A Broken Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen's Secret Chord

by Liel Leibovitz

Why is it that Leonard Cohen receives the sort of reverence we reserve for a precious few living artists? Why are his songs, three or four decades after their original release, suddenly gracing the charts, blockbuster movie sound tracks, and television singing competitions? And why is it that while most of his contemporaries are either long dead or engaged in uninspired nostalgia tours, Cohen is at the peak of his powers and popularity?
These are the questions at the heart of A Broken Hallelujah, a meditation on the singer, his music, and the ideas and beliefs at its core. Granted extraordinary access to Cohen’s personal papers, Liel Leibovitz examines the intricacies of the man whose performing career began with a crippling bout of stage fright, yet who, only a few years later, tamed a rowdy crowd on the Isle of Wight, preventing further violence; the artist who had gone from a successful world tour and a movie star girlfriend to a long residency in a remote Zen retreat; and the rare spiritual seeker for whom the principles of traditional Judaism, the tenets of Zen Buddhism, and the iconography of Christianity all align. The portrait that emerges is that of an artist attuned to notions of justice, lust, longing, loneliness, and redemption, and possessing the sort of voice and vision commonly reserved only for the prophets.


More than just an account of Cohen’s life, A Broken Hallelujah is an intimate look at the artist that is as emotionally astute as it is philosophically observant. Delving into the sources and meaning of Cohen’s work, Leibovitz beautifully illuminates what Cohen is telling us and why we listen so intensely.

Genres: Biography, Music, Nonfiction, History, Memoir, Audiobook, Biography Memoir

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Liel Leibovitz is a senior writer for Tablet magazine and teaches at New York University. He is the coauthor of Fortunate Sons, Lili Marlene, and The Chosen Peoples. He lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

This unconventional artist needs an unconventional book. Author Leil Liebovitz has delivered. Mixing his chronology with artistic and social commentary he shows how Leonard Cohen was shaped by his Jewish heritage and his Canadian upbringing, how he became a poet and how he put the poems to music. At times the author is as poetic as his subject.

The book has only 246 short pages. The content is good but not all of it is on Cohen. There are pages devoted to related subjects such as Canadian literature, Jewish history and Bob Dylan. In the first chapter "Prelude", Cohen does not emerge for 12 pages.

There are some good insights such as the difference in Canadian and American artists, the concept of "duende" (which suits Cohen's voice and content) and Cohen's views on his work. There are amazing episodes such as the visit to/escape from Cuba, recording with Phil Spector (dinner with Phil Spector!) and the two performance tours in Israel.

Liebovitz, in some places uses Cohen's own words to describe him. His opening to his audience in Poland shows how he refuses to be used by anyone (to me, they related to the episode where Dylan seems to expect Cohen to perform at his concert); his speech in support of the Bereaved Parents for Peace in Israel shows his long apolitical view; and his reflection on the embezzlement of most of his assets show his forgiveness and resilience.

Each chapter is introduced with a full page photo of Cohen, so you watch him mature. As of this writing he is 80 and has maintained audiences through at least 4 generations (depending on how you count, maybe 5). He has just released a new album and in 2013 performed in tours in Europe and the US.

If you are a fan of Cohen you probably know all the biographical material that is eliminated or pruned and will appreciate the commentary and insight.

[Bettie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[Laura - Bookish Meanderer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Cohen fan before, now I have acquired a much deeper appreciation and awe of the artist. The author masterfully balances the genre's need to expose with respecting Cohen's privacy -- I never felt like I was imposing on him. A beautiful and elegant review of the artist's life and work.

[Maria Roxana · Rating 4 out of 5]

O carte de citit pe melodii ”șoptite” de Leonard Cohen..

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book from a goodreads giveaway. I really didn't know a whole lot about Leonard Cohen aside from that he wrote Hallelujah, which I think is probably the best song ever written. The book outlines his 50 year career writing poetry, novels, stories and music. He was too young to be a beat and too old for the '60's folk scene, always a bit of an outsider. Cohen was a well respected poet and author of novels and short stories when he heard Bob Dylan and decided to be a singer/song writer. There is plenty of rock history, from the Beatles to prog rock to punk and grunge. What I enjoyed even more than the usual rock biography run-ins with celebrities (Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, etc...) was reading about his philosophy of art. This is an atypical rock biography. I recommend it whether you are into Leonard Cohen or not!

