Lake Effect (2002)

The myth of the too-cool best friend is exalted in this memoir of the author's relationship with his high school buddy Jamie Drew, a pal so smooth even the teachers called him ''Drew-licious.'' If you idealize your own adolescence (repressing all memories of teen angst), this paean to picket-fence wonder years will send you into blissful reveries; Cohen (Tough Jews) evocatively captures every snik-snik of a lawn sprinkler and pop-fizz of a fake-ID-purchased beer. Unfortunately, in his eagerness to add resonance to this friendship, Cohen piles on banal details, especially when describing his college years partying away from his friend. The result is the awkward tedium of someone explaining all his private jokes to you. B-