Product Description
A collection of quotes, gathered over the years from Leonard Cohen's family, friends, and the man himself, and designed to give an insight into his music and world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Jim Devlin's Book - "Leonard Cohen: In His Own Words" - Marvelous book!!
Kudos to Jim Devlin.He has put together a wonderful book filled with pictures and quotes by the most extraordinary Leonard Cohen.I have not seen other books in this series but this particular book is a must have for any collector/fan of amazing Leonard Cohen.The pictures are black and white and most of them I have not seen before.The quotations are dated and organized under a myriad of interesting sub-headings,according to the subject matter.The presentation of the material makes this book a delight to read - and a "keeper!"Highly recommended.

[...]

Fantastic
This book is an absolute must for Leonard Cohen fans. True, it's not very thick (about 100 pages), but you can pick it up for a good price, and it is packed with TONS of priceless Cohen quotes and many, many excellent photographs. We get quotes from Cohen ("In Their Own Words" indeed), on just about every subject... his songs, albums, books, and poetry, the art of songwriting, his life, religion, other artists, women, love & relationships, and much, much more. We also get commentary and ancedotes on Cohen, quotes on him from other artists, and a larger selection of Cohen photographs than I have seen anywhere else (very good ones, too.) This books comes highly reccommended for all fans of Leonard Cohen.

The Best Series for the Serious Music Fan
I have read a couple of the other "in thier own words" book, the ones on Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Eric Clapton, The Beatles, Morrissey, and this one on Leonard Cohen does not disappoint. These books are only as goodas thier subject, but what makes them so extrordinary is that they areprecicely that, as good as the great artists they are about. Mr. Cohen'sbook is filled with great photographs and quotes, bursting out for fans tosink their teeth into. Everyone who is familiar with Mr. Cohen's work knowshe is considered by many to be one of the premier songwriting talents inpop music history, and this book, better than all others, reveals the coreof the man. In his own words indeed. I loved it! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Seed songs
This volume contains selections from Let Us Compare Mythologies, The Spice-Box of Earth, Flowers for Hitler & Parasites of Heaven, concluding with New Poems. Suzanne is here called Suzanne Takes You Down, and there's an embryonic version of True Love Leaves No Traces, a beautiful song from his much maligned album Death of a Ladies' Man, called As The Mist Leaves No Scar (I also love the breezy pop version by Dead Famous People on the tribute album I'm Your Fan).

The poem The Only Tourist In Havana Turns His Thoughts Homeward (1961) reminds me of his song Stories of the Street on the album Songs of Leonard Cohen that also deals with a visit to Havana. Queen Victoria And Me appears on the album Live Songs as just Queen Victoria. The poem It's Good To Sit With People mentions the obscure 1960's singer-songwriter Tim Hardin (the same dude or a relative inspired Dylan's album title John Wesley Harding).

I won't venture into literary criticism (my frame of reference is limited to Beats like Allen Ginsburg and Confessionals like Robert Lowell, John Berryman and Anne Sexton) but I love Cohen's imagery and I enjoy most of these poems. The book concludes with an index of first lines. This is a must for all Cohen fans. It's just not the same without the tunes, his voice and those angelic female vocals ...
... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Early book from a Favorite Writer
This is the second book of Cohen's poetry and it is filled with his unique brand of religion and sexuality, the sacred and the profane. One of the fascinating aspects of Leonard Cohen's poetry has been its elasticity and it's interesting to see how it has evolved over the years; you only have to look at the poems in THE SPICE BOX OF EARTH(1961) compared to the poems in THE ENERGY OF SLAVES(1972) to see the difference; the great thing is that they're all GOOD!(I even prefer his later, angrier, uglier "anti-poems" to those found here;THE ENERGY OF SLAVES is my favorite Cohen book.) It seems to me that Leonard Cohen has always been on a spiritual path--always changing, evolving, searching for the answers that we all look for. There are some breathtakingly lovely poems in this book. No one writes like Leonard Cohen, although I must confess that as 17 year old lad I wanted very much to write like him and tried, with less than wonderful results. All of his books are worth owning and I hope to see new editions of his earlier work re-published someday, as almost all of his early poetry books are now long out of print and selections from them can only be found in his later collected works,most notably STRANGER MUSIC.


... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

First book about Bruce is not worth reading.
I have often wondered how no one has written a book before about Bruce Cockburn considering the consistently amazing quality of his work over the last 3 decades. If you are looking forward to this one like I was, let me do you a favor: Save your money and wait for Bruce book # 2. I read the book more for the Cockburn content than the Cohen. I am only familiar with Leonard Cohen's last couple of albums (I found "The Future" to be excellent), but I have been an avid Bruce fan for the better part of two decades. About two thirds of the book is devoted to Bruce (and I will devote my comments to that). I found the book completely disappointing. The first problem is that Nonnekes deals strictly with the lyrics completely apart from the music. There is absolutely no discussion of the performances (in the studio or live), the passion and manner of delivery. There is also no context of Bruce's known feelings from interviews, comments at shows, etc. It is as if Nonnekes wrote the entire book by just reading Cockburn lyrics and was unaware of Bruce's performance or comments about any of these lyrics.Nonnekes takes a scholarly approach that will put off most readers. I consider myself to be of at least average intelligence (I enjoyed Michael Gray's 900 page Dylan commentary Song and Dance Man 3) but I was bored by Nonneke's over-analysis of songs that often speak for themselves. Also, I personally found much of the analysis to be way off the mark of anything I have ever gotten from Bruce's work myself or from his own comments. A book like this should illuminate an artist's work, but there are few revelations here. ... Read more

Product Description
This essay collection reflects the scope and reach of Leonard Cohen's influence. It ranges from academic essays that consider the treatment of the Holocaust in Cohen's poetry, aspects of personal and national identity in his novels, and the theoretical problems of performance in his songs, to less formal discussions such as an Internet newsgroup thread on "Closing Time" and a description of fan reactions to his concert performances in Germany. Several writers pay tribute to Cohen by contributing poems that "translate" his work into new idioms. The book also includes two new poems by Cohen himself. Intricate Preparations is fully international in scope, with contributions coming from Australia, Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Norway, and Finland, as well as Canada-including something from the Governor-General herself. ... Read more

Product Description
An illustrated mantra style poem taken from the novel, BEAUTIFUL USERS, by the Canadian singer and songwriter, Leonard Cohen. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Nothing special
It's like the words are used to decorate the artists' crappy computer graphics. Not interesting at all, the type makes it difficult to read. The text is just a short paragraph taken from Beautiful Losers; better off reading that instead. ... Read more

Product Description
This sheet music was newly engraved from early and authoritative editions.First Line is Well, I heard there was a secret chord that David played and it pleased the Lord... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Germ of Genius
This volume contains the full lyric of Suzanne, here called Suzanne Takes You Down, and an embryonic version of True Love Leaves No Traces, a beautiful song from his much maligned album Death of a Ladies' Man, here called As The Mist Leaves No Scar ( I also love the breezy pop version by Dead Famous People on the tribute album I'm Your Fan).

The poem The Only Tourist In Havana Turns His Thoughts Homeward (1961) reminds me of his song Stories of the Street on the album Songs of Leonard Cohen that also deals with a visit to Havana. Queen Victoria And Me appears on the album Live Songs as just Queen Victoria. The poem It's Good To Sit With People mentions the obscure 1960's singer-songwriter Tim Hardin (the same guy or a relative inspired Dylan's album title John Wesley Harding).

I won't venture into literary criticism (my frame of reference is limited to Beats like Allen Ginsburg and Confessionals like Robert Lowell, John Berryman and Anne Sexton) but I love Cohen's imagery and I enjoy most of these poems. The book concludes with an index of first lines. This is a must for all Cohen completists.

Flowers for Hitler

The Energy of Slaves

Germ of Genius
This volume contains the full lyric of Suzanne, here called "Suzanne Takes You Down" and an embryonic version of True Love Leaves No Traces, a beautiful song from his much maligned album Death Of a Ladies' Man, here called "As The Mist Leaves No Scar" ( I also love the breezy pop version by Dead Famous People on the tribute album I'm Your Fan). The poem The Only Tourist In Havana Turns His Thoughts Homeward (1961) reminds me of his song "Stories of the Street" on the album Songs of Leonard Cohen that also deals with a visit to Havana. Queen Victoria And Me appears on the album Live Songs as just "Queen Victoria." The poem It's Good To Sit With People mentions the obscure 60's singer Tim Hardin (the same guy or a relative inspired Dylan's album title John Wesley Harding). I won't try to venture into literary criticism (my frame of reference is limited to Beats like Allen Ginsburg and Confessionals like Robert Lowell, John Berryman and Anne Sexton) but I love Cohen's imagery and I enjoy most of these. The book concludes with an index of first lines. This is a must for all Cohen completists.

