Amazing, tugs at your soul

Leonard Cohen is... I cannot find a single word to describe him. He is enigmatic. He is eclectic. He is iconoclastic. He is all of these things, and many, many more. Read this book and you will understand. This book includes a wide variety of his poems throughout the years, including selections from all 8 of his original volumes of poetry (The Energy of Slaves and Death of A Lady's Man are particularly well represented), as well as poems from his first anthology, selections from his novel Beautiful Losers, and 11 previously unpublished poems. Also included are lyrics to songs from all of his wonderful albums, many of them nicely represented, including The Future, his most recent album, which has all of it's Cohen-penned lyrics included here. These are particularly convenient as Cohen's albums, sadly, have been virtually ignored by record companies and during their re-packaging onto CD most of them do not include lyrics. This is a monumental collection, over 400 pages and including several hundred poems, some of which are not available elsewhere, and almost all of which are very hard to find at any rate. This is an absolute must for a Leonard Cohen fan. He is perhaps my favorite poet, his words tug at your heartstrings like so many other poets are claimed to be able to do, but which few can. His writing has always been honest, he's not fooling anybody, and these poems and lyrics touch you deep in your soul. Cohen strikes a chord. This is masterly, masterly writing. If you are a fan of Leonard Cohen's music, then you owe it to yourself to further your experience by buying this book. I cannot give it a higher reccommendation.

Stranger yet

As a man once said, "James Joyce is not dead. He's living in Montreal under the name of Leonard Cohen."

Stranger Music is an amazing book. I can't stress this enough, it's poetry in action and Cohen's words sing themselves off of the page and into your mind. This is the type of stuff that stays with you. This is the type of stuff that people can live their whole lives and only hope to write.

Stranger Music is an excellent book, even for people whom might otherwise be down on poetry.

songs and poems

Some people who listen to Leonard Cohen's music hardly realize that he was (or is) well-known as a poet for a very long time. There was a real tradition of songwriters who were poets, especially starting back in the '50s and '60s, like Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg, Jim Morrison, etc. I think Cohen's classic work however is "Beautiful Losers", especially excerpts like "All Right, Edith" and "Believe Me, Edith". It's in here. As well as lotsa poems and the lyrics to some of his songs that pass for poetry.

David Rehak
author of "Poems From My Bleeding heart"