Liel Liebovitz – A Broken Hallelujah

Liel Liebovitz – A Broken Hallelujah: Rock And Roll, Redemption, and the Life of Leonard Cohen

I just had to tell you about this book.

There are certainly enough biographies of Leonard Cohen out there already, rehashing all the known things about his past, his jump from writing poetry and books to music, his travels… It’s repetitive.

But this book is FANTASTIC. It takes all of the known things as already known, only really repeating things to set scenes, not as rote recitation of facts… or suppositions, since in Leonard’s case, often times things get retold and they may not even be true. He likes it like that.

What we have here, instead, is an honest delve into decoding the thinking that led to his actions, formed from a concise and informative historical and religious background for his spiritual and intellectual searchings. I came away from reading this book with a far better understanding of the man than I have with many of the other books about him. It comes closest of all the books, thus far, to naming Leonard for the prophet that he may well be. This is truly a magnificent work.

I cannot praise this book enough.