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Man of the Year
For one 1970’s family, the center may not hold, but it certainly does fold.
In 1978 Jimmy Carter mediates the Camp David Accords, Patti Smith tops charts with “Because the Night”, Suzanne Summers lets us all know that Three’s Company, too, and thirteen year-old Lou Cove’s free-thinking Jewish family moves from the Upper West Side of Manhattan to the Puritan wasteland of Salem, Massachusetts. His eighth move in ten years, Lou figures he should just resign himself to an adolescent purgatory of annoying paper routes, school bullies and endlessly being ignored by every girl he likes.
Then one October morning, as the New England leaves are just turning into “foliage” and the air gains a crisp bite, an old friend of Lou’s father, free-wheeling (and free-loving) Howie Gordon arrives at the Cove doorstep with his beautiful wife Jeremy in tow. At the tail end of a cross-country honeymoon with the whiff of Berkley at their backs, the young couple is in need of a place to “crash” for a few weeks, maybe months. Howie is everything Lou wants to be: handsome as a movie star, muscled like a god and in possession of an unstoppable confidence. Howie and Jeremy are a breath of fresh air for the Cove’s, imbuing the entire family with an energy and sense of adventure they didn’t even know they had lost.
Lou quickly becomes Hutch to Howie’s Starsky, talking late into the night as Howie explains the ways of the world (and women) to Lou over midnight joints on the roof, and joyrides around Boston. And then Howie drops a bombshell. At Thanksgiving dinner he holds up an issue of Play Girl Magazine, flips it to the center and there he is, Mr. November in all his natural glory. Howie has Hollywood in his sights and being Play Girl’s Mr. November is just the first step to being the next Burt Reynolds – now he needs to become Play Girl’s Man of the Year, and Howie knows just who should manage his campaign. As Lou and Howie canvas the uptight town of Salem, charming grandmas, school teachers and World War Two vets into voting for Howie, the Coves (and Salem) will never be the same again.
Man of the Year is the improbable true story of Lou’s thirteenth year, one very unusual campaign, and the unexpected guest who taught him to be a man. As the year unfolds, Lou must face the harsh realities that his family might also be going through its own growing pains, and the harder truth that sometimes parents are just people, too. Hilarious, heartwarming, poignant and yes, well-muscled, Man of the Year is a coming of age story we all can cheer for.
In 1978 Jimmy Carter mediates the Camp David Accords, Patti Smith tops charts with “Because the Night”, Suzanne Summers lets us all know that Three’s Company, too, and thirteen year-old Lou Cove’s free-thinking Jewish family moves from the Upper West Side of Manhattan to the Puritan wasteland of Salem, Massachusetts. His eighth move in ten years, Lou figures he should just resign himself to an adolescent purgatory of annoying paper routes, school bullies and endlessly being ignored by every girl he likes.
Then one October morning, as the New England leaves are just turning into “foliage” and the air gains a crisp bite, an old friend of Lou’s father, free-wheeling (and free-loving) Howie Gordon arrives at the Cove doorstep with his beautiful wife Jeremy in tow. At the tail end of a cross-country honeymoon with the whiff of Berkley at their backs, the young couple is in need of a place to “crash” for a few weeks, maybe months. Howie is everything Lou wants to be: handsome as a movie star, muscled like a god and in possession of an unstoppable confidence. Howie and Jeremy are a breath of fresh air for the Cove’s, imbuing the entire family with an energy and sense of adventure they didn’t even know they had lost.
Lou quickly becomes Hutch to Howie’s Starsky, talking late into the night as Howie explains the ways of the world (and women) to Lou over midnight joints on the roof, and joyrides around Boston. And then Howie drops a bombshell. At Thanksgiving dinner he holds up an issue of Play Girl Magazine, flips it to the center and there he is, Mr. November in all his natural glory. Howie has Hollywood in his sights and being Play Girl’s Mr. November is just the first step to being the next Burt Reynolds – now he needs to become Play Girl’s Man of the Year, and Howie knows just who should manage his campaign. As Lou and Howie canvas the uptight town of Salem, charming grandmas, school teachers and World War Two vets into voting for Howie, the Coves (and Salem) will never be the same again.
Man of the Year is the improbable true story of Lou’s thirteenth year, one very unusual campaign, and the unexpected guest who taught him to be a man. As the year unfolds, Lou must face the harsh realities that his family might also be going through its own growing pains, and the harder truth that sometimes parents are just people, too. Hilarious, heartwarming, poignant and yes, well-muscled, Man of the Year is a coming of age story we all can cheer for.
320 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 9, 2017
21 people are currently reading
1024 people want to read
About the author
Lou Cove
1 book22 followersLou Cove is the author of Man of the Year, a memoir about the year when he served as “campaign manager” for Playgirl Magazine’s Mr. November, 1978. It worked, Mr. November won, and Lou got to skip his bar mitzvah (he was 13 at the time).
