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Leonard Cohen: The Man Who Saw the Angels Fall
Leonard Cohen has aimed 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 going from city to city and reviving our hearts. Leonard 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 to show us that darkness is just the flip side of light.
576 pages, Paperback
Published September 24, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
June 23, 2024
I read this over several days, a beautiful tribute to Leonard Cohen, and a wonderful read of the story of this man who, as the author says, ‘Saw the Angels Fall’. I finished reading it yesterday, but just wanted to, as my grandfather used to say, ‘sit a spell and ponder’ before I wrote this review, because I found this to be such a profoundly beautiful and heartfelt story.
This author has written a very thorough and heartfelt story about Leonard Cohen, beginning in his early years as a young boy, until he took his last breath.
I was familiar with some of his songs in my high school years, none of which were sung by him at the time, so I was unaware of who he was. It was years later when I was watching America’s Got Talent with my daughter and heard one of the contestants, Jason Castro, sing his ’Hallelujah’ that I was really introduced to what I know as his music. Since then I think I have 3 or more copies of variations of various singers’ versions, including, of course, Cohen’s. In the years that followed, I never thought to hunt down a book about him, but when I saw this book, I knew I wanted to read it.
At 576 pages, this isn’t a quick read, but it covers most of his life, which unfortunately ended all too soon, but it does give you a glimpse into who he was outside of his music, and perhaps as well, a glimpse into what a complex and occasionally troubled man he could be. Not in a bad way, but he appeared to lack the confidence that a famous musician, poet, author, typically portrays. His relationships with others, the women he loved, the men who were like brothers to him, and who he could lean on, all affected him in one way or another. His life was filled with moments that were fascinating, as well as times when he was almost lost in depression. But those moments of feeling lost took their toll on him, as well. Fortunately, he was able to find a way through that near the end.
This won’t necessarily appeal to everyone, but it is a must read for fans of Leonard Cohen.
Pub Date: 05 Sep 2024
Many thanks for the ARC provided by Simon & Schuster
June 22, 2025
..grāmata dziļa kā pats Koens, un poētiska. meistardarbs.
January 9, 2025
Leonard cohen is one of my favorite artists ever, however, this guy was a bit too much of a fan boy I think to have an objective and clear depiction of his life. Very well researched and passionate, kind of corny.
July 9, 2025
This is a strange book, one that I did enjoy, but…
This is not a good biography. Lebold writes with the implicit sense that we readers already know the story of Cohen’s life. He’ll refer to one event or another, but he won’t bother to narrate it. If you don’t know – and I mostly do – context can help a little. But, the underlying message is clear: Lebold isn’t writing for newcomers to the world of Leonard Cohen.
This is also not ‘good’ literary criticism, at least not in the standard American academic sense. There’s nothing systematic in Lebold’s insights. He doesn’t quite pursue a through-line thesis, responding instead to each new album or career reinvention with altered claims.
In one sense, this is as much prose poetry as it is straight prose, with the language of the book itself part of the point of the project. Lebold’s words often sing – he’s consciously offering a gloss on Cohen’s work and wants to echo it – but they don’t do so consistently. Great prose passages get separated from each other by more conventional ones.
So, taken together, that sounds like I should be calling this a failed book.
But I actually really enjoyed it.
My first test of a book on music is whether it makes me want to hear the musician’s work again. And, since reading this, I’ve been on a Cohen binge. I’ve gone back to some old favorites – “First We Take Manhattan” – and some new ones like “You Want it Darker.” I’ve enjoyed them in fresh ways because I’m hearing them in part through Lebold’s ears.
More than that, I don’t care if this ‘fails’ as criticism in the now standard American fashion. I like the European model that blurs the lines between criticism as stiff commentary and literature itself. This is criticism and its literary. Who cares if it somehow isn’t literary criticism in our stricter sense.
That matters because Lebold tosses out lots of insights. I love the claim he puts forward in the title. As he sees it, Cohen was interested throughout his life in what it means to fall – both in the literal sense and in the figurative. (Ironically, and Lebold explores it, Cohen died after a fall in his home.) We see a lot of the literal in stories that Cohen tells about his affection for elevators, sometimes riding them up and down for hours when he was battling depression. And we have possibly his most famous lyric line, “the major fall the minor fifth,” from “Hallelujah.”
