Leonard Cohen: A Life in Art

David Kimmel is a Ph.D. candidate in history at York University.

Leonard Cohen, Canada’s “Rock ’n’ Roll Lord Byron,” deserves a
first-rate biography. He is a poet, novelist, songwriter, performer, and
filmmaker, as well as reputedly a ladies’ man par excellence. He is
first a Montrealer, but also a citizen of the world, as much at home in
L.A. or New York as in Paris, Berlin, or Hydra. His influences are as
diverse as the Bible, Zen, and Federico Garcнa Lorca. His work ranges
from the visceral to the intellectual to the spiritual. Of late he has
been the subject of learned conferences and special issues of academic
journals. And at age 60, he still plays to sold-out concert halls. Such
is the raw material of a compelling life story. Yet, when Cohen sings on
his 1992 album The Future “You don’t know me from the wind / You
never will, you never did,” he might as well be speaking directly to
his biographer. Nadel has written a disappointing book.

A Life in Art is flawed in several ways. First, it is repetitious,
lacking both a sense of chronology and a thematic focus. It is also
burdened by typographical and factual errors. For example, while two
former French presidents may have been Cohen fans, Giscard succeeded
Pompidou and not vice versa. The book reads as if the manuscript never
crossed the desk of a professional editor. Second, the text is neither
critical nor detailed. Much has been written previously about Cohen.
This new book seems to be simply a patchwork of already published
material. Sadly, the sum offers no more than the parts.

ECW’s Canadian Biography Series generally consists of good little
books, but this one is not even a competent potboiler. Readers would do
well to wait for a biography worthy of Cohen’s life, or to refer to
the newspaper and magazine articles listed at the end of the book.