Lou was an editor and journalist for the first ten years of his career, but his Man of the Year experience got him hooked on campaigns: He has raised more than $70 million for nonprofit organizations and continues to advise national nonprofits of capacity building and sustainability. As a senior advisor at the Harold Grinspoon Foundation Lou has helped build a $25 million Alliance of national funders to support one of his favorite programs: PJ Library. His clients include CEOs and boards of trustees at numerous national non-profits, including the American Institute for Architects, Represent.Us, Double Edge Theatre and Girls Leadership.
Lou is former Executive Director of Reboot, a network of leading young Jewish creatives devoted to “rebooting” modern Jewish culture: digital entrepreneurs at Google and YouTube; creators of TV shows and films like Lost, Orange is the New Black, Transparent, Anchorman and Star Trek; journalists from NYT, Wired, and WSJ, etc. Under his leadership, Reboot launched and attracted millions to projects like National Day of Unplugging, 10Q and Sukkah City. Lou was also Vice President of the National Yiddish Book Center.
Lou lives in Western Massachusetts. He hasn’t seen a new copy of Playgirl since 1980.
Lou was an editor and journalist for the first ten years of his career, but his Man of the Year experience got him hooked on campaigns: He has raised more than $70 million for nonprofit organizations and continues to advise national nonprofits of capacity building and sustainability. As a senior advisor at the Harold Grinspoon Foundation Lou has helped build a $25 million Alliance of national funders to support one of his favorite programs: PJ Library. His clients include CEOs and boards of trustees at numerous national non-profits, including the American Institute for Architects, Represent.Us, Double Edge Theatre and Girls Leadership.
Lou is former Executive Director of Reboot, a network of leading young Jewish creatives devoted to “rebooting” modern Jewish culture: digital entrepreneurs at Google and YouTube; creators of TV shows and films like Lost, Orange is the New Black, Transparent, Anchorman and Star Trek; journalists from NYT, Wired, and WSJ, etc. Under his leadership, Reboot launched and attracted millions to projects like National Day of Unplugging, 10Q and Sukkah City. Lou was also Vice President of the National Yiddish Book Center.
Lou lives in Western Massachusetts. He hasn’t seen a new copy of Playgirl since 1980.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
May 25, 2017
I was sucker punched by an interesting description, unfortunately attached to a purely terrible book. Massively dull and laden with awful, clumsy dialog - no humans on earth ever conversed like this, in any place or any decade. Instead of an actual sense of place, you get endless reminders of where the characters are (Salem, Massachusetts!) and what decade it is (the 1970s!) , with one awkward pop culture reference after another, over and over, like a catalog of product placement. Which is probably actually necessary, since the writing is so bad you'd probably never figure it out otherwise.
A complete waste of reading time.
A complete waste of reading time.
May 15, 2017
Man of the Year absolutely oozes with the Seventies, which for many has become something of a forgotten decade between the tumultuous Sixties and cocaine-infused, narcissistic Eighties. This coming-of-age story will be a blast to read for anyone who grew up during that time and is loaded with pop culture references that will surely trigger intense feelings of nostalgia.
I received this book as part of a Goodreads Giveaway in exchange for a fair and honest review.
I received this book as part of a Goodreads Giveaway in exchange for a fair and honest review.
May 21, 2017
Lou Cove's memoir of his 12yo self as he becomes a teenager in '70s America is fabulous! So awesome, completely captures the hue of the '70s, but his travails are truly timeless. He really is able to pull you completely into his young teenage brain as he deals with girls, weed, his family, and Playgirl magazine. Highly recommended (great father's day gift)
May 31, 2017
Man of the Year is a hysterical memoir as seen through the eyes of 12 year old Lou who gets a lesson in growing up by an older family friend named Howie. Beginning in the late 70’s where bellbottoms, platform shoes, and polyester pants were all the rage, Lou and his family move from the comfort of his Jewish roots at the east coast into a suburban affluent community in Boston. As he adjusts into his current neighborhood, his family attempts to keep up with the Jones by adopting the ideal of the American Dream by assimilating into the culture including putting up a Christmas tree because, “it is American and it makes the house smell nice.”
Cut to a visit by a family friend named Howie, a Bohemian hippy whose “free spirited/free lovin” personality starts to rub off on Lou to point that the young man starts to idolize him and agrees to join Howie on an adventure of debauchery and sexual learning. Starting with Howie’s clothes that reflect a 60’s flowerchild vibe, the impressionable Lou becomes enamored with Howie’s personal style that only be described as a Japanese kimono mixed with a bit of an African dashiki. Think a cross dressing Tina Turner and male belly dancer doing the dance of the seven veils.
Soon Lou becomes Howie’s sidekick by getting involved into all sorts of rambunctious predicaments including a death defying jump off the roof to pretending to be a blind kid so he could enter the pornographic section of the newsstand. However, that it all takes the cake when Howie declares one Thanksgiving that he is the November centerfold of Playgirl magazine. In addition, he is campaigning to be the publication’s coveted “Man of the Year” title to which he drags Lou as his marketing assistant to various door-to-door sales pitches, the neighborhood witch, and even little old Jewish ladies playing card games at the community center.
