Biography of Canadian legend Leonard Cohen. From the back cover:
"Simmons offers an abundance of revealing stories....Cohen emerges in his full complexity, brimming with both seemingly boundless brilliance and abundant human imperfection."
- Kirkus Reviews

Leonard Cohen died on Monday, November 7th, 2016. When it was announced last night, we were told November 10th. With the fallout from the US election, you start to make some weird connections....(Lenny couldn't take it anymore - 'so discouraged about Trump...). Then, today, I find a wonderfully funny post from author Roddy Doyle, connecting the two events. I would set the scene as typical Doyle: 2 Irish guys "down the pub". "....See Trump killed Leonard Cohen.
-Saw that.
-He doesn’t only hate women. He hates the men tha’ women love. ’Specially older women.
-Fuckin’ Clooney’s gone into hidin’.
-Fuck him an’ his nespresso.
-And the Pope.
-Fuck the Pope?
-No. Women – they love him. Mine does, an’ anyway.
-Poor oul’ Leonard. He was good, but. Wasn’t he?
-Ah, he was. You should hear me grandkids singin’ Hallelujah.
-Good, yeah?
-Fuckin’ hilarious.
-The wife loved him.
-Leonard?
-She even became a Buddhist cos o’ Leonard.
-Is tha’ righ’?
-For a few weeks, just. Then she saw me eatin’ a quarter pounder an’ she said, ‘Fuck the Eightfold Path.’ But she’s always on at me to wear a hat like Leonard Cohen’s.
-Well, he won’t be needin’ it any more – in fairness.
-The thing is, but. If Leonard walked in here – if he wasn’t dead, like – they’d all go, ‘There’s an interestin’ man with a hat on him.’ If I walked in, it’d be, ‘Will yeh look at tha’ fuckin’ eejit with the hat.’ An’ that’s the big difference between us an’ Leonard Cohen. We couldn’t even start bein’ cool an’ Leonard never even had to try. "

'Taking this book to Harbord House Pub tomorrow, for our first Bookcrossing meetup of 2017. It is permanent collection, but I am happy to lend it out. (Jessibud? Want to be first?)

Yep, thanks! Quite the chunkster. Not sure how long this will take me but thanks for the oan. It WILL come bac to you, eventually! ;-)

Leonard has come home. This is an excellent bio, which I said already, and my Mother loved it too. After that, she read Pete Townshend's autobiography and said it was really good! Well...old Pete's actually a very good writer. In 1985, he became a book editor at esteemed publisher Faber and Faber. He worked there for a few years, publishing some poetry books, but by 1989 he was itching to get back on the road - so he reformed The Who. I'm sure he took a good book or two along on tour...