Lake Effect: Rich Cohen

Rich Cohen is the author of a book titled Lake Effect, which I quote in my own book, Significant Moments.  I admire his narrative skills and his ability as a stylist.  Like me, Cohen attended an academically-selective school in Illinois -- which I always thought was pronounced Illinoise.  

Lake Effect, like my own book, explores male friendship.  I have a theory that the title Lake Effect, which refers to Lake Michigan, has a deeper resonance -- and perhaps relates to the theme of male relationships at a primal level.  I am reminded of Dr. Eissler's observation about the rescue fantasy (see YouTube video at 4:05): "If you want me to love you and to win my affection, you must first jump into the lake."

And then, there is this passage from my book:

[N]o clouds shaded those early bewitching and refreshing days at the lake, where Nietzsche, submissively lost in adoration, passed golden hours stolen from his . . .
Robert W. Gutman, Richard Wagner: The Man, His Mind, and His Music.
. . . professorial . . .
Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams.
. . . duties at Basel.
Robert W. Gutman, Richard Wagner: The Man, His Mind, and His Music.
For the rest of his life he would remember . . .
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude.
. . . one summer morning . . .
Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams.
. . . on the lake.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Elective Affinities.
They were seated in the boat, . . .
Ernest Hemingway, Indian Camp.
. . . facing each other like two mirrors, . . .
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude.
. . . Nietzsche . . .
Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams.
. . . in the stern, . . .
Ernest Hemingway, Indian Camp.
. . . Wagner . . .
Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams.
. . . rowing. The sun was coming up over the hills. A bass jumped, making a circle in the water.
Ernest Hemingway, Indian Camp.
Nietzsche . . .
Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams.
. . . trailed his hand in the water. It felt warm in the sharp chill of the morning.  In the early morning on the lake sitting in the stern of the boat with . . .
Ernest Hemingway, Indian Camp.
. . . his mentor . . .
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude.
. . . rowing, he felt quite sure that he would never die.
Ernest Hemingway, Indian Camp.
Years after his break with Wagner, he observed, "I pass over my other relationships lightly; but at no price would I have my life bereft of those days at Triebschen, days of confidence, of serenity, of sublime flashes, of profound moments."
Robert W. Gutman, Richard Wagner: The Man, His Mind, and His Music.
(I had no idea at the time how large this house would loom in my subsequent life)
J. Moussaieff Masson, Final Analysis: The Making and Unmaking of a Psychoanalyst.

Cohen was born in Lake Forest, Illinois, and grew up in Chicago's North Shore suburb of Glencoe.  He received his B.A. from Tulane University in 1990. His father, the negotiator Herb Cohen, grew up with the broadcaster Larry King; Cohen worked on King's CNN show for a short time after graduation. His sister, Sharon Cohen Levin, is an Assistant United States Attorney of the Southern District of New York.

Coincidentally, Larry King is a friend of Bob Strauss.  Bob Strauss and Larry King used to eat lunch regularly at Duke Zeibert's, a Washington, D.C. establishment that closed several years ago.  I remember I once saw Strauss returning to the office with a toothpick in his mouth and wanted to ask him if he enjoyed his lunch.  He didn't have an inviting expression on his face, but then, he rarely did.