A roaring good time is had by all as Lou learns some valuable life lessons, including to never put your idols on a pedestal especially when they disappoint you.
Cut to a visit by a family friend named Howie, a Bohemian hippy whose “free spirited/free lovin” personality starts to rub off on Lou to point that the young man starts to idolize him and agrees to join Howie on an adventure of debauchery and sexual learning. Starting with Howie’s clothes that reflect a 60’s flowerchild vibe, the impressionable Lou becomes enamored with Howie’s personal style that only be described as a Japanese kimono mixed with a bit of an African dashiki. Think a cross dressing Tina Turner and male belly dancer doing the dance of the seven veils.
Soon Lou becomes Howie’s sidekick by getting involved into all sorts of rambunctious predicaments including a death defying jump off the roof to pretending to be a blind kid so he could enter the pornographic section of the newsstand. However, that it all takes the cake when Howie declares one Thanksgiving that he is the November centerfold of Playgirl magazine. In addition, he is campaigning to be the publication’s coveted “Man of the Year” title to which he drags Lou as his marketing assistant to various door-to-door sales pitches, the neighborhood witch, and even little old Jewish ladies playing card games at the community center.
A roaring good time is had by all as Lou learns some valuable life lessons, including to never put your idols on a pedestal especially when they disappoint you.
December 3, 2018
Do discerning readers no longer have critical thinking skills? This is another fake memoir, in which 90% of it is told in impossible quotes from 40 years ago, when the author was between the ages of 10 and 14! Think of how much you could quote word-for-word from 40 years ago or from when you were 10 years old? Well this author claims that he can--then at the end of the book he admits that most of the names in the book are fake, that he "obscured certain details of persons," and that events are "conflated to provide a more efficient narrative." Oh, so namely most of it is not actually true.
Dear reader, when the author of a memoir states at the end of the book that most of it is changed from reality, and he spends almost 300 pages quoting word-for-word from 40 years ago, then you should not believe most anything in the book. And too many "memoir" writers get away with this today. It's simply creative historical fiction.
It's written as a sensational ready-for-Hollywood style story that is just plain hard to believe. Certainly some of the outline of the book's events took place, but from the start any person with a brain will see that too many convenient coincidences occur and the story is told in so much detail from a ten-year-old that it's difficult to believe. It comes across as the author has watched too many movies "based on true events" and put on paper a similar fictional account of his life.
Again, how can a man recall over 100 pages of interactions that he quotes word-for-word from 40 years ago, when he was just ten years old? The answer is that he can't. He also mentions at the end of the book that he kept a journal, but that journal was not given to him until he was 12 years old, and the journal is only quoted a couple times in the 300 pages. It's not like he was recording conversations or transcribing them on paper word-for-word when he was a little kid. It's just plain deception to call this an honest memoir.
So he made the wrong choice by using most of the pages to quote. It's also a bad writing style, and the only pages in the book that are sincere are a few that occur when the quotations stop when his parents divorce. The narrative that occurs at that point is the only honest thing included, and he should have spent most of the book in a narrative that summarized his recollections instead of using quotation marks.
The other problem is that this really isn't his story. It's the fascinating story of a hippie that appears in Playgirl magazine and goes on to become a porn star. The guy, Howie Gordon (his real name, you can look his photos up online, and who went by the porn name Marc Howard), is the star of this book and there's not enough about him here. The guy is not only a drug addict and exhibitionist but he freely cheats on his wife, who arranges his female sex hookups for him in their open marriage. Ironically they are the only couple from that era mentioned that are still married after 40 years. Howie is an amazing character who thinks nothing of dropping his pants in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner or giving his porn magazines to a 12-year-old boy. He also spends a lot of money on drugs, smoking dope and cigarettes, and traveling, but it appears he had no job. Where did he get his money? And why did the author's family just allow Howie and his new wife to live with them for four months?
Then there are the author's parents, who also deserve more space in this book and have their own story which is barely told here. They are leftist elites, supposedly doing something to help people with welfare but it's never clearly defined what they do or how they make so much money. Like many of their types, they make money off poor people while claiming to be helping them. But there's not enough detail here to know much about them other than that they are very liberal, think nothing of smoking dope in front of the kids, let the kids drink alcohol, expose the children to raunchy books and pornography, and hide their secret lives. For much of the book they are presented as the most loving, ideal parents--until out of nowhere they divorce and devastate the children.
There's a side character of a gay man that rents from the family who is only alluded to a couple times and in one odd section after the parents get divorced the author as a young teen lives with him. The renter is said to show a lot of affection to the boy and even the author says it kind of creeped him out, but again not enough detail is given to understand the character's motivation.
Most of the book takes place in Salem, Mass., and the author uses his creative writing skills to somehow make a big deal out of the fact that it's the 8th place he has lived and there are weirdos in town. It seems like a page-filler and detracts from the real story.
