Leonard Cohen Book:

		List Price: $19.95		Publisher: Chrome Dreams Salesrank: 21635
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		Media: Paperback

Editorial Review:

Leonard Cohen: Hallelujah: A New Biography Reviews:
see it for what it is
2009-11-28 - I would not call this a good book, yet I would not say it is entirely unworthy of reading. I found myself enjoying it despite myself, sort of like fast food or a microwave TV dinner. After the difficult bit of swallowing the introduction, the rest went down with no trouble. I just settled into the reality that is was not a novel or literary masterpiece. It was alot of bits of information, placed in chronological order about an artist I admire, and it included some details of his 2008/2009 tour and life. I learned things I did not know beforehand and left with new references to explore more in the life/art of Leonard Cohen. For that reason, I do not regret reading this book and that is where I found value in it.

Otherwise, it had the flavor of someone quickly putting it all together in order to capitalize on Leonard Cohen's recently successful return to the public. While reading it I wondered if Mr. Cohen had read it or endorsed it? I also wondered about the age of the author, as it had a "green" (NOT as in the evironmental sense . . .) feeling about it.

One of the other reviews stated that Leonard deserves better, and I would agree. Although, a better product will require some time and thoughtfullness, so I am confident that something of that nature is around the corner for us.

I Don't Like Books That Overuse the Word Eponymous
2009-11-22 -
This one is no exception.

Also priapic. It appears repeatedly as Tim Footman editorializes about Cohen's amorous exploits. Why choose an obscure word that MS Word returns as a spelling error?

Beats me.

Who is this guy (Footman) anyway?

Apparently the former managing editor of the Guiness Book of World Records has morphed into a cultural oracle of surpassing significance.

Or at least that's what he would want us to believe.

The problem with this book is that the author really doesn't seem to have very much to say. The florid and pompous prose seems designed to confer a kind of intellectual gravitas and draw attention away from this lack of thoughtful content.

Here are some examples of this pretentious gobbledygook:

* He realized that becoming involved in Zen practice was compatible with his Jewish identity and beliefs, and even with his enjoyment of the bacchanalia that constituted life as a rock musician.

* For the moment, however, Cohen's rutting urges were sublimated into his growing interest in literature and music.

* Romantically unattached when he arrived on Hydra, Cohen was at first an amused observer of the coital merry go round on the island, until he met a Norwegian named Marianne Ihlen.

* Which leads into problematic territory, where we ask, whether some performers of some genres of music are to be classed as priests, while others are merely supplicants.

* As he powers through his eighth decade - and he's still singing Hallelujah on tour, he wouldn't be permitted to leave it out - new generations are waking up to the particular charm of that deep, growly miaow; an acclamation of a special kind.

"Particular charm of that deep, growly miaow"? Come on, gimme a break.

There are also what appear to me as astounding editing blunders. For example in the discussion of Cohen's novels The Favorite Game and Beautiful Losers, references to "The Beautiful Game" and "Beautiful Strangers" inexplicably crop up. Maybe I'm missing something (if so let me know with a comment) but this looks like flagrant errors.

Cohen is a great artist. He deserves better.

So don't waste your time with this book. If you're looking for a good biography of LC read Various Positions: A Life of Leonard Cohen by Ira Bruce Nadel instead.

"So This Is Between You and Me, the People Who Care"
2009-11-22 - In the "Conclusion: End of My Life in Art" Tim Footman in the new biography of Leonard Cohen says the question is not how good Leonard Cohen is but rather how great he is and wonders if we can even ask that question. After all there are those who would say "it doesn't matter what anybody thinks anyway; that nobody's opinion is more important than anybody else's. .. we should just enjoy what we enjoy, right?" Not really. Mr. Footman concludes that persons who think that way wouldn't be reading this most informative biography of Leonard Cohen anyway. "So this is between you and me, the people who care." (I couldn't agree more.) He then goes on to enumerate some of the qualities that make Cohen great: he is a brilliant lyricist in the company of Bob Dylan and even the likes of Cole Porter, he is extremely well read (a lover of William Butler Yeats and Lord Byron), and he is often quite funny in spite of his dark lyrics. Footman quotes as an example the lyrics from his favorite Cohen song:

"Well my friends are gone and my hair is grey.
I ache in the places where I used to play."

There is a wealth of information about Cohen in Footman's biography. The essential details are all here: Cohen's birth in 1934 in Montreal, his early beginnings as a writer, his poetry, his novels, his travels, his relationships with women, his time spent in a monastery, his highly successful concert tour in 2009. Although it is obvious that the writer is besotted with Mr. Cohen, he presents him with all his warts-- his drug use, his not-always-successful relationships: "I was very poor at relationships. . . I wasn't good at marriage, and I wasn't good at husbandhood or fatherhood."

In addition to what one would expect in a biography, Mr. Footman includes as list of his 10 favorite Cohen songs, a chapter on the popularity of "Hallelujah," a discography that includes bootlegs and a list of practically everyone who has ever recorded a Cohen song, a list for further reading that includes Nabokov's novel PALE FIRE and finally a chapter comparing Bob Dylan and Cohen. Footman concludes that in a hundred years from now Dylan will be the artist who defines the second half of the 20th century. Leonard Cohen, on the other hand, is loved. "And Cohen and surely Dylan as well--knows which is more important."

The people who care about Cohen will find much to like in this biography.