`Lake Effect' by Rich Cohen.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Rolling Stone contributing editor Rich Cohen grew up in Glencoe, Ill., one of those small, Midwestern towns that molds writers who then run off to New York to fulfill their dreams.

In "Lake Effect," Cohen, who has also written for the New Yorker and the New York Times, looks back on his youth in Glencoe on the shores of Lake Michigan and the people and events that shaped him. Mostly, though, it's the chronicle of a group of friends and, in particular, a friendship with a doomed, lost soul named Jamie Drew.

"Drew-licious" is a legend in his high school for his good looks and his ability to have a good time. Cohen is drawn to Drew for a coolness Cohen ...