I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen

Gute Bücher sind selten geworden. Diese Biographie über Leonhard Cohen von Sylvie Simmons gehört zu diesen seltenen Exemplaren. Ich habe mich von der ersten bis zur letzten der etwas mehr als 500 Seiten an diesem Buch erfreut. Es war immer wieder spannend weiterzulesen. In dem Buch steckt viel Arbeit. Es ist hervorragend recherchiert und zusammengestellt. Keine Hagiographie - die Autorin hält die Balance zwischen Nähe und Sympathie zum Gegenstand sowie Distanz und Kritikfähigkeit.Einzig die Schwester Cohens kommt nahezu nicht vor, was mich besonders im Kapitel über Cohens Kindheit gestört hat. Das ist für mich der einzige Schwachpunkt im Buch, der aber aufgrund der Qualität des gesamten Buches für mich nicht ins Gewicht fällt.Vielen Dank, Sylvie Simmons!

Leonard Cohen ...... all the way .....5 Stars.

Well documented account of Leonard Cohen's lifeLoved this book. Only recently came to love this man's work. I learned a lot about his life, the struggles, and what kind of modest person he remains. A wonderful journey.

I ordered two copies of this book before it was published, and eagerly awaited the publication date, and the delivery of the books. One copy was for myself, the other for a good friend, Musicologist of some note, published author on music, and Leonard Cohen fan. He was delighted by the book, and wrote this review:-By Jai PeeI remember in the seventies a friend saying to me that no personal record collection was complete without at least one Leonard Cohen album in it. At that time - must have been around 1976, and not wanting to be outdone, I rushed out and bought the first two albums I came across - Songs from a Room and Songs of Love and Hate. When I played them I was flabbergasted - I had never heard anything more depressing, laboured and distasteful, with the possible exception of a couple of songs on Lou Reed's album Berlin. When I challenged my friend saying something like "Why the hell do I need this suicidal stuff in my record collection?" the reply was that I should listen again and again and the songs might grow on me. Like warts, I thought! But I did listen again and again and when a year later I found myself going through a severe period of depression, listening to them not only brought me a strange sense of comfort but an equally strange kind of release. I had become something of a convert!This marvelous biography of the great man, by Sylvie Simmons, is a treat to read and a worthy tribute to an incredible life. It is a real page-turner and gives readers a deeper and more meaningful insight into the man himself, his thinking and his extraordinary character. It must have been about 1979 when the real revelation of his genius came for me, when I first remember hearing Judy Collins sing Suzanne - I was hooked and equally I was hooked on this book from the very first page with its intriguing title "Born in a Suit". The biography leaves no stone unturned - the author deals in intricate and fascinating detail with his Jewish family background in the Westmount area of Montreal before the second world war, his university life with its trials and tribulations and then - perhaps the most fascinating of all - the almost endless list of lovers that entered and left Leonard's life right up to the present day. The stories are astonishing! I'm Your Man is certainly the most appropriate title anyone could think of - and who thought of it? Leonard Cohen of course, as it is the title of one of his later songs and the title of a marvelous DVD made in the first decade of the new millennium to celebrate the work of this remarkable artist. The book covers everything and everyone - his love of Greece on the island of Hydra, his modesty when he became famous, his time at the Chelsea Hotel in New York, his two children Adam and Lorca, the musicians and singers with whom he associated - Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Janis Joplin, Nico and Lou Reed of the Velvet Underground, Joni Mitchell, Johnny Cash, Mungo Jerry, Jackson Browne, The Who, Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, record producers including Phil Spector and on and on - his great love for his Zen Master Rishi and his ordination into the ranks of Buddhist monkhood and so much more. It is a wonderful and engaging read - all 500 pages - and it comes almost up-to-date in May 2012, following Leonard's impressive schedule of world tours, new loves and new songs and even more of his bountiful poems.To be a page-turner, any book, and especially a biography, needs to be stimulating, readable and interesting - the author realises all of this with her very well written prose, the careful balance she achieves between social and work-related issues in Leonard's life, the fascinating deeper personal details which trigger so many nostalgic thoughts and memories, and the way in which her writing is totally non-judgemental. Sylvie Simmons has an admirable style. Having said all that I do have two minor criticisms: the photographs are inserted in the text and thus printed on matt paper, many of them being old and the result is that a lot of them are dark and the people in them obscure and unrecognizable; and the second thing I would have loved for reference would have been a list of all his poetry books with dates and the albums/CDs/DVDs also with dates. Overall however, I would recommend this book to any friend and further recommend having any of Leonard's DVDs or CDs or poetry books to hand to be watched, listened to, or read between the main text of the book - that gives the whole experience so much more meaning.I'm Your Man - The Life of Leonard Cohen by Sylvie Simmons: published by Jonathan Cape, London, 2012.

Excellent book about excellent artist and phylosopher..