Really the most boring character in the book is the author. It was a mistake to build the story around him instead of building it around the adults. He comes across as kind of a dopey comic book addict who does poorly in school, has typical sexual cravings, but was raised in a home that was not normal. He was allowed to do things that must have scarred him for life, but at the end of the book we know nothing about him past the age of 14 other than he got married and had kids. Why write about a strange childhood if we aren't told what impact the crazy characters had on his adulthood?
The book is a mess and the perfect example of a potentially good story told poorly. The five-star reviews are coming from people who find the "true story" interesting (and it is, but the interesting parts could be summarized in a few paragraphs). The problem is that the way it's told is mostly fictional and it's difficult to discern what, if any, of we read on paper is accurate. The book ends up to be as fake as those glossy naked photos Howie Gordon posed for, where his private parts were covered in makeup and his Playgirl profile made him out to be a globetrotting Hollywood star when in truth he was just an out-of-work moocher that preached free love. He was kind of a loser, not a man to be admired, just like the author of the book.
Dear reader, when the author of a memoir states at the end of the book that most of it is changed from reality, and he spends almost 300 pages quoting word-for-word from 40 years ago, then you should not believe most anything in the book. And too many "memoir" writers get away with this today. It's simply creative historical fiction.
It's written as a sensational ready-for-Hollywood style story that is just plain hard to believe. Certainly some of the outline of the book's events took place, but from the start any person with a brain will see that too many convenient coincidences occur and the story is told in so much detail from a ten-year-old that it's difficult to believe. It comes across as the author has watched too many movies "based on true events" and put on paper a similar fictional account of his life.
Again, how can a man recall over 100 pages of interactions that he quotes word-for-word from 40 years ago, when he was just ten years old? The answer is that he can't. He also mentions at the end of the book that he kept a journal, but that journal was not given to him until he was 12 years old, and the journal is only quoted a couple times in the 300 pages. It's not like he was recording conversations or transcribing them on paper word-for-word when he was a little kid. It's just plain deception to call this an honest memoir.
So he made the wrong choice by using most of the pages to quote. It's also a bad writing style, and the only pages in the book that are sincere are a few that occur when the quotations stop when his parents divorce. The narrative that occurs at that point is the only honest thing included, and he should have spent most of the book in a narrative that summarized his recollections instead of using quotation marks.
The other problem is that this really isn't his story. It's the fascinating story of a hippie that appears in Playgirl magazine and goes on to become a porn star. The guy, Howie Gordon (his real name, you can look his photos up online, and who went by the porn name Marc Howard), is the star of this book and there's not enough about him here. The guy is not only a drug addict and exhibitionist but he freely cheats on his wife, who arranges his female sex hookups for him in their open marriage. Ironically they are the only couple from that era mentioned that are still married after 40 years. Howie is an amazing character who thinks nothing of dropping his pants in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner or giving his porn magazines to a 12-year-old boy. He also spends a lot of money on drugs, smoking dope and cigarettes, and traveling, but it appears he had no job. Where did he get his money? And why did the author's family just allow Howie and his new wife to live with them for four months?
Then there are the author's parents, who also deserve more space in this book and have their own story which is barely told here. They are leftist elites, supposedly doing something to help people with welfare but it's never clearly defined what they do or how they make so much money. Like many of their types, they make money off poor people while claiming to be helping them. But there's not enough detail here to know much about them other than that they are very liberal, think nothing of smoking dope in front of the kids, let the kids drink alcohol, expose the children to raunchy books and pornography, and hide their secret lives. For much of the book they are presented as the most loving, ideal parents--until out of nowhere they divorce and devastate the children.
There's a side character of a gay man that rents from the family who is only alluded to a couple times and in one odd section after the parents get divorced the author as a young teen lives with him. The renter is said to show a lot of affection to the boy and even the author says it kind of creeped him out, but again not enough detail is given to understand the character's motivation.
Most of the book takes place in Salem, Mass., and the author uses his creative writing skills to somehow make a big deal out of the fact that it's the 8th place he has lived and there are weirdos in town. It seems like a page-filler and detracts from the real story.
Really the most boring character in the book is the author. It was a mistake to build the story around him instead of building it around the adults. He comes across as kind of a dopey comic book addict who does poorly in school, has typical sexual cravings, but was raised in a home that was not normal. He was allowed to do things that must have scarred him for life, but at the end of the book we know nothing about him past the age of 14 other than he got married and had kids. Why write about a strange childhood if we aren't told what impact the crazy characters had on his adulthood?
The book is a mess and the perfect example of a potentially good story told poorly. The five-star reviews are coming from people who find the "true story" interesting (and it is, but the interesting parts could be summarized in a few paragraphs). The problem is that the way it's told is mostly fictional and it's difficult to discern what, if any, of we read on paper is accurate. The book ends up to be as fake as those glossy naked photos Howie Gordon posed for, where his private parts were covered in makeup and his Playgirl profile made him out to be a globetrotting Hollywood star when in truth he was just an out-of-work moocher that preached free love. He was kind of a loser, not a man to be admired, just like the author of the book.
