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Lake Effect: A Memoir
A bittersweet coming-of-age story that quietly bores to the essence of friendship and how it survives even as it is destined to change.“So outrageous and so true.... the book rockets along, powered by the high octane of Cohen’s candor [and] off-beat observations.” —The New York Times Book Review Raised in an affluent suburb on the North Shore of Chicago, Rich Cohen had a cluster of interesting friends, but none more interesting than Jamie Drew. Fatherless, reckless, and lower middle class in a place that wasn’t, Jamie possessed such an irresistible insouciance and charm that even the teachers called him Drew-licious. Through the high school years of parties and Cub games and girls, of summer nights on the beach and forbidden forays into the blues bars of Chicago’s notorious South Side, the two formed an inseparable bond. Even after Cohen went to college in New Orleans (Jamie went to Kansas) and then moved to New York, where he had a memorable interlude with the legendary New Yorker writer Joseph Mitchell, Jamie remained oddly crucial to his life.
227 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 8, 2002
12 people are currently reading
214 people want to read
About the author
Rich Cohen
36 books474 followersRICH COHEN is the author of Sweet and Low (FSG, 2006), Tough Jews, The Avengers, The Record Men, and the memoir Lake Effect. His work has appeared in many major publications, and he is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone. He lives with his family in Connecticut.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Coh...
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Coh...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
June 11, 2025
I have to admit that I'm a bit biased when it comes to boys' coming of age stories. Stand By Me is one of my favorite movies, and I just really like that genre. This is the first memoir I've ever read, so I can't really compare it to anything else. However, let me say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
Basically this dude (Rich Cohen) talks about his senior year of high school through his late 20s. The heaviest focus is the senior year, and first year of college, and most all of it focuses on his best friend Jamie, who is one of those special people who just happens to be the center of attention wherever he goes. He doesn't do it intentionally; it's just part of the natural flow of things. Were this written by Robert Jordan, he'd be called a ta'veren. I guess we all know someone like that, and typically don't begrudge them for it.
I related a lot to Jamie in the book, the free spirit part of him. Or maybe it was the part of me that wishes I could be more like Jamie that was doing the relating. One thing is for sure: even though Rich was just talking about typical adolescent life, and there weren't any great adventures involved, his was much more interesting than mine.
Another thing I really enjoyed about this book is that it was very well written, and it invoked the appropriate emotions in me. Moments sublime with intervals hilarious, if you will. I wouldn't recommend this book to just anyone because it's not for everyone, but if you're looking for a well written memoir about adolescent boys/young men, then this is definitely the book for you. There's plenty of cussing, drinking, carousing, and all the other fun stuff that makes for a good tale.
Basically this dude (Rich Cohen) talks about his senior year of high school through his late 20s. The heaviest focus is the senior year, and first year of college, and most all of it focuses on his best friend Jamie, who is one of those special people who just happens to be the center of attention wherever he goes. He doesn't do it intentionally; it's just part of the natural flow of things. Were this written by Robert Jordan, he'd be called a ta'veren. I guess we all know someone like that, and typically don't begrudge them for it.
I related a lot to Jamie in the book, the free spirit part of him. Or maybe it was the part of me that wishes I could be more like Jamie that was doing the relating. One thing is for sure: even though Rich was just talking about typical adolescent life, and there weren't any great adventures involved, his was much more interesting than mine.
Another thing I really enjoyed about this book is that it was very well written, and it invoked the appropriate emotions in me. Moments sublime with intervals hilarious, if you will. I wouldn't recommend this book to just anyone because it's not for everyone, but if you're looking for a well written memoir about adolescent boys/young men, then this is definitely the book for you. There's plenty of cussing, drinking, carousing, and all the other fun stuff that makes for a good tale.
July 8, 2018
Remembering "the Guy"
Every gang of teenage male friends has someone who is "the Guy". He has all the best ideas, can always get a car, is wise in the ways of girls, and knows bars where they don't card. He always has a pal or knows someone who can get you in to wherever it is you want to go. When he smiles at a diner waitress at 2:00 a.m., she smiles back. All of the Moms think he's charming and responsible and you can get permission to go along on any road trip if the Guy's going to be there.