Classic collection
Originally issued in 1968, after Cohen had released his first album and become something of a cult figure. People heard Suzanne and thought, "Oh, I hear this guy's a poet, too; I wonder what he writes..." This book was published to appease such sentiments. And it does a good job of it - covering all of Leonard's poetry books released up to that time, featuring the highlights from each, as well as a good slew of new poems. Although some of Leonard's best poetry (and lyrics) were published after the release of this book - and this omnibus itself has been rendered largely unnecessary due to the release of Leonard's career-spanning collection, Stranger Music (although this does contain several works that that doesn't) - it is still a good collection, and an accurate summing up of Leonard's career up to that point. Reccommended for Cohen fans, if you can find it. ... Read more

Product Description
A memoir of the author's 1981 documentary, The Song of Leonard Cohen. Harry Rasky filmed the wild trip that was the 1979Field Commander Cohen tour. Now he has delved into his personal archives and diaries upon which the film is based, and has woven them into this moving, powerful text. He includes outrageous and intimate interludes with the great Canadian singer-songwriter, including how he and Leonard were mistaken for Bader-Meinhof terrorists by soldiers with machine guns at a German Burger King

Included also are Rasky's never-before-published Bob Dylan Diaries, based on his notes and observations during the filming of a never-completed documentary. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

don't bother
I love Leonard Cohen and try to read whatever is available about him.This book was so miserable, I couldn't even finish it.The person who wrote it is a whiney sycophant. This horrible drivel isn't worth the paper it's printed on. It really makes the reader hate the person who wrote it.Don't buy this, not even used for a nickel.'Nuff said...

Read Leonard Cohen NOT his hangers-on!
By far this is the worst book ever written about Leonard Cohen. To start with a good portion of the book is comprised of Leonard Cohen's poems and lyrics! The rest is badly written drivel about a man who made a fairly mediocre TV documentary about Leonard Cohen more than 20 years ago. Suffice to say that the book is nothing but a tool to vent off Mr. Rasky's anger at the world for not recognizing his 'talents' as a filmmaker. I did like the book cover but wait a minute that was taken from Leonard Cohen's last album cover as well. ... Read more

Product Description
A concise biography of Canada's leading poet-singer, Leonard Cohen: A Life in Art surveys a remarkable 40-year career that has produced 11 books and 11 records. Focusing on the evolution of Cohen's international reputation, the book begins with a review of the Montreal years. The popularity of works like The Spice Box of Earth and Beautiful Losers is examined in detail. Cohen's musical career receives special attention, from his first studio session to his latest record. The biography concludes with a discussion of Stranger Music. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Interesting insights into Cohen's early years
I am officially going through another Leonard Cohen phase (more on that later) and in looking for some books to read for a recent trip involving long flights, I came upon this little book.

In "Leonard Cohen: A Life in Art" (160 pages; originally published in 1995), author Ira Nadel brings a short biography of Leonard Cohen. Keep in mind that the book was written mostly in 1994, just as Cohen had turned 60 and had then-recently scored a sizable commercial hit with his 1992 album "The Future". Let me state upfront that this is not your ordinary biography. It reads more like an academic dissertation, with multiple sidebars into the art (songs, poetry, and other) of Cohen. As is often the case, the most fascinating part are the early years. In fact, the book is divided almost to the page half in half between Cohen's life up to 1967 (release of his first album) and his life afterwards. The son of well-to-do Jewish immigrants in Montreal, Cohen defied his parents' expectations and after attending undergraduate at McGill and graduate at Columbia, decided to make a go of it as a poet. Becoming restless, Cohen visits London and then Greece, where he would continue to spend significant amounts of time for decades to come. The book does a tremendous job in putting matters into context, both from an artistic perspective, as well as a more personal one. The second half of the book is far less interesting, in particular as the years go on, as too many times it becomes a repetition of describing life on the road, tour after tour. Nevertheless, I would recommend this book for the insights provided in the first half of it.

