 | |
List Price: $13.95 | | Publisher: Da Capo Press
Salesrank: 1078717
|
| Our Price: $12.00 |
| Used Price: $6.25 |
|
| Media: Paperback |
|
Editorial Review:
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
Leonard Cohen: Kill Your Idols (Kill Your Idols Series) Reviews:
Poor as Biography--And Info Here Free On-Line 
2004-08-16 - 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
2004-06-20 - 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 
2003-07-16 - 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.