But the figurative sense matters even more. As Lebold sees it, Cohen wants to have deep faith, wants to be elevated in a spiritual sense. Despite occasional moments of ecstasy, though, he generally experiences the divine as a falling away from God. “There is a crack in everything,” he says in my favorite line of his poetry, and he’s drawn to people who are somehow fallen. His first novel, “Beautiful Losers,” seems to be all about that.
Lebold doesn’t always argue to that thesis. He changes horses fairly often, and he proposes other frames in which to consider Cohen. Those generally work, too.
One such is his sense that Cohen comes into his own in full when he discovers himself as a crooner. I can’t agree with Lebold that Cohen becomes a singer equal to Frank Sinatra. I happen to prefer Cohen’s work to Sinatra’s most of the time, but it’s not because Cohen can croon. But the crooning is a part of it, to my surprise as I come back to the music, and I like the Lebold has given me that fresh way to hear it.
I’m afraid I don’t agree with Lebold when he puts Cohen forward as a great poet. I enjoy some of his poetry, but I find much of it careless, sometimes even doggerel. I don’t even love all the songs. I think many, possibly even most, fall too in love with their lyrics without developing real tunes. (Keep in mind that Cohen’s original rendition of “Hallelujah” sounds almost flat. It’s Tim Buckley who brought out the bright colors of the tune, and Cohen borrows heavily from that brilliant arrangement in his own later performances.)
When Cohen nails it, though, when he writes one of those songs that marries his lyrics to a fresh tune, he’s one of our greats.
Lebold talks of seeing Cohen in his late-career, financial-necessity performances, and – though I’ve seen them only in recordings – I agree that they are magnificent. By the end, Cohen had so many songs to select among, that we got only his best. And, having learned to croon in a way that took full advantage of his voice – which to me is more cantorial than jazzy – he feels prophetic.
So, beware before you jump into this book. It’s not for Cohen beginners, and it has moments of self-indulgence and digression. But it is often a beautiful book, one rich with insights, and it brings the gift of making Cohen’s music fresh again.
This is not a good biography. Lebold writes with the implicit sense that we readers already know the story of Cohen’s life. He’ll refer to one event or another, but he won’t bother to narrate it. If you don’t know – and I mostly do – context can help a little. But, the underlying message is clear: Lebold isn’t writing for newcomers to the world of Leonard Cohen.
This is also not ‘good’ literary criticism, at least not in the standard American academic sense. There’s nothing systematic in Lebold’s insights. He doesn’t quite pursue a through-line thesis, responding instead to each new album or career reinvention with altered claims.
In one sense, this is as much prose poetry as it is straight prose, with the language of the book itself part of the point of the project. Lebold’s words often sing – he’s consciously offering a gloss on Cohen’s work and wants to echo it – but they don’t do so consistently. Great prose passages get separated from each other by more conventional ones.
So, taken together, that sounds like I should be calling this a failed book.
But I actually really enjoyed it.
My first test of a book on music is whether it makes me want to hear the musician’s work again. And, since reading this, I’ve been on a Cohen binge. I’ve gone back to some old favorites – “First We Take Manhattan” – and some new ones like “You Want it Darker.” I’ve enjoyed them in fresh ways because I’m hearing them in part through Lebold’s ears.
More than that, I don’t care if this ‘fails’ as criticism in the now standard American fashion. I like the European model that blurs the lines between criticism as stiff commentary and literature itself. This is criticism and its literary. Who cares if it somehow isn’t literary criticism in our stricter sense.
That matters because Lebold tosses out lots of insights. I love the claim he puts forward in the title. As he sees it, Cohen was interested throughout his life in what it means to fall – both in the literal sense and in the figurative. (Ironically, and Lebold explores it, Cohen died after a fall in his home.) We see a lot of the literal in stories that Cohen tells about his affection for elevators, sometimes riding them up and down for hours when he was battling depression. And we have possibly his most famous lyric line, “the major fall the minor fifth,” from “Hallelujah.”