I saw Leonard Cohen recently live in concert for the first time, at the Coachella music festival, and what a delight that was. A thrilling set from start to finish. As a fan of Cohen for a long, long time, it was a dream come true to finally see him perform. It caused me to revisit some of his earlier albums, including the excellent 1979 live album "Field Commander Cohen", and of course also the just-released CD/DVD "Leonard Cohen Live in London". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Fingerpicking Cohen's songs in the style of Robinson
Fingerpicking Leonard Cohen is a nice music book for guitarists who are a little more advanced.The book includes tablature for each of the songs as well as musical notation.Preceding each song are the lyrics, however, thelyrics are not included in the music notation so if you want to sing alongthan you have to have already heard the song before.The only complaint Ihad about the book was that I wanted to play the songs exactly the wayLeonard Cohen plays them on his recordings and you won't get that with thisbook.The songs have been reinterpreted by the author, Marcel Robinson,into a more complicatedand unique form which sounds like both the guitarand singing notes interwoven for the guitar, so what you get are songs thatI believe are meant to be instrumentals.Songs include Avalanche, Bird ona Wire, Came So Far for Beauty (piano transcribed for guitar), ChelseaHotel #2, Famous Blue Raincoat (a beautiful version), Hey, That's No Way toSay Goodbye, Lover Lover Lover, Seems So Long Ago, Nancy, Sisters of Mercy,Story of Isaac, The Stranger Song, Suzanne, and Winter Lady.I would saythis book of songs is a must own for Cohen fan guitarists, although Iwouldn't recommend it to beginners. ... Read more

Product Description
The consort of Janis Joplin and Rebecca De Mornay and one-time collaborator of Phil Spector, Leonard Cohen has for the last five years been a full-time resident of the Mount Baldy Zen Center near Los Angeles where he submitted to the rigors of zazen and communal living. He was officially ordained a Buddhist monk and given the name of Jikan (Silent One). Born in Montreal in 1934, Cohen received international recognition for his second collection of poems The Spice Box of the Earth in 1961, rising to prominence in 1967 with his debut album The Songs of Leonard Cohen. His most recent album, The Future, is his eleventh. He has written two novels including the cult classic Beautiful Losers, and eight volumes of poetry. Author David Sheppard explores Cohen's fifty year odyssey through Judaic mythology, drugs, alcohol, sex, and Buddhism. What he finds is a man with a unique ability to serve up bleak but heartfelt individual truth. "Cohen has always been a man of surprises, so much so that many take him to be a man of artful disguises (as he sometimes does himself). His life has always been dangerously mythic..." -- Pico Iyer ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Poor as Biography--And Info Here Free On-Line
Sheppard sets the stage for this weak book by entirely misconstruing the value of the two major 1990s Cohen biographies.He says _Various Positions:A Life of Leonard Cohen_ is for "besotted" Cohenites, whereas _Leonard Cohen:Prophet of the Heart_ is for the more "literary" minded.Turn this observation around and it makes sense, but as it stands it's the comment of a moron.Ira Nadel's biography is kind to Cohen, to be sure, (he had Cohen's full cooperation, after all), but it is not the fawning piece of dreck that is _Prophet of the Heart_.Nadel, in fact, uses _Prophet of the Heart_ as a source, for factual details and for some of Cohen's comments in it, but Nadel manages not to incorporate the syrupy crud that the folks who wrote _Prophet_ poured onto every page.Sheppard needs to learn what excessive deference is before his writing will inspire.

Trivial commercial Trash, refuse delivery
Excuse me, but this book should be banned, and I'm a librarian who would fight to the death for freedom to read.To put the facts of LC's life into 60 pages, the man's almost 70 and he's been doing this his whole life.Cartoons would be better.And THEN to try to summarize his songs in a few sentences.What is this, English as a second language for people who don't speak a word yet?If for some personal reason anyone wants to read ABOUT LC, and really who needs to, it's just that he's so absent from view and I understand, then of course turn to Various Positions: a life of Leonard Cohen, by Ira B. Nadel. The publisher insisted that Mr. Nadel ask LC if his book could be called an authorized biography.I quote the book here Reply: "tolerated" adding an instant later "benignly tolerated."LC knows we hunger for him and he allowed this book to be given to us, despite his bemusement at his gift and his reluctant acceptance of hero and icon status, but he knows and lives in the same darkness we all battle every day, all our lives.Thank you to all reviewers for sharing. I never read reviews of his music before because who cares, but this morning I got up early and was going to cut the knees out from under anyone daring to give less than 5 stars to anything of his.But the reviewers fought against the packaging and wouldn't bother to have written at all, in almost all cases, because we are brothers and sisters in our need for and love of Leonard Cohen. And we pity anyone who doesn't have the solace of his songs so we want to give everyone what we've found with him.

