How to Be a Man: Scenes from a Protracted Boyhood

Acclaimed fiction writer Thomas Beller digs deep into his own history in this humorous and insightful collection about the state of masculinity. With sharp and engaging eloquence he discourses on T-shirts; being your mother's date at the Academy Awards; life at a bagel factory; the irrational pleasures of old American cars--and the mysterious disappearance of the author's own particular vehicle from a street in downtown Manhattan; love, sex, and breakups in an office environment; the social ecology of street basketball--including the sudden peril befalling a particular court in Manhattan and the heartwarming efforts of previously disparate community members to save it; coaches; the death of a parent; getting over J. D. Salinger; and an attempt to build a complicated piece of furniture for a beloved. Through stints as a bike messenger, a drummer, a boyfriend and--possibly, potentially, finally--a husband, Beller writes about the life-changing effects of love and marriage--past, present, and future.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 08/01/2005
ISBN: 9780393326833
Pages: 246
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.70d

Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 05/01/2005 pg. 519
Publishers Weekly 05/16/2005 pg. 51
Ingram Advance 07/01/2005 pg. 72
Library Journal 08/01/2005 pg. 84
New York Times 08/21/2005 pg. 16
Library Journal 08/15/2005