Lake Effect

We all have had friends who our parents said, "there is something wrong with him/her, don't play with them," and yet we do and they are the ones who lead us to our greatest adventures of life. They are the ones who always seem to get us in trouble, yet they get away scott-free, and set us on our next adventure without ever realizing the importance.Trevians is the nickname of the New Trier High School sports teams, and I, personally, have worked in this environment for 40 years. I guess I know Rich Cohen, or at least some of his friends, since the picture on the cover of the book includes one of his friends who I know (ironically named Jamie, but not who Drew-licous is based on). I think the stories of drinking and drugs seems to be over-blown, and I would have liked to know more about the teenage existence, but Rich Cohen has such a remarkably easy style, it is allegory and metaphor magnificent. It isn't really about the rich, spoiled kids of the North Shore (Ferris Bueller, Risky Business (also set in Glencoe, Illinois)), it is about friendships, love, a search for meaning, a hope to make ones life extraordinary and those who seem to be a step or two ahead of us in that process. It is also about being programmed and not wanting to be, and how we all hope to understand why, and realize eventually that we can be whatever we are willing to truly be.

Rich Cohen's 'Lake Effect' is great literature for me for a number of reasons:. It unassumingly transported me to Glencoe Illinois, the town in which i grew up and the town in which I came of age - at the same ages Cohen covers in the story.. The story focuses on Cohen's friends, and yet conveys the author's deepest feelings and concerns without his wearing them on his sleeve.. I couldn't put the book down! It was a great read! And at the end of the book I came away with a feeling that I'd been carried on a ride through Cohen's most intimate teen-aged years, years that, for me, had been critical towards forming my own self-definition.. He conveyed a clear picture of the folks on whom he focused in the book's text.I highly recommend this beautiful book to all, and envy them the journey on which they'll be setting out. It won't be a lengthy one - I finished the book within three days, partially because, as noted above, I just couldn't put it down. But I assure potential readers that the trip along the author's route will be a memorable and pleasant one.

The book is great.

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