the coolest man on planet earth
I was 1st introduced to the poetry of Leonard Cohen when I was 17 yrs old and it changed my life; I am now a published poet and I owe it all to that little spark I got from reading his work all those yrs ago. His poetry, novels, and songs are all uniformly awesome. I have followed his career for many yrs and this book was great. It's entertaining and informative,well worth the price of purchase. I hope Leonard Cohen lives forever; he's the coolest man on planet earth. ... Read more

Product Description
These studies of Canadian authors fulfill a real need in the study of Canadian literature. Each monograph is a separately bound study of about 55 pages. Each contains a biography of the author, a description of the tradition and milieu that influenced the author, a survey of the criticism on the author, a comprehensive essay on all the author's key works, and a detailed bibliography of primary and secondary works. ... Read more

Product Description
HALLELUJAHSeries: Easy PianoComposer: Leonard CohenSheet music. ... Read more

Product Description
Les achats comprennent une adhésion à l'essai gratuite au club de livres de l'éditeur, dans lequel vous pouvez choisir parmi plus d'un million d'ouvrages, sans frais. Le livre consiste d'articles Wikipedia sur : Michael Bublé, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Justin Bieber, Devin Townsend, Corneille, Bryan Adams, Paul Anka, Pierre Létourneau, Jeff Healey, Pascal Lejeune, Rufus Wainwright, René Simard, Jeff Waters, Drew Seeley, Patrick Watson, Gord Bamford, Dallas Green, Bobby Hachey, James Labrie, Justin Nozuka, Alessandro Juliani, Hawksley Workman, Daniel Lavoie, Jon Vickers, Joëlle Rabu, Lawrence Gowan, Daniel Powter, Ron Sexsmith, Matt Dusk, Deryck Whibley, Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Alan Doyle, Terry Jacks, Sebastian Bach, Jason Blaine, Gordon Lightfoot, Big Rude Jake, Chad Kroeger, Roger Doucet, Carl Newman, Richard Manuel, Stompin' Tom Connors, Pat the White, Tom Cochrane, Bob Couture, George London, Matt Mays, Bruno Lachance, David Jalbert, Shawn Desman, Jack de Keyzer, Dan Boeckner, Win Butler, Murray Lightburn, Tyler Kyte, Ben Heppner, Hank Snow, George Nozuka, Bernie Shaw, Matthew Good, Paul Hébert, Benjamin Kowalewicz, Benoît David, John Allan Cameron, Ronnie Hawkins, Lennie Gallant, Jay Malinowski, Wolf Mail, Jonas Tomalty, Manafest, Don Burke, David Marin, Daniel Taylor, Gilles Brown, Nivek Ogre, Shane Told. Non illustré. Mises à jour gratuites en ligne. Extrait : Michael Bublé, né le 9 septembre 1975 à Burnaby en Colombie-Britannique, est un chanteur canadien d'origine italienne de pop, de soul et de jazz, mais aussi un acteur. Son album éponyme de 2003, bien qu'ayant eu un succès modeste aux États-Unis, a atteint le top 10 au Canada, au Royaume-Uni et en Australie. En 2004, un album live et sa vidéo Come Fly with Me (2004) se sont inscrits au classement Billboard en musique et vidéo et ont atteint le top 40 des ventes d'albums en Australie. Il a obtenu un succès commercial aux États-unis avec It's Time. Michael Bub...http://booksllc.net/?l=fr ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

The lost Canadian
At one stage known as Canada's poet laureate of existential despair, Cohen published a number of poetry books and the classic novel Beautiful Losers during the 1960s and early 1970s. First published in 1972, this book contains 117 of his poems.

