why he was the way he was. The stunning secrets he uncovered--about his father, his father's lovers, and deceptions going back generations--staggered Tom, but in the process allowed him, at last, to become his own man, by his own lights. In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man is an intensely emotional detective story powered by a series of cascading revelations. The book is a triumph of bravura writing; it is a tale of a son reckoning with the consequences of his father's life, and in the end, the story of the son's redemption." -- Provided by publisher

Contents:

Prologue

Book one. In the days of my youth I was told what it means to be a man

Book two. Now I've reached that age I try to do all those things the best I can

Book three. No matter how I try, I find my way into the same old jam

Epilogue

Acknowledgments.

ISBN:

9780375400391

0375400397

OCLC:

1523907162

Publisher Number:

90103987497