Leonard Cohen: The Mystical Roots of Genius by Harry Friedman is a captivating biography, though in some ways less about the physical life of Cohen and more about his spiritual life as expressed through his songs.

Although a fan for many years, I didn't know a lot of the details of his life, so I learned a great deal here. Yet that is not what I will take away from this first reading, and this book will, I believe, reward many more readings. Cohen's songs move me, as they move a great number of people. There has never been any question about his religious and spiritual elements in the songs but for me that has always been a hazy kind of acknowledgement. In other words, I caught some of the more explicit references and could feel in my heart (soul?) some of the implicit, but I had no idea what specific stories and legends each song used and/or referred to. Now I have some idea how he used those stories and beliefs to speak to his audience, even if we didn't know what foundational texts were involved.

I love thinking about songs in much the same way I do books and movies. What went into the writing? What might be an intended feeling or idea for the listener to take away? Regardless of the writer's intent, what did I take away? What other ways, beside the one I initially took, are there to think about or understand the song? By getting the background, or likely background, to many of these songs I can better understand the answers to all of those questions. I even better understand how some of those songs touched me. And I definitely have more ways into and through these songs.

So yes, I do better understand Cohen's life, but I now mainly understand it from the inside out rather than the outside in. I would recommend this to fans of his but I would also recommend it to those who might like to learn how another person used his religious and spiritual knowledge to grapple with the world around him then apply that insight to your own life and beliefs. I realize I probably rambled a bit in this review, I apologize, I am still coming to terms with what I am taking away.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. ( )