New book:The Man Who Saw the Angels Fall

[jarkko]

Leonard Cohen aimed high: to be all Jewish heroes at once. Like Jacob, he struggled with angels. Like David, he sang psalms and seduced women. But he never ceased doing what he did best: going from city to city and reviving our hearts. Leonard Cohen: The Man Who Saw the Angels Fall (September 2024) follows the singer’s cosmopolitan life in Montreal and New York as a young Jewish poet who longed to be a saint, all the way to the Greek islands as an existentialist, gravelly-voiced crooner who taught a thousand ways of dissolving into love.

After more than two decades of research and travels, Christophe Lebold, who befriended the poet and spent time with him in Los Angeles, delivers a stimulating analysis of Cohen’s life and art. Gracefully blending biography and essay, he interrogates the mission Cohen set out for himself: to show us that darkness is just the flip side of light.

Claire Pokorchak | Publicity Manager |
ECW PRESS

[LisaLCFan]

This one looks interesting! I shall look forward to reading it.

[dar]

Same here.

[Mary72]

Magnifique!! Loved it french,pleased to know it has been translated to English. A must have.

[Maarten]

Hi

Christophe Lebold was one of our guest speakers during the 2022 Event in Ghent where he was involved in both the panel discussion on "Leonard Cohen and psychiatry" and his own presentation in between two concerts. I haven't read his French book "L'homme qui voyait tomber les anges" which was published in 2013 or 2014 I believe (and had an updated version later (2018?), but this edition also includes his visits to Leonard during the last years of his life. I wanted to skip through it briefly because I'm currently reading something else and was planning on reading it later on, but I found myself still browsing through the book at 2am... Looking forward to reading it from front to back!

Maarten

[B4real]

Leonard Cohen: The Man Who Saw the Angels Fall/Virtual Author Talk with Christophe Lebold

Wednesday, September 11 at 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

https://www.avonctlibrary.info/event/le ... he-lebold/

Join us for a virtual event with Christophe Lebold, to discuss his new book, Leonard Cohen: The Man Who Saw the Angels Fall. This event will be moderated by Amy Weiss, Director, Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies, and Tina Panik, Avon Library.

About the book:

Leonard Cohen: The Man Who Saw the Angels Fall follows the singer’s cosmopolitan life from Montreal and New York to the Greek island of Hydra and examines his perpetual dialogues with himself, God, and avalanches.

We see how six decades of radiant pessimism and a few thousand nights in hotel rooms transformed a young Jewish poet who longed to be a saint into an existentialist troubadour in love with women and a gravelly-voiced crooner who taught a thousand ways of dissolving into love.

After more than two decades of research and travels, Christophe Lebold, who befriended the poet and spent time with him in Los Angeles, delivers a stimulating analysis of Cohen’s life and art. Gracefully blending biography and essay, he interrogates the mission Cohen set out for himself: to show us that darkness is just the flip side of light.

Christophe Lebold is associate professor at the University of Strasbourg (France), where he teaches literature, performance studies, and rock culture. A fan and friend of Leonard Cohen, he has traveled extensively in the poet’s tracks. Also a theater actor and student of Zen, he likes poets, cats, and — in a good mood — all sentient beings.

Please register; Zoom links will be sent out before the event.

Co-sponsored by the Avon Library and Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies.

[abby]

Me too Dar.

[jarkko]

From Christophe Lebold:

(...)
The book is available
at ECW Press in Canada, the US and Australia,
at ECW-LUath Press in the UK
at Boréal for a new french edition in Quebec
at Audible in audio-version.
So far, Italian, Danish and Polish translations are also planned

The book is both a full biography (with an added chapter on Leonard's last two years, and his last 3 albums) but also a detailed analysis of the complete works, and - as I like to say - a metaphysical investigation on the fall of man and the art of seeing angels.

It also has a completely new iconography, with pictures from his whole life (some of them unseen)

throughout the book and in a central color section.

The volume is also informed by years of travelling on Leonard's tracks and by the time I was lucky to spend with him in L.A., where I could consult his private archives and diaries.

Plus there's this great cover by the wonderful Dominique Issermann, that shows Leonard, passing through the world at 150 mph in his pursuit of angels, lights up his cigarette, our hearts and world.

I am also quite happy with how the book looks: we have worked hard on the design with ECW Press to make the book a great looking object (with great paper as well).

[jarkko]

[jarkko]

(Click on the photo to see it in larger size)

[Geoffrey]

Is poet's tracks correct, or should it be poets' tracks?

apostrophe.jpg (76.1 KiB) Viewed 7651 times

[AlanM]

Poet's tracks refers to the tracks of the poet (singular);
Poets' tracks refers to the tracks of the poets (plural).

Alan

[Geoffrey]

AlanM wrote:
>Poet's tracks refers to the tracks of the poet (singular);
>Poets' tracks refers to the tracks of the poets (plural).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
thanks, alan. it is as i suspected. a very nice person also sent me a private message, writing more or less the same as you. living in a foreign country for so many years has not improved my english language. also, as a boy growing up in the UK i did not attend regular school either - so there's that.

i do read a lot of english on the internet, comments to youtube videos, etc., but there is so much illiteracy about that one can often not be sure what is correct. i am man enough to admit a mistake, despite embarrassing myself to the whole world - and not everyone can do that. people love to laugh and feel superior, and if it is at my expense then so be it.

-geoffrey

[dar]

I still have not adjusted to texting. Emojis, so many shortcuts, questions/statements are not punctuated, and other shortcuts. It's a whole new way of using language. I wonder if it affects the way younger people write? Well, guess it doesn't matter since there's ChatGPT to help now. Proper punctuation? idk.
Hope all is well with you G.

[Geoffrey]

dar wrote:
>I still have not adjusted to texting. Emojis, so many shortcuts, questions/statements are not punctuated, and other shortcuts. It's a whole new way of using language. I wonder if it affects the way younger people write? Well, guess it doesn't matter since there's ChatGPT to help now. Proper punctuation? idk.
Hope all is well with you G.
------------------------------------------
[this has nothing to do with the new book, so don't anybody jump down my throat. it must be allowed to just courteously answer someone, so cut me some slack here like leonard would have done.]

i am fine, dar, just a little bored of reading about all the wars here and there - all the unnecessary killing. it starts with one side believing they are justified in attacking the other side. then the other side says "you'll pay for that!" and the revenge continues back and forth endlessly. typical male bully temperament, like boys who never grew up, incapable of peacefully settling their grievances. hope all is well with you, too!