I always look for imagery and phrases from his lyrics, of which there are plenty here: The germ of his song I Left A Woman Waiting from the album Death of a Ladies' Man appears on p.5 and a line from Listening To Her Song on p.41. "There's a lot of music/on Clinton street") connects with the lyric of Famous Blue Raincoat, while the lines that appear on the cover of the album Songs of Love and Hate are here too: "They locked up a man/Who wanted to rule the world/The fools/They locked up the wrong man."

Dance on The Money is a poem about Greece and his Beat contemporaries are acknowledged in a poem about Irving Layton and Allen Ginsberg, plus there's a poem to Norma Mailer (Dear Mailer) whilst from Songs of Leonard Cohen, Suzanne of the famous lyric features in The Form of Poetry: "The whole world told me/To shut up and go home/And Suzanne took me down/To her place by the river."

I am not a literary critic, but Cohen's poetics reminds me of that of the Beats and to a lesser extent, of that of the 1960s Confessional school like Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton. I personally enjoy his written work, but not quite as much as his music. This book however, is a must for all true fans of the man and his exquisite music. My only criticism: there is no index of first lines.

Flowers for Hitler

The Energy of Slaves

Songs of Leonard Cohen, Herewith: Music, Words, and Photographs

The lost Canadian
At one stage known as Canadas poet laureate of existential despair, Cohen published a number of poetry books and the classic novel Beautiful Losers during the 1960s and early 1970s. First published in 1972, this book contains 117 of his poems. I always look for imagery and phrases from his lyrics, of which there are plenty here: The germ of his song I Left A Woman Waiting appears on p.5 and a line from Listening To Her Song on p.41 (Theres a lot of music/on Clinton street) connects with the lyric of Famous Blue Raincoat,while the lines that appear on the cover of the album Songs of Love and Hate are here too: They locked up a man/Who wanted to rule the world/The fools/They locked up the wrong man. Dance on The Money is a poem about Greece and his Beat contemporaries are acknowledged in a poem about Irving Layton and Allen Ginsberg, plus there's a poem to Norma Mailer (Dear Mailer) while Suzanne of the famous lyric features in The Form of Poetry: The whole world told me/To shut up and go home/And Suzanne took me down/To her place by the river. I am not a literary critic, but Cohens poetics reminds me of that of the Beats and to a lesser extent, of that of the Confessional school like Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton. I personally enjoy his written work, but not quite as much as his music. This book however, is a must for all true fans of the man and his exquisite music.

Lorca lives on
This trodding book of self centered, pseudo romantic poetry is a Cohen origional.The creation of Leonard Cohen's soul and demeanor could have easily come from this exquisite book.A wonderful purchasefor anyone remotely interested in modern day romanticism, or just infatuated love.Cohen plays the page as he does his music, sculpting it into a genre all his own, personalizing the paper itself, and then nonchalantly putting his mind and emotions into your awaiting hands and eyes, a true expression of feeling and soul ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Various Positions
This is a fascinating book.However, it is not a conventional biography, in that the author (Ira Nadel) does not fully succeed in weaving the events of Cohen's life into a flowing narrative.The story proceeds disjointedly,and the reader follows it with a feeling of uneven coverage and missingpieces.Ira Nadel is clearly in personal awe of Leonard Cohen (as any ofus would be, I suppose), such that he shies away from offering muchanalysis (psychoanalysis?) of his work and conduct of his life, beyond whatthe work and facts of his life suggest readily.For example, Cohen's long,tortured relationship with his wife Suzanne is described by a series ofvignettes, as cold as news reports, spiced only with relevant-seemingquotations from Cohen's work.Nadel doesn't do the interpretive work ofsuggesting was going on in Cohen's mind, and what was causing that, whichis what biographers usually do for us (and we judge them on whether they dothat well or badly).There are ocassional Freudian interpretations, aswhen Nadel compares Cohen's relationship with his lovers to that with hismother.But we don't get a feel for how the relationship developed andbegan to sour.In fact, we barely get any feel of "development"in Cohen's life at all, which makes it seem like disconnected reportagerather than a biographical narrative. This quality could be seen as aplus for the book, as it gives the book a cryptic feel, rather like thework of Leonard Cohen itself.I learned a lot, and enjoyed the distantquality of Nadel's writing for what it was, but I was left wanting to knowmore. Perhaps Cohen, whose work often veers into playful impenetrability,perfers it that way. ... Read more