Customer Reviews

Leonard Cohen: A Life in Art

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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".