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Beautiful Losers

By: Leonard Cohen
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Black Spring Press Ltd
ISBN: 0948238194
ISBN-13: 9780948238192
Released: 26 Mar 1992
RRP: £6.99
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Customer Reviews

A wonderful but challenging book - By: , 13 Jun 2005
An astonishing novel, flawed but vital, by the Poet Laureate of Gloom, Leonard Cohen. Those familiar with the Canadian singer-songwriter's work will recognise many of the themes running through 'Beautiful Losers' - love, loss, death, sex, religion & wry humour. However, the explicitness of the material & the language may deter those who expect 'Suzanne'-styled characters to flit in & out of the proceedings.

It is a challlenging work; there is no plot to speak of, while the three main characters consist of the narrator, an unidentifed friend known as 'F', & the narrator's wife Edith.
We increasingly learn of the complexities of the three-way love triangle. Edith & 'F' are both dead by the start of the novel, leading the damaged narrator to is corruptness, sex is redemption, & death is the ultimate breakdown in communication.

The dark poetry of this book, sprinkled lovingly on Cohen's songs, makes 'Beautiful Losers' a kind of cross between 'Last Exit to Brooklyn', 'Ulysses', & Frederico Garcia Lorca. A young Bob Dylan at the height of his fame once wrote a free-form novel, 'Tarantula'. It wasn't very good. By contrast, 'Beautiful Losers' both illumniates & expands the inherent themes in the music of Leonard Cohen, & is in itself a literary triumph.

Cohen's majestic and poetic Masorah. - By: , 28 Nov 2001
This book illustrates what we always suspected of the author. That his humour is ubiquitous.

Amongst the truly wierd, springs this poetic laugh in the face of the "nothing special", which is alll life, from the imaginarilly organised to the raggedly free & gloriously wasted.

Can we see here the beginning of Mr. Cohen's Buddhist aesthetic adventure or maybe just another bend in the river? I think so.

For example. Can it be long before his wonderful design for motorised, plastic, priapic aviation is fulfilled by one of our underused aviation manufacturers? In the name of just doing it, I think not. It may already be in a store near you.

If you're on a re-visit to this nerveless breakdown of unconscious thinking out loud, then you might recalll the feelings.

They might be different on this occasion & in the future. For what its worth, I recommend the trial with alll the errors.

The work of an artist and poet - By: , 14 Sep 2000
I brought to this book a whole lot of baggage with regards, Leonard Cohen : The Singer/Songwriter. I was expecting dispair wrapped in a crispy shell of depression. I'm glad to say I was wrong, rarely have I read a book that felt like it was answering real questions. It's not a book to give Grandma for Christmas but buy it & read it for yourself ...
Rapturous disection of the human heart. - By: , 29 Oct 1998
Published in 1966, Cohen's Beautiful Losers is yet to be surpassed in terms of energy. The heart felt lyricism of this novel veers towards the insane - as well it should given the subject matter. The exploration of a saint's life, thrown together with the narrator's sense of bewilderment & wonder at the chaos in his own heart & the crueller chaos of the world in which he lives are thrown together into a stew of sex & devotion. Though involving Jewish, Christian & Native American traditions, this is a humanist liturgy of the highest order.