"To enjoy music, and to enjoy life, is to enjoy tension and see it not as a boulder blocking the path to a desired goal but as the path itself." page 151

[Bruno Martinez · Rating 5 out of 5]

"...he believes, like Arendt, that there's no inherent evil in the world, just thoughtless men in precarious circumstances..." Page 95

Not quite a biography, much more than an essay and a very good recollection of chronologic events that explain a little of Cohen's hypnotising words -whether recited or sung.

If you are mesmerised by Cohen's work; you'll definitely will be much more after reading this.

Definitely recommend it.

[Maayan K · Rating 4 out of 5]

"We have better poets than Leonard Cohen, and more skilled novelists. Songwriters blessed with greater talent wrote songs and gained fame and withered away. But Leonard Cohen lingers and thrives because he is not really any of these things, at least not essentially. He's something more intricate, the sort of man whose pores absorb the particles of beauty and grief and truth that float weightlessly all around us yet so few of us note. He is attuned to the divine, whatever the divine might be, not with the thinker's complications or the zealot's obstructions, but with the unburdened heart of a believer. [...] Millennia ago, as we began asking ourselves the same fundamental questions we still ponder, we called men like him prophets, meaning not that they could foresee the future but that they could better understand the present by seeing one more layer of meaning to life. The title still applies."

This is about as good as nonfiction can get for me. I know Liel Leibovitz well from his political/polemical opinion journalism, which often veers to the demagogic. Here, Liel's more subtle sensibilities and skills are on display as he very readably guides us through the extraordinary life and art of Leonard Cohen. I appreciate the detailed analysis of Cohen's texts themselves as primary source material. Also media interviews from various times. Very little of the book is spent on his personal life. The correct assumption Liel makes is that the deepest way to know Cohen is through his work. Liel does spend considerable time putting Cohen in the context of his contemporaries throughout the decades, from the poet Irving Layton, to Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, and Bono. I got a bit lost in the rock and roll history at a couple points, but I'm sure that people that are music history buffs would appreciate Liel's analysis. What I did get out of the comparisons is that Cohen always seemed to be somehow out of time. His music never matched the musical or thematic trends at any point - too young to be a beat, too old to be a hippie, and never matching the zeitgeist of any decade. Yet as he got older, his popularity only grew, right up until the end. It's amazing to think, as Liel points out, that Leonard Cohen was born before Elvis. One seems like an ancient relic of the past, while the other is with us now, as vital and alive as anything.

My appreciation for Cohen only grows as I get to know more of what he created over decades of glacially-paced but ever-creative work. And also as I learn more about his life. I didn't understand before how deep and knowledgeable his Judaism was, or his biographical connection to Israel. I really like learning about Cohen's grappling with how to continue to produce and perform after being successful through the many phases of his career (from young ingenue to venerated sage). At many points he wouldn't perform certain things, or couldn't perform at all anymore. This is profound in comparison to the many creative people who turn into bad caricatures of their younger selves as they continue to perform songs that are dead to them. Not Cohen - he never stopped changing and growing right up until the release of his last album only a few months before he died last year (this book was written before, but still).

[Steve Saroff · Rating 5 out of 5]

He couldn't sing, and he couldn't write, so he did both perfectly. Cohen lived a life of forever starting over with nothing and turning that nothing into the somethings that are like the pots of gold at the end of the rainbow. This book captures and then gives. A good read about a great person.

[Kent Winward · Rating 4 out of 5]

The biography isn't as good as the songs and poetry, but the background casts shadows and gives a little bit of a crack where even more light can get in.

[Dave Donahoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read as a first reads selection.

This is a wonderfully poetic book about the poet musician Leonard Cohen. Liebovitz explores the many influences of Leonard Cohen's career, from his Jewish background to his Buddhist exploration. Cohen is a bit of an enigma, he is a reluctant musician that began his career as a poet and novelist and turned to music when words were no longer enough. He fought for control over his vision, and was largely uncompromising in the final revelation of his songs. His voice and words speak to the soul and transcend genre and time.

The early portion of Cohen's talent, and influences, is examined thoroughly, with his recording career reviewed in the second portion of the book. This is definitely a man with excess of talent, and the author does not relegate himself to only one aspect, though possibly the reason for which he is most famous, of it.