But the figurative sense matters even more. As Lebold sees it, Cohen wants to have deep faith, wants to be elevated in a spiritual sense. Despite occasional moments of ecstasy, though, he generally experiences the divine as a falling away from God. “There is a crack in everything,” he says in my favorite line of his poetry, and he’s drawn to people who are somehow fallen. His first novel, “Beautiful Losers,” seems to be all about that.
Lebold doesn’t always argue to that thesis. He changes horses fairly often, and he proposes other frames in which to consider Cohen. Those generally work, too.
One such is his sense that Cohen comes into his own in full when he discovers himself as a crooner. I can’t agree with Lebold that Cohen becomes a singer equal to Frank Sinatra. I happen to prefer Cohen’s work to Sinatra’s most of the time, but it’s not because Cohen can croon. But the crooning is a part of it, to my surprise as I come back to the music, and I like the Lebold has given me that fresh way to hear it.
I’m afraid I don’t agree with Lebold when he puts Cohen forward as a great poet. I enjoy some of his poetry, but I find much of it careless, sometimes even doggerel. I don’t even love all the songs. I think many, possibly even most, fall too in love with their lyrics without developing real tunes. (Keep in mind that Cohen’s original rendition of “Hallelujah” sounds almost flat. It’s Tim Buckley who brought out the bright colors of the tune, and Cohen borrows heavily from that brilliant arrangement in his own later performances.)
When Cohen nails it, though, when he writes one of those songs that marries his lyrics to a fresh tune, he’s one of our greats.
Lebold talks of seeing Cohen in his late-career, financial-necessity performances, and – though I’ve seen them only in recordings – I agree that they are magnificent. By the end, Cohen had so many songs to select among, that we got only his best. And, having learned to croon in a way that took full advantage of his voice – which to me is more cantorial than jazzy – he feels prophetic.
So, beware before you jump into this book. It’s not for Cohen beginners, and it has moments of self-indulgence and digression. But it is often a beautiful book, one rich with insights, and it brings the gift of making Cohen’s music fresh again.
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August 17, 2025Although I never was a fan of Leonard Cohen when I was growing up, that certainly changed when I realized just how many great songs he had written and sung during his lifetime. Sometimes a person is larger than life through their music, and I still feel humbled when I hear such classic songs as Hallelujah and Tower of Songs, realizing just how amazing the man was.
In this expansive biography and tribute to Cohen, Christophe Lebold certainly makes Cohen larger than life, covering all the accomplishments of Cohen. and what made the man so well-loved and highly respected, not only in the music world but by anyone who came in contact with him.
We learn how Cohen created almost 150 songs, and many books of poetry that certainly have withstood the test of time. He was also wrote novels such as Beautiful Losers, the one that really proved his talent for the written word.
He may have at one time wanted to become a lawyer, but he caught the allure of night clubs and the like, where music enticed him to not only listen but find inspiration. He was certainly a ladies man and there is notation in the book that at one time he seemed to date women exclusively whose name began with “J.” There was Judy, Janis, Joni, Joan and Jane. His popularity grew in the 1960’s as people saw him as most talented, especially when he wrote such classic songs as Suzanne. It was made into a big hit for Judy Collins, who later was noted for recording some other of his songs. Incidentally, she was one of the “J’s” noted above.
The book is filled with so much insight into Cohen’s life, along with his passions and beliefs. He was a Zen Buddhist, who was constantly meditating. He routinely stood on his head and channeled so much of the world around him. How many remember Cohen (who died in 2016) was his classic elegance. I don’t know if you could call him a Canadian version of Frank Sinatra, but he had that sort of chic swagger. Cohen wore classic suits, a fedora often, and had that trademark cigarette in his hand. Perhaps the cigarette contributed to that deep and smoky voice of his, but they seemed to be joined at the hip.
At one time though, Cohen told his manager he was not a singer. But he was all things to all people, and his growing audience saw him as all the more special each time he performed. Lebold talks about his performances, and how sometimes he got the longest standing ovations in music history. This is a book to be digested in the same way we digested Leonard Cohen’s music. It gives us an even more massive appreciation and understanding of just why he became one of the most memorable songwriters, singers, and performers of all time.
