Leonard Cohen: Hallelujah: A New Biography
by Tim Footman
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Book Summary Information
Author: Tim FootmanEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-11-01
ISBN: 1842404725
Number of pages: 300
Publisher: Chrome Dreams
Book Reviews of Leonard Cohen: Hallelujah: A New Biography
Book Review: "So This Is Between You and Me, the People Who Care"
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
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