Liebovitz's book brings into view some of Cohen's shortcomings as a person and artist, but ultimately reveal the beauty of the man and his craft. An artist that hit his stride in his 50's and continues to produce meaningful works into his 70's, Cohen is a force to be reckoned with. His concerts often exceed three hours in length and put to shame other performers more interested in spectacle than substance.

Read the book for understanding. See the performer live for enlightenment.

[Kds · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lets just say that I care about a number of people that are Leonard Cohen fanatics and though I never previously understood their rabid fascination, Liel Liebowitz's biography "A Broken Hallelujah" made me fall in love with Cohen.

How could you not when to quote the Kirkus Review "In an account of a 2009 performance, Leibowvitz writes : "In true Zen fashion, it turned out that all he needed to do to let his songs state their case was nothing but accept Lorca's definition of duende and allow the tightly closed flowers of his spare arrangements bloom into a thousand petals" 3/16/14

Contrary to the Kirckus review that says "Liebovitz delivers a different sort of biography that Cohen fanatics should appreciate" I thought of this book as an introduction to Cohen for people that either didn't get him or were unfamiliar with him.

Though at times academic with many biblical references, it offers an irreverent approach to biography writing that I feel perfectly represents a man between times, Leonard Cohen.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0458063

As Leonard Cohen turns 80, a new biography by Liel Leibovitz explores the life, work and passion of the poet-turned-musician. What makes Cohen such an enduring international figure in the cultural imagination?

Granted extraordinary access to Cohen's personal papers, Leibovitz evokes a complicated, sometimes contradictory figure. Born into a Canadian religious Jewish family, for years a reclusive lyricist on the Greek island of Hydra, known for his bold political commentary, his devotion to Buddhist thought and his later despair over contemporary Zionism, Cohen hardly follows the rules of a conventional rock star.

An intimate look at a man who, despite battles with depression and years spent in hermit-like isolation, is still touring and now seems to be reaching a new peak of popularity.

Read by Julian Barrett, with Leonard Cohen quotes read by Colin Stinton.

Abridged by: Jo Coombs
Producer: Pippa Vaughan
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4.

[Peggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully written biography of Leonard Cohen that pays particular attention to the influence of Jewish thought on his work. Recommended for anyone who wonders just how his unique and powerful vision of song developed.

[jaroiva · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nějak mi tu chybí ten životopis. Mělo mě varovat v úvodu, že celý životopis je jeho číslo zdravotního pojištění. Hmm. Prostě se mi tato kniha nelíbí.

[Sandi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only am I fascinated by Leonard Cohen as a poet, musician, sage and timeless soul but the bonus was that this book is very well written.

A Christmas gift from my honey and it was enthralling, emotionally and intellectual challenging and deeply thoughtful. Perfect gift!

[Luciano · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating book on a fascinating character. It's not a biography, so don't expect too much details of Cohen's life and loves; it's rather a fascinating portrait of decades in popular music and an essay on art forms interacting with intense spirituality. Highly recommended.

[Joe Kraus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes when you’re a hardcore fan of a band or a singer, a completist, you come across the old “B-Sides and Demos” style release and just have to have it. There are usually some familiar songs in their original unproduced incarnations, a promising song that never made it onto any of the official releases, and a lot of things you tell yourself – for as long as it takes to justify the price of the album – are OK.

This book reads a lot like a B-Sides and Demos release.

On the one hand, Leibovitz has an intriguing fundamental take on Cohen. He sees him as a kind of wannabe prophet, someone pushing popular music to more authentically spiritual dimensions than anyone else. He has a number of striking readings of Cohen songs, and he adds some real depth to a few. I’ve been listening to a lot Cohen’s music in the last several weeks – more than at any other time in my life – and Leibovitz gives me a few new ways to listen to something like “Famous Blue Raincoat” as a song vacillating between an abstract philosophical inquiry and a personal, signed letter.

But…much of the rest of this feels like filler, like the demo tracks that might have sounded good at the time and now don’t feel fleshed out.

To take a representative example, we get an extended description of the Isle of Wight Music Festival. We hear about its promoter, about the anarchists resolved to overturn it, about the performers’ reactions to hostile crowds. For 20+ pages, it feels as if the book is going to talk just about the festival. And then, near the end of the section, Cohen emerges and calms the audience by talking to them. It’s a great scene, and it led me to what my favorite music books do: to track down the track described on Youtube and enjoy it in a new way.