This book is a specific example/memory piece of one such guy, Jamie, written by his best friend. It starts in New Trier High School, and since that's the same school where Ferris Bueller and all of those John Hughes "Pretty in Pink" people went to school, you know the book's bona fides are legit. It's actually sort of a fictionalized nonfiction memoir, but that's O.K. because a little embroidering in the service of a larger goal is fine.
I thought this might end up being a sort of shaggy dog story that would run out of steam. But it is much more than that. Because Cohen takes a modest and low key approach it's a little deceptive, and it takes you a while to realize and appreciate just how well written this book is. It's not just manic tales and socko adventures. There's not even much of that. It's lots of little bits - sometimes a page long, maybe a paragraph, even just a line - but they add up to something that feels true and authentic about the daily job of just growing up. It's a bit wistful, but has a bit of an air of a survivor's pride. Cohen understands now some of the things he remembers from then, and that understanding informs his story.
And the book really works on two levels. On one hand you enjoy the skill with which Cohen tells his story and you appreciate the people and events and sensations he recounts. On a different level, though, his writing reminds you of people and events and sensations from your own life, (if you're the right age), and these memories, if you are lucky, are warm and tinged with the generous humanity Cohen brings to his writing.
Sure, once we get to college it's all about Cohen, and his time at the New Yorker is the same. Interesting, but not universally interesting. It kept my interest because Cohen is such an engaging writer, but mostly because I knew we were going to have to circle back to Jamie by the end. And that ending, which isn't socko, but which nicely wraps up the book, was worth the wait.
So, this is a memorable and satisfying book, and a real writer's book with quality touches too numerous to mention. A nice, mellow find.
Every gang of teenage male friends has someone who is "the Guy". He has all the best ideas, can always get a car, is wise in the ways of girls, and knows bars where they don't card. He always has a pal or knows someone who can get you in to wherever it is you want to go. When he smiles at a diner waitress at 2:00 a.m., she smiles back. All of the Moms think he's charming and responsible and you can get permission to go along on any road trip if the Guy's going to be there.
This book is a specific example/memory piece of one such guy, Jamie, written by his best friend. It starts in New Trier High School, and since that's the same school where Ferris Bueller and all of those John Hughes "Pretty in Pink" people went to school, you know the book's bona fides are legit. It's actually sort of a fictionalized nonfiction memoir, but that's O.K. because a little embroidering in the service of a larger goal is fine.
I thought this might end up being a sort of shaggy dog story that would run out of steam. But it is much more than that. Because Cohen takes a modest and low key approach it's a little deceptive, and it takes you a while to realize and appreciate just how well written this book is. It's not just manic tales and socko adventures. There's not even much of that. It's lots of little bits - sometimes a page long, maybe a paragraph, even just a line - but they add up to something that feels true and authentic about the daily job of just growing up. It's a bit wistful, but has a bit of an air of a survivor's pride. Cohen understands now some of the things he remembers from then, and that understanding informs his story.
And the book really works on two levels. On one hand you enjoy the skill with which Cohen tells his story and you appreciate the people and events and sensations he recounts. On a different level, though, his writing reminds you of people and events and sensations from your own life, (if you're the right age), and these memories, if you are lucky, are warm and tinged with the generous humanity Cohen brings to his writing.
Sure, once we get to college it's all about Cohen, and his time at the New Yorker is the same. Interesting, but not universally interesting. It kept my interest because Cohen is such an engaging writer, but mostly because I knew we were going to have to circle back to Jamie by the end. And that ending, which isn't socko, but which nicely wraps up the book, was worth the wait.
So, this is a memorable and satisfying book, and a real writer's book with quality touches too numerous to mention. A nice, mellow find.
