Leonard Cohen (Kill Your Idols Series)

Rating:
Summary: Trivial commercial Trash, refuse delivery
Review: Excuse me, but this book should be banned, and I'm a librarian who would fight to the death for freedom to read. To put the facts of LC's life into 60 pages, the man's almost 70 and he's been doing this his whole life. Cartoons would be better. And THEN to try to summarize his songs in a few sentences. What is this, English as a second language for people who don't speak a word yet? If for some personal reason anyone wants to read ABOUT LC, and really who needs to, it's just that he's so absent from view and I understand, then of course turn to Various Positions: a life of Leonard Cohen, by Ira B. Nadel. The publisher insisted that Mr. Nadel ask LC if his book could be called an authorized biography. I quote the book here Reply: "tolerated" adding an instant later "benignly tolerated." LC knows we hunger for him and he allowed this book to be given to us, despite his bemusement at his gift and his reluctant acceptance of hero and icon status, but he knows and lives in the same darkness we all battle every day, all our lives. Thank you to all reviewers for sharing. I never read reviews of his music before because who cares, but this morning I got up early and was going to cut the knees out from under anyone daring to give less than 5 stars to anything of his. But the reviewers fought against the packaging and wouldn't bother to have written at all, in almost all cases, because we are brothers and sisters in our need for and love of Leonard Cohen. And we pity anyone who doesn't have the solace of his songs so we want to give everyone what we've found with him.

Rating:
Summary: Trivial commercial Trash, refuse delivery
Review: Excuse me, but this book should be banned, and I'm a librarian who would fight to the death for freedom to read. To put the facts of LC's life into 60 pages, the man's almost 70 and he's been doing this his whole life. Cartoons would be better. And THEN to try to summarize his songs in a few sentences. What is this, English as a second language for people who don't speak a word yet? If for some personal reason anyone wants to read ABOUT LC, and really who needs to, it's just that he's so absent from view and I understand, then of course turn to Various Positions: a life of Leonard Cohen, by Ira B. Nadel. The publisher insisted that Mr. Nadel ask LC if his book could be called an authorized biography. I quote the book here Reply: "tolerated" adding an instant later "benignly tolerated." LC knows we hunger for him and he allowed this book to be given to us, despite his bemusement at his gift and his reluctant acceptance of hero and icon status, but he knows and lives in the same darkness we all battle every day, all our lives. Thank you to all reviewers for sharing. I never read reviews of his music before because who cares, but this morning I got up early and was going to cut the knees out from under anyone daring to give less than 5 stars to anything of his. But the reviewers fought against the packaging and wouldn't bother to have written at all, in almost all cases, because we are brothers and sisters in our need for and love of Leonard Cohen. And we pity anyone who doesn't have the solace of his songs so we want to give everyone what we've found with him.

Rating:
Summary: the coolest man on planet earth
Review: I was 1st introduced to the poetry of Leonard Cohen when I was 17 yrs old and it changed my life; I am now a published poet and I owe it all to that little spark I got from reading his work all those yrs ago. His poetry, novels, and songs are all uniformly awesome. I have followed his career for many yrs and this book was great. It's entertaining and informative,well worth the price of purchase. I hope Leonard Cohen lives forever; he's the coolest man on planet earth.

Rating:
Summary: Poor as Biography--And Info Here Free On-Line
Review: Sheppard sets the stage for this weak book by entirely misconstruing the value of the two major 1990s Cohen biographies. He says _Various Positions: A Life of Leonard Cohen_ is for "besotted" Cohenites, whereas _Leonard Cohen: Prophet of the Heart_ is for the more "literary" minded. Turn this observation around and it makes sense, but as it stands it's the comment of a moron. Ira Nadel's biography is kind to Cohen, to be sure, (he had Cohen's full cooperation, after all), but it is not the fawning piece of dreck that is _Prophet of the Heart_. Nadel, in fact, uses _Prophet of the Heart_ as a source, for factual details and for some of Cohen's comments in it, but Nadel manages not to incorporate the syrupy crud that the folks who wrote _Prophet_ poured onto every page. Sheppard needs to learn what excessive deference is before his writing will inspire.