I expect that exegesis to be emblematic of how Leibovitz sees Cohen on stage, but it turns out to be mostly anomalous. Cohen was not generally able to connect with crowds in those days. It’s a great story, but the first two-thirds feel like digression and the final third doesn’t seem to connect to the rest of the portrait Leibovitz is painting.

We get similar digressions all the time. We hear about Jewish religious practices, about the rise of punk or prog rock, about the zeitgeist of 1975 or 1984. There are places for that kind of work. Greil Marcus – widely quoted here and a clear inspiration – has a knack for doing what we might call rock criticism’s version of literary theory’s new historicism, of taking a small cultural moment and demonstrating how it reflects larger political and aesthetic tensions of its age. But Leibovbitz – as well and as insightfully as he writes in small sections – doesn’t quite have that same breadth of vision for his subject. (At least not here. I get the impression I’d enjoy spending time with this guy.)

The largest problem here, however, is that the book can’t quite decide what it wants to be. It isn’t quite a biography though we do get substantial pieces of Cohen’s life. It isn’t quite a literary analysis because it jumps from one era to another too markedly, never quite developing its core argument but applying it in repeated (if interesting) ways. And it isn’t quite a music history since we hear anecdotes of performance but no sustained description of Cohen as performer.

In the end, this works to take me back to Cohen’s music, but it seems more an invitation to return to the greatest hits – to the songs I already know – than to explore more rarities from the, sadly, now deceased master. Leibovitz has some tunes that I think could be polished and produced into hits, but they feel too much like unfinished demos for me to recommend this as highly as its best parts make me want to.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very good read, documenting Leonard Cohen's progress from childhood to his present age. It drew me on and I read it quite quickly, realising that there's so much to it that it will give me reading interest and pleasure for years to come. It gives background, too, to the songs, some of which I have attempted singing. A study of his life and religious sensibility is thoroughly made as well. It left me feeling how only he , perhaps, would have come through all his experiences calmly and becoming stronger in himself.

[Pam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had hope to learn more about Leonard Cohen - but this is written in a manner that I had a hard time getting more out of it. I struggled with the writing - that is all I can say. Not an easy read for me.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

From BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week:
As Leonard Cohen turns 80, Liel Leibovitz explores his life, work and passion

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a HUGE Cohen fan but this book is history, poetry, and world politics rolled into a rock n roll story. Good stuff.

[Sienna · Rating 3 out of 5]

2 stars but i added 1 for the amazing isle of wight prelude. This book was fine but discussed way too many other artists to the point at some parts it didn’t even seem to be about leonard cohen..

[Alison C · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a high school student in Berkeley, California, in the mid-1970s, I had an English literature class that, in keeping with the experimental educational ideas of that time and place, used relatively contemporary lyrics to discuss the wider aims of literature: a lot of Dylan (especially “Desolation Row” and “Highway 61 Revisited,” which the class spent weeks and weeks on) and others. Including Leonard Cohen and his famous “Suzanne.” My best friend (now my sister-in-law) and I began discussing, in class, the second verse, the one about Jesus, and we just started riffing about it. When other classmates wanted to chime in, our teacher - alas, his name lost in the mists of time - stopped them; we were two usually quiet students and he wanted to hear where we would take the story…..In the early 1980s, I remember hearing and being stunned by “First We Take Manhattan,” a manifesto about how the world can maim us, and I found John Cale’s version of “Hallelujah” on 1991’s “I’m Your Fan” to be the best ever, until kd came along….Decades later, I’ve lived in Montreal for 21+ years now; and when word came of Leonard’s death last year, over a span of a few weeks hundreds of locals, French and English both, congregated at the front of his house, sat on the doorstep and, with guitars and voices, sang his songs in remembrance and love. Earlier this year, in 2017, my husband and I attended a concert in tribute to Leonard, a year after his passing, organized by his son Adam, replete with international stars like Sting and Elvis Costello, with locals like Patrick Watson (he of the ethereal voice) and Coeur de Pirate, and of course, the elegiac kd lang, all singing Leonard’s songs. So you get the idea that this man, and his music, has meant a lot to me for a very long time. This biography, published in 2014, some time before his death but after the betrayal by his manager (who stole around $12M of Cohen’s savings), when he had to go back on the road, age 77, to earn some cash, describes Leonard Cohen’s life from two perspectives: the first, and perhaps most interesting to me, is his life-long struggle and engagement with his religion, Judaism. His religious identity shines through most of his songs, in the sense of much of the Jewish tradition being about doubt and thought and trying to reach an understanding of being a “chosen people,” and Leibovitz does a good job of bringing out that aspect of this very complex human being. The second perspective is, of course, that of the artist - moving from poetry to prose to songwriting, and I think it’s true to say moving to Buddhism (although Leonard himself didn’t like being called that, he always said “I’m a Jew,” and disliked the idea that one could not be both, philosophically speaking). Then there’s the great themes of the work: solitude (and who is more lonely than God?) and love (often hard-bitten, hard-won, hard) and how to be an authentic human. Famously, Leonard Cohen took years to write his songs, first writing a huge number of verses and slowly paring them down and perfecting them, so that in the end, the essence was all that was left: “I heard there was a secret chord/That David played and pleased the Lord/But you don’t really care for music/Do you?” “Ring the bells that still can ring/Forget your perfect offering/There is a crack in everything/That’s how the light gets in.” And, though this is obviously not in the bio, from his final album, “You want it darker/We kill the flame./Hineni hineni/I’m ready, my Lord.” A remarkable man, a remarkable life. And I feel richer for having read more about him. Wow.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quotable:

