Review by New York Times Review
HE is poet and prophet, Buddhist bard "born in a suit," a wandering Jew ever searching. A man of many generations, Leonard Cohen is still debonair, "looking like a Rat Pack rabbi." His languorous voice grows deeper year by year as he gets us on his wavelength with recurring themes of love, religion, sex and loss. Leonard Norman Cohen was born in Montreal in 1934, into an upper-middleclass Jewish family. His mother was the daughter of a Talmudic scholar, Rabbi Solomon Klonitzki-Kline, his paternal grandfather, Lyon Cohen, a leader of the Canadian Jewish community. Nathan Cohen, his father, worked in the clothing business and died when his son was 9 years old. Cohen has talked about having had a "messianic" childhood and the strong sense that he was going to do something special, that he would "grow into manhood leading other men." He was also "well aware that he was a Kohen, one of a priestly caste." A poet in the 1950s who wrote "Let Us Compare Mythologies" (1956) and a novelist in the 1960s with "The Favorite Game" (1963) and "Beautiful Losers" (1966), Cohen became disappointed with his lack of financial success and moved to the United States to pursue a career as a singer-songwriter. His first album, "Songs of Leonard Cohen," was released in 1967 and now, 45 years later, Cohen has put out "Old Ideas," his 12th studio album, while embarking on a tour that will spin him in circles around Europe and North America. In 1969 he told The New York Times: "There is no difference between a poem and a song. Some were songs first and some were poems first and some were simultaneous. All of my writing has guitars behind it, even the novels." In taking on this artful dodger, Sylvie Simmons, a well-known British rock journalist and the author of biographies of Neil Young and Serge Gainsbourg, bumps up against the inherent difficulty of telling the story of a storyteller. "I'm Your Man" demonstrates that it's hard to write about a writer whose work is so language- and phrase-specific, so intimate and distant at the same time, perpetually engaged in the dance of seduction. One reads Simmons's hefty volume longing for a bit more historical context or counterpoint; Cohen came of age against the backdrop of World War II, the growing sexual revolution, the advent of LSD, and so forth. But once one realizes it is unrealistic to expect the biographer to write with the same gift of voice and precision as the artist, there comes great joy. There is a familiarity to much of Simmons's material, the sense of being on the inside, as though the reader were sitting at the table during the conversations Simmons reports, and the overall experience is of a thoughtful celebration of the artist's life. And, it turns out, she tells us an enormous amount that even I, a Cohen aficionado, didn't know, including exactly how Jewish Cohen's upbringing was - he was steeped in Judaism - and that his religious exploration included a brief period as a Scientologist. This detail illuminates the line in Cohen's song "Famous Blue Rain Coat," "Did you ever go clear?" an explicit reference to Scientology that until now was always opaque to me. It was in London in 1960 that Cohen heard about Hydra, a small Greek island, sunny, warm, a colony of writers, artists and thinkers from around the world. With his inheritance from his grandmother, Cohen bought a house there for $1,500 and began a long relationship with a now celebrated woman called Marianne (Ihlen), not to be confused with the slightly more celebrated muse Suzanne (Verdal), Whom he didn't actually bed - or the second Suzanne (Elrod), the mother of Cohen's two children, Adam and Lorca. In the mid-1960s in New York, Cohen met Judy Collins and played her a few songs. She immediately recorded "Dress Rehearsal Rag" and "Suzanne," and released them on "In My Life" in 1966. A short but fruitful relationship with Joni Mitchell is echoed in Mitchell's classic songs "Chelsea Morning" and "Rainy Night House," the