August 20, 2017
How I feel about this book got increasingly murky the deeper I got into it. The writing is consistently strong and the emotions quite vivid, both the humor and the pain. But the further the story went, the more I found myself wondering what the point was. I guess that's the problem with snapshot memoirs, in a way -- there really isn't a story, per say, more a series of events within a much larger, life-shaped arc that remains unseen. Because of this, my natural (?) need for narrative and conclusions was repeatedly stymied, even as I learned more about each character and relationships both deepened and frayed.
The fact that the 'where are they now?' afterward nearly brought me to tears is clear evidence that I came to care a ton about the characters, but I still have no idea whether or not I'd ever recommended this book to anyone. (Clearly I'm not smart enough for a smart memoir. Ah well.)
The fact that the 'where are they now?' afterward nearly brought me to tears is clear evidence that I came to care a ton about the characters, but I still have no idea whether or not I'd ever recommended this book to anyone. (Clearly I'm not smart enough for a smart memoir. Ah well.)
June 3, 2017
Man of the Year was such a fantastic read. Every time I thought the story, based on Lou's life, was leading somewhere predictable in this coming of age tale, events unfold in a more natural and unexpected way. Especially with this unique and quirky premise, you may anticipate events to be overly dramatized but everything feels very real and grounded. This story will pull your heart strings as you follow Lou and his family and friends in a particularly enlightening moment in their lives who are just trying to figure out life, along with Lou is in his preteen years. Such a fun and fulfilling read.
March 21, 2018
I really enjoyed the book. I was kinda wondering where it was leading, and what was the point. Thanks to Dan for the birthday present.
December 18, 2017
It bothers me that the description of this book on Goodreads misspells Suzanne Somers' name.
Besides that, I was a bit underwhelmed by this book. With blurbs from A.J. Jacobs and Jill Soloway, I thought it sounded great. It wasn't a bad book.. It just wasn't that good, either. I can't really pinpoint why. It seemed to end in a hurry. There's a rather big event, and then the author seems to just get over it and end the book shortly after. I wanted more follow-up. But the whole book is kind of just not terribly interesting.. I just expected more. I can't explain it any better than that. It wasn't awful, like some books that I can't even finish, but it wasn't anything I'd recommend to anyone. Just... kind of boring and nothing really makes it stand out from other books.
Besides that, I was a bit underwhelmed by this book. With blurbs from A.J. Jacobs and Jill Soloway, I thought it sounded great. It wasn't a bad book.. It just wasn't that good, either. I can't really pinpoint why. It seemed to end in a hurry. There's a rather big event, and then the author seems to just get over it and end the book shortly after. I wanted more follow-up. But the whole book is kind of just not terribly interesting.. I just expected more. I can't explain it any better than that. It wasn't awful, like some books that I can't even finish, but it wasn't anything I'd recommend to anyone. Just... kind of boring and nothing really makes it stand out from other books.
June 22, 2017
I read 1/2 of this book and was disappointed that I had to end it. I loved the era (I mean who doesn't love the 1070's) and the writing style. It was easy to read and follow but it was just too crude for me. I know, I know, the whole story line is about a centerfold in a Playgirl magazine. I was ok with that, it was the crude writing the whole way through that made me finally say ....enough is enough.
March 15, 2018
I picked up the book because of the Playgirl centerfold plot line, but found my heart melting as I grew to identify with young Lou. He navigates his way through this moment in time, and the troubles, joys, life lessons and anxieties they brought him, with honesty, humor, some fine writing, and candor. As the book progresses, I silently cheered young Lou on with every page I turned.
The book taught me that young men face the same sorts of challenges as young women: who knew? An added bonus for me was the blast-from-the-past 70's culture AND places on Boston's north shore that still exist: such fun. Author Cove NAILS the north shore accent, too: read Gretchen's lines aloud, and you'll see!
The book taught me that young men face the same sorts of challenges as young women: who knew? An added bonus for me was the blast-from-the-past 70's culture AND places on Boston's north shore that still exist: such fun. Author Cove NAILS the north shore accent, too: read Gretchen's lines aloud, and you'll see!
May 12, 2017
A wonderful coming of age story full of nostalgia for me.Picked it up&was drawn right in,Thanks to Flat Iron &Goodreads for this wonderful trip down memory lane,
June 20, 2018
I thoroughly enjoyed this poignant coming of age book. I laughed at times and cried during others. Definitely worth the read especially if you grew up in the seventies.