He wanted to write about what it was like to be young and try to take flight and realize that life was a terrain made of many plains and very few mountaintops. He wanted to write about small pleasures and big struggles, and to tell other young men and women like him that they needn’t look for transcendence because there was so much beauty right here.

There was more, however, to his affiliation with Roshi than the satisfaction that came with a life dedicated to the pursuit of clarity. Far from incompatible with Judaism, the old master's views underscored many of the central mysteries with which Cohen had struggled since being steeped in the old religion as a child, including the question concerning the nature of God. “The moment someone says the truth or God is an object or takes it as an object, that is already a mistake,” Roshi told a newspaper reporter visiting him a few months after his one-hundredth birthday. “God is neither object nor subject. The moment you say any little thing about God, you're already making an object of God and Buddhism cautions you about that. At that moment you're making an idiot out of God, you're making a fool out of God.” To think like that is to understand that Judaism's essential questions—why were the chosen people chosen, to what end, and for how long — were themselves, to some extent, koans. No Jew was expected to interpret the precise nature of divine election just as no Buddhist was expected to decipher the sound of one hand clapping; it was something to ponder, a drawbridge past the moats of reason and into some realm of higher understanding, impossible to describe in words. It's that realm that so much of Leonard Cohen's music seeks to explore, not just for Jews but for humankind, and not in the priestly way, by reciting the ancient texts, but prophetically, by following an ever-moving God wherever he went.

Supported by a fan base culled from the best-educated generation of Americans in history – college attendance rates, hovering at 45.1 percent in 1959, shot past the 60 percent mark by the late 1980’s – and relied on a network of campus radio stations to carry their music directly to its target audience.

[Camila Uriona · Rating 5 out of 5]

To learn more about L. Cohen is always gratifying. In this biography, Liel Leibovitz does a very good job at introducing Leonard as the artist he was, as the man, but also as the mind. Cohen was part of several important moments in the history of the world, as an observer, or participating through his music, giving concerts to the troops in Israel, talking about the issues of the times he lived in. He defied the status quo of the music industry, of the rock and roll as known in America. There were too many famous musicians then (Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Kris Kristofferson, Judy Collins, Toni Mitchel), and Cohen was starting his career late, after being essentially a writer, mostly a poet. And then he decided to move into that other world that looked more attractive to him, even when he didn't know more than three chords (he used to say five). But he had what Federico García Lorca described as "duende", a power and not a behaviour… a struggle and not a concept that lives within the poet, and later on, in the singer-songwriter.
He carved his way through that abyss and finally got all the experiences, the satisfactions, the highs and lows, the depression, the women and all the learnings during a long and robust career.
He had the will, the persistence and the resilience to get exactly where he wanted to be. He didn't care about the apparent obstacles, he used a bit of the Canadian naiveté, his bold vision of the world and a pinch of cynicism to break the "I can not's" and turned them into a fruitful production.
Leibovitz made me think of him in a different way and helped me understand my favourite writer and musician from another perspective, more political in a way, that I haven't fully understood before.
That's why I love biographies. They situate the reader in the time and context of those who we admire.
You can complete the reading of this book by listening to Cohen's albums, from the first one to the last. You will understand a lot more of what's detailed in the book. The music gives the words an ambience. You will almost feel his presence while you dive into his mystical universe.