August 4, 2011
I guess I know Rich Cohen in a roundabout way, since I worked with New Trier students in the 1980s. The picture of his friends on the cover includes a friend of his, (ironically named Jamie) though not the kid Jamie Drew is based on. (I have a suspicion he is who Tom Pistone is based on.) I have been working with North Shore teenagers for 40 years, and the book forced me to remember some of the 50 or so special kids who touched me, not just for their unusually intense angst, the unusual lack of parental connections or caring, but also for a sense of pain, loneliness, uniqueness, attempts to wind their way through a tight programmed life, when they wanted to change the channel and didn't know how. For those who want to also get sort of the sense of this side of New Trier, may I suggest reading "Fast Times at New Trier High" Time Magazine article (I think). Rich Cohen wrote a book that was difficult to put down, I stayed up all night to read it. It brought back a flood of memories of my own.
August 20, 2025
With Nick Tosches sadly dead, I've been diving into Rich Cohen's work to find something similar. Even when Cohen is contractually obligated to write on certain subjects, there is a wild quality to his prose sometimes that bristles to the surface, such as the way that he brilliantly describes New Orleans as "an aristocrat pulled from her horse and gawked out by men with money belts." And we've all known a Jamie Drew, the "inspirational" teenage friend that Cohen grows up who is mesmerizing in youth and more than a little tragic in adulthood. Cohen captures that dilemma of existence quite nicely. There are also some glimpses into the New Yorker offices, with an alleged meeting with Joseph Mitchell. And I had no idea that The Dungeon -- a marvelous BDSM bar in New Orleans -- had been around so long and was merely a "metal bar" before it shifted to what it is today. Anyway, Cohen is best when he lets himself completely go crazy. We get some of that with LAKE EFFECT, but TOUGH JEWS remains my favorite of his.
January 10, 2011
Nice story of growing up on the North Shore of Chicago suburbs. But Cohen never fills out Jamie enough to make me understand why he is so admired. He often talks about the "great things" Jamie has done, but never describes them. When he does it comes off as nothing more than sophomoric, drunk/drugged hijinks. When he does give us some of Jamie's talk it comes of as simple stoner BS. And I have a real problem w/ white suburban kids so in love w/ Chicago blues, pontificating on how this is the "real music". Ever notice how there are no black people in the blues bars other than relatives of the band and old foggies?
Nice color of Chicago and NOLA, but otherwise I'm not convinced Jamie was such an mazing individual in his youth.
Nice color of Chicago and NOLA, but otherwise I'm not convinced Jamie was such an mazing individual in his youth.
November 15, 2007
Imagine you grew up in Glencoe, and you tried to write a Keruac novel in the style of Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine. Upon finishing your manuscript, you soaked it in a rusty bucket of piss and jitterbug perfume in the backyard for a few days. Then you let it dry in the sun, until the piss-smell is only evident within inches of the paper...
Ok, it's not all that bad. I read it all the way through, and enjoyed it for the most part. I found the style tiresome, but you may not. All the dialog is reported as if through the filter of a stoned college student. Of course that's the frame of mind the author may be trying to evoke, so I get it, I just don't like it that much.
Ok, it's not all that bad. I read it all the way through, and enjoyed it for the most part. I found the style tiresome, but you may not. All the dialog is reported as if through the filter of a stoned college student. Of course that's the frame of mind the author may be trying to evoke, so I get it, I just don't like it that much.
October 7, 2008
I was excited to read this regional great lakes set memoir for book club but it didn't hook me. There were good moments on the lake and some good writing and easy reading but this writer and I had totally different lives and made very different decisions in life (drugs being one, sex another). It was hard for me to relate to him and I was a little excited because we both grew up in the same time frame. Maybe it's the guy thing. I thought I was getting over that--I-can-only-read-girls-because-I-don't-get-guys mentality.