February 14, 2025
This book was a miss for me. I almost put it down several times but pushed on in the hopes that it would get better. It didn't. I am a big fan of the memoir genre, and I enjoy memoirs of non-famous people just as much as those of celebrities. Lou Cove, while not a celebrity himself, had parents who were friends with a celebrity of sorts, if you consider porn stars to be celebrities (I do). That is the entire premise upon which this book was written, and it sounded fascinating. However, the period of time in which the "man of the year" is a part of Lou Cove's life is brief, during his adolescent years. Also, the majority of the story does not revolve around this relationship. It is more of a "coming-of-age" story that happens to include occasional life lessons from a guy just starting out in Playgirl. He hadn't even yet become a porn star during the time period in which this story is set. That came later, long after he was no longer a part of the author's life. I definitely feel like I was promised a story that was not delivered, which would have been okay if the one I was given had been interesting but it just wasn't. I've read plenty of stories of adolescent boys smoking weed and trying to touch a boob. If you've read one you've read them all.
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
April 14, 2017
I loved Man of the Year. It brought back a lot of memories from when I was young. I could relate to everything from the movies to the music.
I thought the book was the perfect amount of funny and serious put together. It was extremely hilarious, had me laughing through the entire thing.
Do yourself a favor, get this book, Man of the Year is worth the read.
I received an advanced review copy of this book from the Author/Publisher from winning a giveaway on Goodreads.
I thought the book was the perfect amount of funny and serious put together. It was extremely hilarious, had me laughing through the entire thing.
Do yourself a favor, get this book, Man of the Year is worth the read.
I received an advanced review copy of this book from the Author/Publisher from winning a giveaway on Goodreads.
March 8, 2017
The memoir of a coming of age young boy and his very unconventional family. It takes you through the confusion of growing up and not knowing how to deal with the changes in his family dynamics
I could totally understand and feel what he was going through.. It captured my attention from beginning to end.
I could totally understand and feel what he was going through.. It captured my attention from beginning to end.
March 9, 2017
From the very beginning, the book captured and held my attention. It was written beautifully, filled with humor along the way. I thought it was a great coming of age story, and it was easily relatable to. Please pick this one up!
March 10, 2017
I received this arc by entering a contest on Goodreads. I loved the book. I was 18 in 1976 and this book brought back a lot of memories. I can relate to the music, the autos and the times. Wonderful book.
March 24, 2017
Loved the story.There is no better story than a true life story.Lou shares his ups and downs and makes the whole story so easy to relate to.Friends ,family and the struggles of growing up keep you reading.I received this book free as part of goodreads giveaways.
July 21, 2017
I had trouble getting into this book initially and I thought I might not finish it.
I was on my way to vacation and stopped at the local library to pick up something for my daughter. "Man of the Year" was on the new book shelf. It was a memoir. I like memoirs so I grabbed it. I knew NOTHING about the story, the author, or anything. It was total impulse. So on vacation I crack the book open and realize there is content that I don't need my kid to read about just yet. Oh I know she's going to be asking me about pot and coke soon enough but not yet so the book goes back in the suitcase until we get home. I have to renew it from the library at this point if I want to finish it so the temptation is to just send it back unread.
Then I looked it up here, on Goodreads, and saw the mixed reviews. It's not for everybody and here's where the story is going..... well that just pulled me in actually. Once I knew what the point was I was able to pick up the book and get through it, and then I couldn't put it down.
Lou is a little older than me. I was about his sister's age, or maybe a little younger, when this story took place. It's a coming-of-age story I think for boys, and I don't usually read coming-of-age-FOR-BOYS stories so this was different. I get that Boston folks don't like how the accent is portrayed but remember... this kid was a transplanted New Yorker. It DID sound different to him so he accentuated that in the story. New Yorkers and Bostonians have different accents. It is what it is. I'm a Western Mass girl, local to where Lou is living now, and I don't know Salem well . It was fun to read his version of Halloween in that town and it was interesting to read a story that many of us can relate to, or almost relate to. He's about the right age to be a friend's older brother.
Moving back to the story I think Lou did a pretty good job with the book although once he'd gotten Howie and Carly off to California he kind of rushed the ending, skipping lightly over the time he spent in Frank's apartment after his parents moved out. He could have gone into that some more but my suspicion is that he probably can only write "I was wasted in 9th grade" only so many ways.
Am I going to go read Howie's book next? Nope, not happening. I think Lou Cove did a good job here and the book is definitely worth your time, and it's probably on sale now at the bookstore.
Sorry this is scattered and not my best writting. It's a good book. Not for everyone but if you can stand sex, drugs, 70s culture, that whole puberty thing... then this could be a good read for you. Definitely more for the guys out there than the girls.
I was on my way to vacation and stopped at the local library to pick up something for my daughter. "Man of the Year" was on the new book shelf. It was a memoir. I like memoirs so I grabbed it. I knew NOTHING about the story, the author, or anything. It was total impulse. So on vacation I crack the book open and realize there is content that I don't need my kid to read about just yet. Oh I know she's going to be asking me about pot and coke soon enough but not yet so the book goes back in the suitcase until we get home. I have to renew it from the library at this point if I want to finish it so the temptation is to just send it back unread.
Then I looked it up here, on Goodreads, and saw the mixed reviews. It's not for everybody and here's where the story is going..... well that just pulled me in actually. Once I knew what the point was I was able to pick up the book and get through it, and then I couldn't put it down.
