Various Positions - Hardcover

Nadel, Ira

3.82

528 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0394224132 ISBN 13: 9780394224138

Publisher: Random House Canada, 1996

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Reissued with a new afterword

Leonard Cohen is back! With a #1 bestselling poetry collection, The Book of Longing, flying off bookshelves; Lian Lunson’s acclaimed documentary, Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man, in theatres this summer (the DVD will release this fall); and the superb soundtrack in music stores everywhere, Leonard Cohen proves he is Canada’s most enduring icon. Now, in the newly reissued Various Positions, Ira Nadel peels back the many layers to reveal the man and explain the fascinating relationship between Leonard Cohen’s life and his art. This book is a remarkable and rare
look at Leonard Cohen, up close and personal.

For nearly forty years, Leonard Cohen has endured the ups and downs of an international career that has alternately identified him as the "Prince of Bummers" and Canada's most respected poet and performer. Now, author Ira Nadel brings us closer to understanding these conflicting descriptions and allows us to enter Cohen's private world. He peels back the many layers to reveal the man and explain the fascinating relationship between Cohen's life and his art.

This is a remarkable and rare look at Leonard Cohen, up close and personal.
From the Trade Paperback edition.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

Singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen started out as a poet, before economic necessity led him into folk singing. In this thorough biography, Nadel, a Canadian English professor, tells of Cohen's childhood in Montreal, his university days in Toronto, his travels to the United States and Greece, and the publishing of his early poetry which earned him a considerable reputation. Cohen's verse proved translatable into song and his deep voice was melodic enough for him to make it at the folk festivals. His dark lyrics of depression and self-doubt, of searching for meaning in sexual release, of a life suffused with restless intensity, struck a chord with a worldwide audience. Though suicide was a constant theme of his songs, Nadel finishes the book with Cohen finding peace at a Zen monastery in Los Angeles.

From the Inside Flap:

For nearly forty years, Leonard Cohen has endured the ups and downs of an international career that has alternately identified him as the "Prince of Bummers" and Canada's most respected poet and performer. Now, author Ira Nadel brings us closer to understanding these conflicting descriptions and allows us to enter Cohen's private world. He peels back the many layers to reveal the man and explain the fascinating relationship between Cohen's life and his art.

This is a remarkable and rare look at Leonard Cohen, up close and personal.
From the Trade Paperback edition.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.