Book of Longing

by Leonard Cohen

Book Overview

An iconic poetry collection from American luminary Leonard Cohen, containing some of his most significant verse Leonard Cohen wrote the poems in Book of Longing --his first book of poetry in more than twenty years after 1984's Book of Mercy --during his five-year stay at a Zen monastery on Southern California's Mount Baldy, and in Los Angeles, Montreal, and Mumbai. This dazzling collection is enhanced by the author's playful and provocative drawings,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 006112561X
• ISBN13: 9780061125614
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Ecco Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Book of Longing, by Leonard Cohen

For anyone who loves Leonard Cohen's music, this book is a wonderful collection of poems, drawings, images, rants, recollections and celebrations. Some of the material is in the film called Leonard Cohen/I'm Your Man, and like the songs, the book speaks of love and loss, pain and sorrow in his inimitable, elliptical style. Fun to read and easy to pick up and put down at any point.

Classic Cohen

Okay, it's a mixed bag, like most of Cohen's work - ranging from the confusing and chaotic through to the sublime. It's a bit like the curate's egg, only the other way around, in that it's mostly good, and even the bad bits are still pretty good. For me, part of the pleasure of Cohen is precisely the chaotic mass of material, from which many gems emerge, glowing into the strange half-light of Cohen's percetions and vision. It's also filled with fundamental material for those with an interest in Cohen's life, evolving 'philosophies' and emerging opus.

Cohen's still got it

Cohen calls himself "a competent minor poet." He's right. But minor competence these days is a supreme thing. Cohen is wry, profound, and always surprising. His humility never cloys. He means what he says, even when he's kidding. The illustrations, by the way, add much to the reader's experience.

Action and Contemplation, Cigarettes and Asceticism, Clutching Fast and Letting Go

These are just some of the themes explored by Leonard Cohen in this very excellent volume of verse. But hold on - how do cigarettes qualify as a theme? Well perhaps they don't quite make it to the thematic level, but they do put in enough appearances to be seen as noteworthy. Here is an excerpt from a poem entitled "The Cigarette Issue": But what is exactly the same is the promise, the beauty and the salvation of cigarettes the little Parthenon of an unopened pack of cigarettes and Mumbai, like the Athens of forty years ago is a city to smoke in Cohen manages to weave a smoke into his deft handling of the tension and attraction of opposites in "What Did It", which follows in its entirety... An acquaintance told me that the great sage Nisargadatta Maharaj Once offered him a cigarette, "Thank you, sir, but I don't smoke." "Don't smoke?" said the master, "What's life for?" And so it goes, dealing with life and death, love and lust, spirit and truth, and the path the author has walked in his quest for God, or G-d, as he chooses reverentially to refer to him. While Cohen's wry humor and self deprecating detachment are at times in evidence, some verses are almost terrifying in their seriousness and immediacy. The following is from "By the Rivers Dark" which makes up the lyrics of a song by the same name on the excellent CD "Ten New Songs"... then he struck my heart with a deadly force and he said, "This heart it is not yours." Interspersed throughout the volume is a series of self portraits of the artist as an apparently angst filled old man, juxtaposed against his arresting sketches of a number of exceedingly voluptuous women. But in the end this is a wistful book and it is appropriate that it is entitled "Book of Longing". Here is "Nightingale", in its entirety: I built my house beside the wood So I could hear you singing And it was sweet and it was good And love was all beginning Fare thee well my nightingale `Twas long ago I found you Now all your songs of beauty fail The forest closes `round you The sun goes down behind a veil `Tis now that you would call me So rest in peace my nightingale Beneath your branch of holly Fare thee well my nightingale I lived but to be near you Though you are singing somewhere still I can no longer hear you

Confessional poetry and writings from a wise and humorous soul....

This is Leonard Cohen. You get tongue-in-cheek self portraits dispersed amongst words that are sometimes funny, sometimes shocking, sometimes brilliant observations and sometimes self depricating honesty that reveals the always human-ness and always unique voice of this living legend of a song writer, writer and poet, Mr. Leonard Cohen. This guy is Interesting with a capital "I." Reason enough to check out his long awaited book of poems, drawings and essays. Another reason is that unlike most books of poetry it is 'entertaining' without sacrificing intelligence. His wry humour is laugh out loud funny in the the short essay, "The Luckiest Man in the World" and poems such as, "Never Once." He speaks of things that matter to him: his teacher, Roshi, pine trees, G-d, women, sex, laughter, mists, women and most of all from what I see the unending mystery of "self" (and women). When that self is Leonard Cohen it is worth stopping what you are doing and reading what he has to say. Then, if you are not familiar with Cohen's music, you are missing some of the best written lyrics and music, ever. Enjoy, Laurie