In this expansive biography and tribute to Cohen, Christophe Lebold certainly makes Cohen larger than life, covering all the accomplishments of Cohen. and what made the man so well-loved and highly respected, not only in the music world but by anyone who came in contact with him.
We learn how Cohen created almost 150 songs, and many books of poetry that certainly have withstood the test of time. He was also wrote novels such as Beautiful Losers, the one that really proved his talent for the written word.
He may have at one time wanted to become a lawyer, but he caught the allure of night clubs and the like, where music enticed him to not only listen but find inspiration. He was certainly a ladies man and there is notation in the book that at one time he seemed to date women exclusively whose name began with “J.” There was Judy, Janis, Joni, Joan and Jane. His popularity grew in the 1960’s as people saw him as most talented, especially when he wrote such classic songs as Suzanne. It was made into a big hit for Judy Collins, who later was noted for recording some other of his songs. Incidentally, she was one of the “J’s” noted above.
The book is filled with so much insight into Cohen’s life, along with his passions and beliefs. He was a Zen Buddhist, who was constantly meditating. He routinely stood on his head and channeled so much of the world around him. How many remember Cohen (who died in 2016) was his classic elegance. I don’t know if you could call him a Canadian version of Frank Sinatra, but he had that sort of chic swagger. Cohen wore classic suits, a fedora often, and had that trademark cigarette in his hand. Perhaps the cigarette contributed to that deep and smoky voice of his, but they seemed to be joined at the hip.
At one time though, Cohen told his manager he was not a singer. But he was all things to all people, and his growing audience saw him as all the more special each time he performed. Lebold talks about his performances, and how sometimes he got the longest standing ovations in music history. This is a book to be digested in the same way we digested Leonard Cohen’s music. It gives us an even more massive appreciation and understanding of just why he became one of the most memorable songwriters, singers, and performers of all time.
October 20, 2024
The biography of a great poet, author and lyricist (musician, actor, raconteur) demands rare skill to meld these disparate elements into a satisfactory whole. If there are occasional cracks to let the light in, so much the better.
Christophe Lebold with ‘The Man Who Saw the Angels Fall’ has done just that with this expansive, perceptive, often moving memoir of Leonard Cohen, one of the giants – with Dylan and the Beatles – who shaped the rolling revolution of the sixties, lived the zeitgeist and brought us ‘So Long Marianne’, ‘Everybody Knows’, ‘Hallelujah’.
In fact, stored in hundreds of black notebooks, the Montreal born wandering troubadour (1934-2016) left us 140 songs, 2 novels and 1,000 pages of uncompromising poetry questioning ‘what we should do with that heart of ours with its infinite aptitude for despair and its constant hunger for love.’
Leonard Cohen was a ‘ladies man.’ Women inspired his art. We will recall that, while the sun pours down like honey, Suzanne is half-crazy, she wears rags and feathers from Salvation Army counters; she feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from China. She is a sixties girl and Cohen captures in 20 lines the age, the look, the essence of time and place.
Lebold begins his great opus explaining Cohen’s obsession with gravity – the force that inevitably leads to a great fall – and from the fall we navigate the future back on to our feet and become who we were supposed to be. Leonard Cohen came from a wealthy Canadian family of entrepreneurs and factory owners. He began studying law at Columbia University in New York but stumbled off the track into the night clubs and jazz clubs, the world of beatniks and marginals.
He learned to play the guitar. He studied Zen and meditated and stood on his head. He sat up at night, sometimes all night, shaping words into smooth flowing lines of prose and poetry with subtext and double meaning that he read to live audiences. He followed his own footsteps through the great cities of the world, exploring, noting, observing, ‘the existentialist stranger looking for the meaning of existence.’
After studying – and listening to – his subject for 20 years, Christophe Lebold spent time with Cohen in Los Angeles and has written a beautiful book Leonard Cohen could have written himself.
Christophe Lebold with ‘The Man Who Saw the Angels Fall’ has done just that with this expansive, perceptive, often moving memoir of Leonard Cohen, one of the giants – with Dylan and the Beatles – who shaped the rolling revolution of the sixties, lived the zeitgeist and brought us ‘So Long Marianne’, ‘Everybody Knows’, ‘Hallelujah’.
In fact, stored in hundreds of black notebooks, the Montreal born wandering troubadour (1934-2016) left us 140 songs, 2 novels and 1,000 pages of uncompromising poetry questioning ‘what we should do with that heart of ours with its infinite aptitude for despair and its constant hunger for love.’
Leonard Cohen was a ‘ladies man.’ Women inspired his art. We will recall that, while the sun pours down like honey, Suzanne is half-crazy, she wears rags and feathers from Salvation Army counters; she feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from China. She is a sixties girl and Cohen captures in 20 lines the age, the look, the essence of time and place.
Lebold begins his great opus explaining Cohen’s obsession with gravity – the force that inevitably leads to a great fall – and from the fall we navigate the future back on to our feet and become who we were supposed to be. Leonard Cohen came from a wealthy Canadian family of entrepreneurs and factory owners. He began studying law at Columbia University in New York but stumbled off the track into the night clubs and jazz clubs, the world of beatniks and marginals.
He learned to play the guitar. He studied Zen and meditated and stood on his head. He sat up at night, sometimes all night, shaping words into smooth flowing lines of prose and poetry with subtext and double meaning that he read to live audiences. He followed his own footsteps through the great cities of the world, exploring, noting, observing, ‘the existentialist stranger looking for the meaning of existence.’
After studying – and listening to – his subject for 20 years, Christophe Lebold spent time with Cohen in Los Angeles and has written a beautiful book Leonard Cohen could have written himself.
October 27, 2024
"I am deeply respectful of the mind that has produced this book." Leonard Cohen.
Review by Céline La Frenière *****
Reading Leonard Cohen: The Man Who Saw The Angels Fall is no ordinary experience.
One expects a literature professor to dissect Cohen's work; Christophe Lebold does that well. He also provides exceptional details of the poet-songwriter-singer's professional, creative, and personal paths and takes you on a journey.
Like all good stories, the book has a light and dark side; everything, good and bad, is exposed, yet Lebold never judges his subject. He is a disciple who records everything faithfully but never questions the validity or importance of what he witnesses.
The author becomes Leonard's friend and spends some time with him. Knowing Leonard, I can reveal that it is not the amount of time one spends with him that matters, but the quality. He is 100% focused on you and aims to reveal as much about himself as possible when you are together, whether one week, day, or hour. As a result of such encounters, Lebold understands Leonard's sense of humor, wit, and irony and shares his insight with his readers.
When one reaches the second half of this book, it becomes a love story. Lebold was introduced to Cohen's work as a teenager and followed him into adulthood. He is a disciple intent on revealing the purpose and destiny of a remarkable man.
Leonard might only sometimes take himself seriously and enjoys making fun of himself. However, his work is the one thing he takes seriously and would lay his life on. May he continue to prosper and spread his wisdom even from beyond.
Professor Christophe Lebold's book goes some way to do just that.
The book is published by Luath Press Ltd. in Edinburgh, UK, and EDC Press in Toronto, Canada.
Review by Céline La Frenière *****
Reading Leonard Cohen: The Man Who Saw The Angels Fall is no ordinary experience.
One expects a literature professor to dissect Cohen's work; Christophe Lebold does that well. He also provides exceptional details of the poet-songwriter-singer's professional, creative, and personal paths and takes you on a journey.
Like all good stories, the book has a light and dark side; everything, good and bad, is exposed, yet Lebold never judges his subject. He is a disciple who records everything faithfully but never questions the validity or importance of what he witnesses.
The author becomes Leonard's friend and spends some time with him. Knowing Leonard, I can reveal that it is not the amount of time one spends with him that matters, but the quality. He is 100% focused on you and aims to reveal as much about himself as possible when you are together, whether one week, day, or hour. As a result of such encounters, Lebold understands Leonard's sense of humor, wit, and irony and shares his insight with his readers.
When one reaches the second half of this book, it becomes a love story. Lebold was introduced to Cohen's work as a teenager and followed him into adulthood. He is a disciple intent on revealing the purpose and destiny of a remarkable man.
Leonard might only sometimes take himself seriously and enjoys making fun of himself. However, his work is the one thing he takes seriously and would lay his life on. May he continue to prosper and spread his wisdom even from beyond.
Professor Christophe Lebold's book goes some way to do just that.
The book is published by Luath Press Ltd. in Edinburgh, UK, and EDC Press in Toronto, Canada.
February 24, 2024
What to say about a man who died at eighty-two and left the world of music with some of the most iconic songs of rock-n-roll. After a minor career, he fell out of favor in the world of disco. He spent years in the wilderness, writing songs that no one bought and singing to Israeli soldiers on the front lines of the Yom Kippur War.
Born in Montreal to a modestly successful jewish family, he took his roots as a Kohanim the priest of the Jewish Temple) and the need to practice the art of enlightenment to be one of his lives goals. It wasn't till late in life, after spending six plus years as a zen monk on Mt.Baldy in California, that he came back to music.
Using all of the knowledge and life experience he gained, late in his sixties and up to his death his music made him a celebrity in Europe and a respected troubadour in the US. This book covers a life that epitimizes the expression "a life well lived".
Born in Montreal to a modestly successful jewish family, he took his roots as a Kohanim the priest of the Jewish Temple) and the need to practice the art of enlightenment to be one of his lives goals. It wasn't till late in life, after spending six plus years as a zen monk on Mt.Baldy in California, that he came back to music.
Using all of the knowledge and life experience he gained, late in his sixties and up to his death his music made him a celebrity in Europe and a respected troubadour in the US. This book covers a life that epitimizes the expression "a life well lived".
September 29, 2024
Cohen’s legacy is immeasurable. He wrote some of the most memorable songs of all time and yet for many years, he was out of the public eye and almost forgotten. Christopher Leobold has done an excellent job of fleshing out the man behind the music and image. He came across as mean and moody at times and many of his lyrics explored some very dark themes including death, isolation and depression. And yet we find a man with a real zest for life; one who was constantly searching for truth and light and above all, honesty.
This biography feels authoritative. It not only brings Cohen’s well lived life very vibrantly to the forefront, it puts much of his writing into context. It’s well written and overall an uplifting read which has encouraged me to revisit some of Cohen’s albums and listen to them with a better understanding. I really enjoyed this insight.
This biography feels authoritative. It not only brings Cohen’s well lived life very vibrantly to the forefront, it puts much of his writing into context. It’s well written and overall an uplifting read which has encouraged me to revisit some of Cohen’s albums and listen to them with a better understanding. I really enjoyed this insight.
March 2, 2025
I loved the book and the in-depth dive into what made Cohn “Cohen”. He led a complex life, striving to be the perfect saint and sinner, and wrote poems, books and songs that explored his own needs as well as his vision of the darkness and light that all humans navigate. My only issue with the book is that the author was a Cohen scholar and friend of Leonard late in life. Thus, much of the book is written with a slant toward telling the readers how exceptional Cohen was, rather than letting us read about the man and make our own judgment. What this book is, is a beautiful elegy written to/about Cohen by an admirer who wants the reader to love Leonard as much as he did.
September 28, 2024
It is always interesting to learn about the artist just as much as the art they create, and this book allows deep insight into Cohen and his work. The author has presented a well researched and seemingly balanced account, which will appeal to fans as well as casual readers.
December 3, 2024
Great book about an amazing man. For anyone who loves Leonard Cohen.
January 9, 2025
Went through this over months as I listened to all of Cohen’s albums, read his first novel, watched multiple documentaries. As a Cohen fan, I now have an even deeper appreciation of him.
January 31, 2025
A well documented and referenced look at Leonard Cohen and his life and his work.
February 10, 2025
Uma biografia digna do trovador, cheia de graça digna de um sacerdote e com a beleza poética de um Rimbaud. Cohen teria gostado de ler cada linha.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews