I don't know much about Cohen, his discography, music history or Judaism, so it is difficult to evaluate this book which analyzes them all in light of each other. Interesting, yes. I should have read the book more slowly, with something like YouTube beside me and taken time to listen to the songs discussed instead of just reading straight through (though sometimes I listened to a song). Did Cohen really live so intensely and in artistic isolation as the story depicts? Was he always a genius or can we say that with the rose-coloured glasses of hindsight? I cannot answer. The book does make me wonder what it would be like to live intensely, creatively, and with such deep spiritual awareness. The author continually compares Cohen to a prophet. If his biography is reasonably accurate, then this does seem to be who Cohen was. And unlike many artists, he had the benefit of living his life long enough to reap the rewards of maturity in his craft. ( )

As a high school student in Berkeley, California, in the mid-1970s, I had an English literature class that, in keeping with the experimental educational ideas of that time and place, used relatively contemporary lyrics to discuss the wider aims of literature: a lot of Dylan (especially “Desolation Row” and “Highway 61 Revisited,” which the class spent weeks and weeks on) and others. Including Leonard Cohen and his famous “Suzanne.” My best friend (now my sister-in-law) and I began discussing, in class, the second verse, the one about Jesus, and we just started riffing about it. When other classmates wanted to chime in, our teacher - alas, his name lost in the mists of time - stopped them; we were two usually quiet students and he wanted to hear where we would take the story…..In the early 1980s, I remember hearing and being stunned by “First We Take Manhattan,” a manifesto about how the world can maim us, and I found John Cale’s version of “Hallelujah” on 1991’s “I’m Your Fan” to be the best ever, until kd came along….Decades later, I’ve lived in Montreal for 21+ years now; and when word came of Leonard’s death last year, over a span of a few weeks hundreds of locals, French and English both, congregated at the front of his house, sat on the doorstep and, with guitars and voices, sang his songs in remembrance and love. Earlier this year, in 2017, my husband and I attended a concert in tribute to Leonard, a year after his passing, organized by his son Adam, replete with international stars like Sting and Elvis Costello, with locals like Patrick Watson (he of the ethereal voice) and Coeur de Pirate, and of course, the elegiac kd lang, all singing Leonard’s songs. So you get the idea that this man, and his music, has meant a lot to me for a very long time. This biography, published in 2014, some time before his death but after the betrayal by his manager (who stole around $12M of Cohen’s savings), when he had to go back on the road, age 77, to earn some cash, describes Leonard Cohen’s life from two perspectives: the first, and perhaps most interesting to me, is his life-long struggle and engagement with his religion, Judaism. His religious identity shines through most of his songs, in the sense of much of the Jewish tradition being about doubt and thought and trying to reach an understanding of being a “chosen people,” and Leibovitz does a good job of bringing out that aspect of this very complex human being. The second perspective is, of course, that of the artist - moving from poetry to prose to songwriting, and I think it’s true to say moving to Buddhism (although Leonard himself didn’t like being called that, he always said “I’m a Jew,” and disliked the idea that one could not be both, philosophically speaking). Then there’s the great themes of the work: solitude (and who is more lonely than God?) and love (often hard-bitten, hard-won, hard) and how to be an authentic human. Famously, Leonard Cohen took years to write his songs, first writing a huge number of verses and slowly paring them down and perfecting them, so that in the end, the essence was all that was left: “I heard there was a secret chord/That David played and pleased the Lord/But you don’t really care for music/Do you?” “Ring the bells that still can ring/Forget your perfect offering/There is a crack in everything/That’s how the light gets in.” And, though this is obviously not in the bio, from his final album, “You want it darker/We kill the flame./Hineni hineni/I’m ready, my Lord.” A remarkable man, a remarkable life. And I feel richer for having read more about him. Wow. ( )

Really enjoyed the abridged audio of this, mostly because I didn't know anything about Cohen and it turns out he had such an interesting life. But it did drag on a bit, which might have been the writing and might have been the abridgement. Probably a great read for the Cohen diehard fan. ( )