second of which makes reference to Mitchell spending the night in Cohen's mother's house. Listening to the song again with the knowledge of their relationship adds a newfound resonance. Simmons's illuminations of Cohen's artistic cross-pollination give the reader the experience of dipping into cultural ephemera - the kind of extended liner notes that all fans love. Women play a huge role in Cohen's life -his need for female affection, along with his difficulty in remaining involved, is the stuff of legend. The biography features some brilliant passages on marriage, Buddhism, therapy and Cohen's book "Death of a Ladies Man" (1978). In later years, Cohen has frequently quoted a line from his poem "Titles," which was part of a collection, "Book of Longing": "My reputation as a ladies' man was a joke/ that caused me to laugh bitterly/ through the ten thousand nights/I spent alone." In the mid-1990s a Swedish interviewer asked Cohen about love. "I had wonderful love, but I did not give back wonderful love," he said. "I was unable to reply to their love. Because I was obsessed with some fictional sense of separation, I couldn't touch the thing that was offered me, and it was offered me everywhere." Other surprises: Cohen's decision to add stops at mental hospitals to his 1970 European tour, akin to what Johnny Cash did with prisons; and his persistent experience of war. Cohen was in Cuba at the time of the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961, and in 1973 he traveled to Jerusalem to sign up on the Israeli side in the Yom Kippur War. He was assigned to a U.S.O.-style entertainer tour in the Sinai Desert and performed for the troops up to eight times a day. In 1993, Cohen retreated to the Mt. Baldy Zen Center near Los Angeles and in 1996, three years into his stay, he was ordained a Zen Buddhist monk, taking the Dharma name Jikan, meaning a kind of silence. Cohen spent five years at Mt. Baldy, most of it working as the assistant and chauffeur to the Zen master Joshu Sasaki Roshi. By 2004 Cohen had come down from the mountain and was living in Montreal when, Simmons tells us, he discovered that while he was gone, Kelley Lynch, his business manager and friend, had stolen almost all of his money. Cohen ultimately got a judgment against Lynch, but most of the money could not be recovered. He was broke and forced back on the road, only to find that his fan base had continued to grow and that he'd gone from being a cult hero to an icon, especially in the United States, where there are now multiple generations of Leonard Cohen fans. With his children grown and with children of their own (Cohen became a grandfather for the second time in 2011, when his daughter, Lorca, had a child with the singer Rufus Wainwright), it seems that Cohen is finally able to allow the love in. SIMMONS has deftly narrated Cohen's evolution, bringing the past into the present and reminding us of the breadth of the journey. "I'm Your Man" is an exhaustive biography, an illumination of an artist who has repeatedly said he's not much of a self-examiner. Among the book's side effects is that it sends you back to the source material; as you're reading, you find yourself craving Cohen's music in the background. In her interview excerpts, Simmons captures the elliptical nature of Cohen's speech, the wry turns of phrase that are almost like stand-up comedy. Behind it all are a smirk and a wink; you know that Cohen knows how absurd it all is. And in the end, this biography has the oddest effect: as soon as you finish reading it you feel an overwhelming impulse tq go back and begin again, revisiting the story with what you've learned along the way. As Leonard Cohen sings in "Anthem": "Ring the bells that still can ring/ Forget your perfect offering/There is a crack in everything/That's how the light gets in." Cohen has talked about his 'messianic' childhood, how he would 'grow into manhood leading other men.' A.M. Homes's most recent book is the novel "May We Be Forgiven."
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [October 14, 2012]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* As a teenager in Montreal, Leonard Cohen learned six chords on a guitar from a young Spanish teacher that would form the foundation for all of his songs. In this compelling biography, Simmons chronicles the career of the courtly, elegant I was born in a suit singer-songwriter, poet, and novelist, from his first band in Montreal (a country-and-western trio, no less) to his early days in New York, where he lived at the famous Chelsea Hotel, to his most recent world tour, during which the seventysomething Cohen literally skipped onstage. Simmons includes fascinating anecdotes Cohen meeting Judy Collins, who would later record one of his signature songs, Suzanne ; encountering fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell in Greenwich Village (Mitchell's A Case of You was inspired by Cohen); scary recording sessions with the gun-toting record producer Phil Spector, and spending time at a Zen monastery. Simmons also discusses at length Cohen's impressive body of work, including poetry and prose as well as songs (his iconic Hallelujah has been covered by more than 300 artists), mentions his numerous bouts of depression, and recounts his unfortunate financial difficulties when his former manager stole funds from his retirement account. A must for anyone interested in one of the most influential songwriters of our time.--Sawyers, June Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this vibrant and enthusiastic chronicle of Leonard Cohen's life, music critic Simmons (Neil Young: Reflections in Broken Glass) draws extensively on interviews with Cohen's friends and associates, as well as on his private archives, his unpublished writings, and his published stories and poetry. The author narrates Cohen's life from his childhood and youth in Montreal-where he started writing poetry and stories when he was 15-through his aborted college career to his move to Manhattan in pursuit of music; his rise to fame with such songs as "Suzanne," "Bird on a Wire," and "Hallelujah" (one of pop music's most recorded songs); his often difficult relationships with women; and his search for tranquility and order in his embrace of Buddhism. Carefully weaving the threads of all of his songs and albums through the patterns of his life, Simmons craftily explores the themes that regularly mark Cohen's work: desire, regret, suffering, love, hope, and hamming it up. Cohen emerges from this definitive biography as a sensitive and intensely serious artist whose reverence for the word and deep love and respect for his audiences continues "to dissolve all the boundaries between word and song, between the song and the truth, and the truth and himself, his heart and its aching." (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
At age 78, iconic musician Leonard Cohen is enjoying a remarkable comeback. The singer, songwriter, poet, and novelist has started his fourth major tour in five years and released the highly acclaimed album Old Ideas in January. Veteran music journalist Simmons (Neil Young: Reflections in Broken Glass) spent three years tracking Cohen's life, career, and travels. The result is the most extensive biography of the man to date-more substantial and insightful than Anthony Reynolds's 2010 Leonard Cohen: A Remarkable Life. Simmons covers every aspect of Cohen's fascinating life, the highs and the lows (and Cohen had many lows). She interviewed the musician at length, as well as his friends, lovers, and associates (including Judy Collins, Lou Reed, and Philip Glass). The book discusses Cohen's creative process and his endless search for enlightenment at length. Simmons also provides a revealing account of Cohen's five years in a Zen Buddhist monastery and the financial and legal woes that propelled him back on the road as a performer. Verdict Die-hard fans will appreciate the many details of album production and business deals, while casual fans will enjoy the personal drama and the origins of Cohen's best-known songs, such as "Suzanne," "Hallelujah," "Sisters of Mercy," and "Famous Blue Raincoat."-Thomas Karel, Franklin & Marshall Coll. Lib., Lancaster, PA (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
An elegant, deeply researched life of the Canadian musician, poet and novelist. With the resurgence of his career in the last decade, Cohen has been the subject of several new books, but it's hard to imagine a better one than veteran music journalist Simmons' (Neil Young: Reflections in Broken Glass, 2001, etc.) work. Born into a wealthy family of Jewish clothiers in Montreal, Cohen became one of Canada's leading young literary lights with his early volumes of poetry and two well-received novels. He was already in his early 30s when he became a professional musician, after folk singer Judy Collins brought his songs to the world's attention with her cover of "Suzanne." Beginning in 1968, the globe-trotting, seemingly driven Cohen recorded a series of wise, dark albums that made him a star in Europe and brought him a far smaller but devoted following in the United States. He was enjoying renewed commercial and critical success in the mid-'90s when he withdrew into a Zen Buddhist monastery for more than five years. Upon his return to the world, he discovered that his longtime manager had embezzled millions; his unexpected penury prompted a wildly received 2008-2009 world tour that grossed $50 million and finally lifted him, as a septuagenarian, into the top echelon of international stars. Simmons follows every step of Cohen's peripatetic artistic journey with acuity and no small measure of poetic observation. Drawing on interviews with Cohen and most of his important collaborators and paramours, she paints a deep portrait of a man seemingly torn between the spiritual and the worldly, deeply gifted but plagued by abiding depression and frequent self-doubt. Simmons offers an abundance of revealing stories about Cohen's ardent womanizing, restless pursuit of enlightenment through sex, drugs, alcohol and spirituality, and sometimes excruciating artistic perfectionism. He emerges in his full complexity, brimming with both seemingly boundless brilliance and abundant human imperfection. Taking on a looming subject with intelligence and wit, Simmons manages to take the full measure of her man.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