Lou is a little older than me. I was about his sister's age, or maybe a little younger, when this story took place. It's a coming-of-age story I think for boys, and I don't usually read coming-of-age-FOR-BOYS stories so this was different. I get that Boston folks don't like how the accent is portrayed but remember... this kid was a transplanted New Yorker. It DID sound different to him so he accentuated that in the story. New Yorkers and Bostonians have different accents. It is what it is. I'm a Western Mass girl, local to where Lou is living now, and I don't know Salem well . It was fun to read his version of Halloween in that town and it was interesting to read a story that many of us can relate to, or almost relate to. He's about the right age to be a friend's older brother.
Moving back to the story I think Lou did a pretty good job with the book although once he'd gotten Howie and Carly off to California he kind of rushed the ending, skipping lightly over the time he spent in Frank's apartment after his parents moved out. He could have gone into that some more but my suspicion is that he probably can only write "I was wasted in 9th grade" only so many ways.
Am I going to go read Howie's book next? Nope, not happening. I think Lou Cove did a good job here and the book is definitely worth your time, and it's probably on sale now at the bookstore.
Sorry this is scattered and not my best writting. It's a good book. Not for everyone but if you can stand sex, drugs, 70s culture, that whole puberty thing... then this could be a good read for you. Definitely more for the guys out there than the girls.
July 16, 2018
Lou Cove’s ‘Man of the Year’ is a beautifully written and evocative memoir of his strange and unlikely 13th year when a California couple casts something of a magic spell over Lou and his family. But young Lou learns that childhood innocence doesn’t last forever and that shooting stars only light the sky for the briefest moment.
Lou is hovering somewhere between boyhood and the complex world of a teenager when his family moves from New York City to Salem, Massachusetts. His eighth relocation in twelve years and is setting up to be a downer; that is, until his father’s old friend, Howie Gordon and wife Carly, come to stay with them. Howie is handsome and fun-loving, a hippie philosopher who has just become Playgirl’s Mr. November, 1978. Lou sees in Howie everything he is not, and he is drawn in. Howie appoints him campaign manager in his bid to become Playgirl’s Man of the Year; all Lou has to do is help convince the small Massachusetts town’s grizzled sailors, women’s groups, and witches to cast their reluctant votes for the polyester pinup.
If you bought the book based on the story’s unique and oddball premise, it more than delivers the goods, providing laughs and evoking forgotten memories from the 1970s: music, television, comic books, film and pop culture. But the tenor of the narrative takes a turn in the final third of the book, and Cove leads the unsuspecting reader into an emotionally jarring place.
Despite masquerading as a tale about velour jackets, long hair, and adult magazines, this is a story about becoming a man, and what it means to be a man. Cove isn’t afraid to bare his soul in this memoir, presenting a nuanced account of his complex relationship with his hard-working but emotionally-absent father. He longs for a connection that he cannot bridge, filling that void with Howie. They are two very different men, and only one ends up showing Lou how to be a man. Man of the Year is a must-read for anyone who grew up during the magic era of the 1970s, but it’s also a must-read for men.
Cove’s writing will move the reader in unforeseen ways, tapping the deepest corners of the heart one moment then pulling a surprise laugh through the building melancholy. There’s an honesty to Cove’s recollections, and he doesn’t hold back when revealing his family’s flaws or even those in his own character. It has been said you live several lives while reading, and Cove has made it difficult to climb back into my own after taking me into his.
Lou is hovering somewhere between boyhood and the complex world of a teenager when his family moves from New York City to Salem, Massachusetts. His eighth relocation in twelve years and is setting up to be a downer; that is, until his father’s old friend, Howie Gordon and wife Carly, come to stay with them. Howie is handsome and fun-loving, a hippie philosopher who has just become Playgirl’s Mr. November, 1978. Lou sees in Howie everything he is not, and he is drawn in. Howie appoints him campaign manager in his bid to become Playgirl’s Man of the Year; all Lou has to do is help convince the small Massachusetts town’s grizzled sailors, women’s groups, and witches to cast their reluctant votes for the polyester pinup.
If you bought the book based on the story’s unique and oddball premise, it more than delivers the goods, providing laughs and evoking forgotten memories from the 1970s: music, television, comic books, film and pop culture. But the tenor of the narrative takes a turn in the final third of the book, and Cove leads the unsuspecting reader into an emotionally jarring place.
Despite masquerading as a tale about velour jackets, long hair, and adult magazines, this is a story about becoming a man, and what it means to be a man. Cove isn’t afraid to bare his soul in this memoir, presenting a nuanced account of his complex relationship with his hard-working but emotionally-absent father. He longs for a connection that he cannot bridge, filling that void with Howie. They are two very different men, and only one ends up showing Lou how to be a man. Man of the Year is a must-read for anyone who grew up during the magic era of the 1970s, but it’s also a must-read for men.