[Dennis Kenter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is written very well, and is rather informative on Cohen’s life. However, I wish the book was much longer than the 250 pages we got; as I feel there is much more in terms of Leonard’s later albums and poetry collections that don’t get the same type of critical analysis as the earlier ones do. The very last chapter of this book, which is around 30 pages, covers the recording of Various Positions (in the early 80s) all the way to 2009. To me, there is plenty more to write about three decades of an artists career than 30 pages. Hell, you can write an entire chapter just on “Hallelujah”. Essentially, my big critique is it left me wanting more; which isn’t necessarily a terrible thing. I really appreciate and respect the amount of analysis that went into dissecting Cohen’s earlier works and life before his first album; and wish that his 80s and 90s works had that level of detail in analysis. But this is definitely a well-written book and I would recommend it to anyone interested in Leonard Cohen.

[Emilia P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aw dang I loved this. It helped a bit to understand who Liel was from the Unorthodox podcast, the most unapologetically bear Jewish man on the earth. He's a force, in some ways very blunt and elegant at the same time. So of course he's an appropriate person to write a spiritual history of Leonard Cohen rather than a detailed chronology. And it's more appropriate. It really captured how rooted in philosophical Judaism and classical thought Cohen's art was, how spare and deliberate he was in his work, how when everyone else was just trying blow things up, he was trying often in futility to get back to Doing Things Right In A Timeless Sense. There was a bit about loneliness being how we connect to God that made me lol but also was exactly right. I did not realize how far into his career as an artist Cohen was when he started singing! That was quite fascinating.
In sum, Cohen was mopey for a reason, he made mopiness nearly transcendent, and we are grateful to him for every second of it, Liel and I.
I really liked this book!

[Lorraine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know much about Cohen, his discography, music history or Judaism, so it is difficult to evaluate this book which analyzes them all in light of each other. Interesting, yes. I should have read the book more slowly, with something like YouTube beside me and taken time to listen to the songs discussed instead of just reading straight through (though sometimes I listened to a song). Did Cohen really live so intensely and in artistic isolation as the story depicts? Was he always a genius or can we say that with the rose-coloured glasses of hindsight? I cannot answer. The book does make me wonder what it would be like to live intensely, creatively, and with such deep spiritual awareness. The author continually compares Cohen to a prophet. If his biography is reasonably accurate, then this does seem to be who Cohen was. And unlike many artists, he had the benefit of living his life long enough to reap the rewards of maturity in his craft.

[Sean Reeves · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not your typical biography. Take for example, the author's account of Cohen's break up with Rebecca De Morney: "For reasons known only to them, he and De Mornay ended their engagement." That's it, no further speculation. For the reader expecting to be titillated by salacious details of Cohen's romances and drug-taking, the book will be a disappointment. The following paragraph gives a indication of the author's style: "This was the sort of equipoise that Nietzsche had in mind when he described art balanced between the Apollonian and the Dionysian, the former concerned with the sterile dictates of aesthetics and the latter with the lustful moans of arousal." The author delves deep into Cohen's psyche and avoids focusing on the superficial and distracting details of his life. The result for me was a very interesting book that deepened my understanding of Leonard Cohen's life and music.

[Jamad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Liel Leibovitz’s A Broken Hallelujah is less a conventional biography of Leonard Cohen and more a meditation on the themes that defined his life and work—faith, longing, suffering, and transcendence. While the book does cover key biographical details, its real strength lies in its exploration of Cohen’s music and poetry as deeply spiritual expressions, rooted in Jewish tradition, existential philosophy, and a lifelong search for meaning.

Leibovitz’s approach is unapologetically reverent. He frames Cohen not just as a singer-songwriter but as a modern-day psalmist, a man who transformed his personal struggles into songs of universal resonance. One of the more interesting parts of the book is its discussion of Cohen’s Jewish identity, particularly how it shaped his work.

“There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.”
—“Anthem”