Book of Longing

Ronald Charles Epstein is a Toronto-based freelance writer and published poet.

Montreal’s Jewish cultural icon still conquers different fields. He
established his reputation as a poet in the 1960s. He wrote two novels
and began his long musical career in the 1960s. In this decade, he is a
visual artist, a fact that is evident in his latest poetry collection.

Some of his verse is illustrated. Some illustrations incorporate poetry
or prose. The arrival of an interesting new artist is heralded—a fact
confirmed by his recent exhibition at Toronto’s Drabinsky Gallery on
the occasion of the city’s Luminato arts festival.

The fact that Leonard Cohen was an expatriate in Greece and a Buddhist
monk in California may leave the impression that he is trying to
repudiate his upper-middle-class Jewish background. This idea is
challenged in “The Party Was Over Then Too.” He remembers that
“When I was about fifteen / I followed a beautiful girl / into the
Communist Party of Canada.” Cohen gets a political education, instead
of the girl. The Communists “said nasty shit / about my family / and
how we got our money.” This poem proves that he retains his
self-awareness, even after several reinventions.

The elderly man reveals “Why I Love France,” offering realistic
insight instead of the usual prejudice. He recalls that the French
“delivered my uncle and my auntie to the Nazis,” but also
acknowledges that they “sang my songs.” Then he salutes the nation
with the phrase “Be strong, be nuclear, my France.”

Students of modern Montreal literature may note that the late master
poet Irving Layton is honoured with the poem “Layton’s Question,”
the accompanying illustration, and the book’s dedication.