Lake Effect
Lake Effect
October 14, 2017
I had never heard of this author until I read Neil Steinberg's blog and he spoke of Mr. Cohen's excellent writing. I was curious and this was the only book available at the local library. I enjoyed his coming-of-age story but I really didn't understand what made Jamie so magical. They did a lot of high school hijinks with typical teen angst and then he went to college and saw Jamie infrequently. He remained a legend in the author's mind. I imagine I will seek something else out by this author.
February 21, 2009
Charts the course of one of those life-changing friendships. The kind that form and shape both involved, even when the friendship becomes little more than a reminder of what it used to be, and a guage to how far life as moved as the horizons of adolescent possibility have narrowed into the present day what is.
September 21, 2011
This is a good book, especially if you have grown up on the North Shore of Lake Michigan (north of the city of Chicago), which I have. You know what Mr. Cohen is talking about and you know the places he describes. It hits home because of the way the "North Shore" was and still is. It's worth the read for anyone with difficulties growing up and those who are from this area.
July 6, 2007
At some point in their lives, everyone meets someone cut from that blueprint Cohen fleshs out here in Jamie Drew. Lake Effect captures, in his own words, "what happens to such friendships when the afternoon runs into evening." A simple and beautiful memoir.
August 10, 2008
Descriptions of moments and places that made me feel I was in these places never visited, moments never experienced. Hit home on a number of levels having grown up in the 80's. Explores the quiet growth and accompanying pain of male friendships.
April 6, 2013
God, this book is gorgeous. I didn't know if I'd like it, since it is billed as being about friendships between boys, and that is not false billing, but the writing is great, and that tone a perfect mix of nostalgia and something else. Maybe pride? Maybe love?
May 24, 2017
I read this based on someone's recommendation.
Uneven and holes in the story. Author states that he and his father were going through a 'hate-each-other' period. While throughout the book the author has the 'cool' father. No further explanation.
Uneven and holes in the story. Author states that he and his father were going through a 'hate-each-other' period. While throughout the book the author has the 'cool' father. No further explanation.
May 24, 2007
the story of my childhood.
September 1, 2014
Because I grew up in the same h.s. district at the same time as the author I mostly enjoyed this read for its yearbook aspect.
March 21, 2008
Great for anyone who grew up on the north shore of Chicago.
August 14, 2008
Not much going for this dull autobiography. Only kept my interest because he is talking about the area where I live, so the name dropping kept it tolerable.
October 8, 2008
a wonderful gift from my friend Adam.
February 6, 2009
This is the memoir of a young Chicago man reflecting on his high school / early college days and one particular friendship
Want to read
February 8, 2009bought this book at The 99 Cent Store because it has advance praise from Liz Phair
July 30, 2009
read half way and got tired of him being impressed by himself - first 20 pages were entertaining...
September 16, 2009
Memoir of growing up on the North Shore of Lake Michigan, just north of Chicago. Self absorbed, but well written.
March 19, 2011
could relate to this book somewhat,about the same age although different place, and country.
August 29, 2012
beautiful adolescent to adult story...very intimate peek into a guys head and heart.
August 26, 2013
Jewish man Rich grows up in Chicago suburbs. Jamie is his friend even though he is much lower class. Are friends throughout life.
March 31, 2014
A great read about growing up in Glencoe, a wealthy suburb north of Chicago, in the 80s, and the author's friendship with another young man not born into the same world of privilege as himself.
April 6, 2017
He nailed it.
January 7, 2017
I really enjoyed this memoir. it was funny and authentic and honest and I loved all of the chicagoland references.
March 18, 2021
The book recounts the author’s years growing up in the 1980s in Glencoe, a Chicago suburb, and subsequently his student years in New Orleans, but really centres on his best friend Jamie. It is evocative of the period and full of memorable imagery. Jamie is an extraordinary and delightful character, and the remarkable platonic friendship he and the author Rich enjoy is beautifully recounted. This is a book which repays careful reading, not one to be hurried. It reveals much insight, and while the end is far from negative, I experienced a feeling of great sadness and yet tremendous warmth as the book drew towards its conclusion. A thoroughly rewarding book, highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews