Eye on Leonard Cohen

The man to your right is Leonard Cohen, Montreal's best-loved export, after the smoked meat.

He's been getting some buzz lately, from Prince Charles, who, in a recent interview, became the unlikely successor to famous fan Kurt Cobain, saying something slightly incoherent like "I say, there's this chap Cohen and he is absolutely marvellous, has a deep voice and sings these really quite good songs, rather" or something like that.

Not all English people appreciate Cohen - some (perhaps most) small-mindedly write him off as a kind of miserabilist crooner, a la Morrissey - that music to slit your wrists to tag never quite wore off - but then these are the same sorts of dolts who think Bob Dylan is simply that old guy with "the awful voice".

Cohen, who is one of Canada's best 20th century poets (with all that statement entails), as well as an inconic singer-songwriter, is going on tour again soon, and has a new book, recently published, called Book of Longing.

I've been asked to review it for the new online journal Northern Poetry Review (see Links) and it just arrived in the post today, from McClelland & Stewart in Canada. Rarely does a reviewer open a package like it may contain the Maltese Falcon, but it isn't every day a new Cohen book arrives. This one is quite thick, at 231 pages. I'll save most of my observations for the review.

It's good - if also sad - to read the dedication is to Irving Layton, another significant Canadian poet from Montreal, the city I come from.

For more, see www.leonardcohenfiles.com

Comments

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