02915cam a2200373 i 4500 2669516228 TxAuBib 20260318120000.0 260307s2026||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 9780375400391 hardcover 32.00 0375400397 hardcover 32.00 (OCoLC)1577717395 TxAuBib rda Junod, Tom. In the days of my youth I was told what it means to be a man [BOOK] : a memoir / Tom Junod. First Doubleday hardcover edition. New York : Doubleday, 2026. ©2026. ix, 404 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier 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. "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.". 20260318. Junod, Lou, 1919-2006 Biography. Junod, Tom Biography. Masculinity. Traveling sales personnel. Fatherhood. Parent and child. Journalists United States Biography. Father and child.