This critically acclaimed collection
of very short stories about postwar Buffalo, New York - illustrated in
colour with the author's own collages - is now available in paperback.


It
all began in Buffalo between World War II and the Korean Conflict, as
it was called, when the guys would meet up late at night in a diner for
their brand of fellowship. They were mostly high school graduates in
their late teens and early twenties, the sons of immigrant families. It
didn't matter; there was little trace of that showing. They didn't look
or act alike, but they had a sense of who they were, sort of proud for
some reason, without much to show for it. From the introduction, at the
centre of the group was Arnie. He might have been selling real estate
for the time being, but he always had his eye on the next thing -
Christmas tree farming, perhaps, or uranium mining. Then there were Moe,
who had a gas station and garage, and Barney, who drove a truck for
Pop's Pies. Observing it all was an art student working odd jobs to
afford his paints and brushes - Phil. In 110 vignettes about Arnie and
the guys, Philip Sultz presents a fictionalised portrait of the
working-class Buffalo of his youth. He also vividly sketches the
downtown Manhattan of those days, where his protagonists are drawn to
study and to work. These stories - by turns funny and poignant,
perfectly told and full of telling details - evoke not only the life of
two cities, but the atmosphere of postwar America. Even in shadow of
McCarthyism and the atom bomb, it was a time emblematic of possibility
and change. Lake Effect Days is illustrated
with colour reproductions of Sultz's critically acclaimed collages,
which echo the text in their formal perfection and add new layers of
allusion.