Cove’s writing will move the reader in unforeseen ways, tapping the deepest corners of the heart one moment then pulling a surprise laugh through the building melancholy. There’s an honesty to Cove’s recollections, and he doesn’t hold back when revealing his family’s flaws or even those in his own character. It has been said you live several lives while reading, and Cove has made it difficult to climb back into my own after taking me into his.
October 4, 2017
It's safe to say that the raising of Lou Cove was fairly different from how I was raised - and I never considered my parents fairly strict or adultish (this is probably inevitable when you have kids at 20 and insist on sharing B Science Fiction Movies from the 70s with them while they are still in grade school). Maybe it was just a hippie era, or maybe there was something inevitably magical about Salem, or maybe some people are just going to be who they are no matter what, but whatever it was, it makes for an entertaining memoir. Cove retells his adolescence and early teen years with his very open minded parents and their very open everything friends who come to live with them, bringing a host of hilarity, including the title's reference to a campaign for Playgirl Playmate of the Year. Cove's memoir is saved from being just another humor read by the sincerity and disillusion of his childhood self, when the fun and love starts to end and his family morphs into something very different and less cohesive. Cove takes you back to that feeling of emotional rawness that pervades the early tween/teen years where you start to see your parents as real people, and the world as less then perfect. Fortunately he also brings his sense of humor and fond memories, so it remains compelling and not just depressing or trite.
December 19, 2017
This memoir recounts the story of Cove's twelfth year when his Dad's old friend, Howie, moves in and upends Cove's view of normalcy and possibility for ever. It's 1978 and Howie and his wife, Carly, are a free-spirited Calif. couple who believe in pot, free love, open marriage and total honesty. Howie has just posed naked for Playgirl magazine and with Cove's help, begins a campaign to become the skin rag's Man of the Year. Howie is Cove's hero, the man he hopes to be - handsome, confident, open about his feelings, body and sexuality. Cove's depiction of this 1970s type is spot on, but the book drags after awhile with all the ups and downs of this family and endless details that seem to be building to a climax, before the book trudges on. An interesting read but could have been a third shorter.
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August 15, 2018
I really enjoyed this book! I devoured it in just a couple of days. While focused (in title and content) on the relationship between the narrator and an eccentric playgirl model, this coming of age memoir is really, in (strikingly rewarding) emotional terms about the relationship between a boy and his father . Cove does a lovely job of maintaining emotional suspense while keeping us engaged with a fun and interesting story. This book also captures a time and place, provincial North shore Massachusetts, really eloquently. It's a great read.
May 12, 2017
I received this book for free from a Goodreads Giveaway in exchange for an honest review.
I thought this book was well written and interesting. It wasn't a book I couldn't put down, but it was a story that held my attention. The last few chapters turned kind of dark which threw me off a bit but it did fit into the overall story.
And yes, I did Google the title character, Howie Gordon the Man of the Year. 😉
I thought this book was well written and interesting. It wasn't a book I couldn't put down, but it was a story that held my attention. The last few chapters turned kind of dark which threw me off a bit but it did fit into the overall story.
And yes, I did Google the title character, Howie Gordon the Man of the Year. 😉
June 28, 2018
True coming of age story set in 1970’s. I thought this was a good summer vacation read. The storyline, told from the perspective of a 12 year old boy,) revolves around a family friend who poses nude for Playgirl and then tries to win as Man of the Year for their annual issue. This book isn’t for everyone - lots of drug use (the whole family smokes pot) and sex (12 year old boy coming of age, free love adults) so be forewarned.
August 27, 2018
This was an amusing and sad "coming of age story". I enjoyed it because it was set close to home, in Salem MA. The author did a good job of writing about his adolescent feelings around his evolving family 40 (or so) years later. I certainly remember the late 70's, and Cove captured the memorable cultural moments that impacted me as a late adolescent (despite the fact he is about 5 years younger than I).
September 20, 2023
I looooved this book. Planted me back into the '70s, a decade, as one reviewer wrote, that often gets overlooked. I listened to the audio version and the narrator, Fred Berman, conveyed all the enthusiasm and emotions you'd expect of a boy in awe and early adolescence. I wanted to keep listening, but also for it not to end. Well done, Lou Cove. Can't wait for someone to make the movie. I guess Mark Wahlberg is not the right age to play Howie, but that could have been fun.
May 11, 2017
I entered the giveaway because it took place in Salem Massachusetts in the seventies. When I realized the content of the book I was skeptical. I gotta say, the Man of the Year by Lou Cove was very entertaining. The characters were very likeable. The twist in the story was surprising, but otherwise enjoyable.
June 19, 2017
Based on the true story of Lou Cove. His life and struggles to juggle the perils of adolescence with the pursuit of Hollywood and stardom.
I won an advanced reading copy of this book during a Goodreads giveaway. I am under no obligation to leave a review or rating and do so voluntarily. So that others may also enjoy this book, I am donating it to a senior assisted living facility.
I won an advanced reading copy of this book during a Goodreads giveaway. I am under no obligation to leave a review or rating and do so voluntarily. So that others may also enjoy this book, I am donating it to a senior assisted living facility.
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