When Cohen's family lived in Libertyville， Ill.， they were the only Jews in the town， but that was fine with their neighbors， who said， "Thank God， we were afraid they would sell to Catholics." This anecdote illuminates the ever-shifting status of outsiderness that Cohen portrayed with such precision in Tough Jews. It's also emblematic of this memoir of his youth. Cohen is less interested in cultural identity than in pinpointing the elliptical influences of the mid-1980s ("that decade， as odorless and colorless as noxious gas， came to inhabit every part of our lives") on him and his friends. Much of the memoir is a platonic love letter to his best friend， Jamie Drew， "the true hero of my youth， the most vivid presence." Cohen's prose is elegiac， nostalgic and Gatsby-esque double dates are remembered by "cheeseburgers and apple-pie... a root-beer float， a scoop of vanilla ice cream melting into its own foam... and in the rearview， Jamie whispered to his girl as the split-levels and convenience stores tumbled by" and conveys not only the fleetingness of teen years but a vivid portrait of Midwestern life. Cohen's memoir is filled with tender moments (e.g.， Jamie telling him "he had a wet dream， which he called a rain dance... [which] is brought by the rain god， the sweetest and most charitable god of all")， but never loses its realistic， hard edge， such as when Jamie decides to drive while drunk and high， crying because his own father died in a drunk driving accident. Poignant and lyrical， this will please Cohen's fans and find new readers for him. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information， Inc. From Booklist Cohen， the author of The Avengers (2000) and Tough Jews (1998)， chooses a lighter subject for his third book: his own youth in the suburbs of Chicago. At the heart of this memoir is Cohen's friendship with Jamie Drew， a charismatic boy who befriends Cohen in high school and takes him beyond the affluent suburbs they reside in. Together， the pair and their friends traverse a world of parties， girls， and downtown bars. Cohen admires and even idolizes Jamie's easy charm and ability to not just blend in a crowd but to take it over. Jamie also slips easily into Cohen's family， spending more time at Rick's house than he does at his own. College divides the boys; Cohen heads to New Orleans to attend Tulane， while Jaime ends up at the University of Kansas after a summer of hitchhiking cross-country. They see each other only sporadically， but their friendship remains strong， despite the distance and circumstances that separate them. With graceful writing and insightful observations， Cohen does justice to the friendship that shaped his youth. Kristine HuntleyCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved See all Editorial Reviews