Leonard Cohen, Untold Stories: That's How the Light Gets In, Volume 3

by Michael Posner

The extraordinary life of one of the world’s greatest music and literary icons, in the words of those who knew him best.

Poet, novelist, singer-songwriter, artist, prophet, icon—there has never been a figure like Leonard Cohen. He was a true giant in contemporary western culture, entertaining and inspiring the world with his work. From his groundbreaking and bestselling novels, The Favourite Game and Beautiful Losers, to timeless songs such as “Suzanne,” “Dance Me to the End of Love,” and “Hallelujah,” Cohen is one of the world’s most cherished artists. His death in 2016 was felt around the world by the many fans and followers who would miss his warmth, humour, intellect, and piercing insights.

Leonard Cohen, Untold Stories chronicles the full breadth of his extraordinary life. This third and final volume in biographer Michael Posner’s sweeping series of Cohen’s life— That’s How the Light Gets In —explores the last thirty years of his life, starting with the late 1980s revival of his music career with the successful albums I’m Your Man and The Future . It covers the death of his manager, Marty Machat, and the appointment of another who would ultimately be accused of stealing more than five million dollars from Cohen.

Personally, Cohen suffers the traumatic end of his long relationship with French photographer Dominique Issermann and begins a public romance with actress Rebecca De Mornay. When that relationship ends in 1993, as Cohen is about to turn sixty years old, he begins a deeply spiritual phase, entering the Mount Baldy monastery under the tutelage of Zen master Joshu Sasaki Roshi—arguably the most important relationship in Cohen’s life. Ever the seeker, he then goes to Mumbai in 1999, the first of half a dozen trips to India to investigate Advaita Vedanta Hinduism, expanding his growing fascination with spirituality.

In 2008, Cohen makes his triumphant return to the concert stage, and for five years travels the world in an extraordinary final act of his life, giving almost four hundred performances over three continents. The book provides the first full chronicle of Cohen’s final months, fighting debilitating disease, while still creating three new studio albums, adding to his remarkable legacy.

Cohen’s story is told through the voices of those who knew him best—family and friends, colleagues and contemporaries, business partners and lovers. Bestselling author Michael Posner draws on hundreds of interviews to reveal the unique, complex, and compelling figure of the man The New York Times called “a secular saint.” This is a book like no other, about a man like no other.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

496 pages, Hardcover

Published December 6, 2022

Reviews

[Margaret Galbraith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Events and times may not be in the correct order it’s a hard review to write for me as there is so much to this man.

The final of 3 volumes of Leonard Cohen and it’s the saddest one too. His health is not good and his manager and so called friend swindled $5 million from his accounts. That is why at an age he could have retired from touring he had to start all over again. Suffering severe pain he pressed on doing as many as 29 shows in 31 places. He popped pills to stay awake and still had time for his lady friends.

Engaged to Rebecca De Mornay who sang the famous song duet to Dirty Dancing “I’ve had the time of my life”.but it didn’t last as he didn’t seem to be able to commit. How he did tours I will never know but he did 300 shows worldwide to recoup his loss and made even more. He bought his entourage and band meals and accommodation and gave them gifts. He was very generous with money, too generous at times. Even helped a roadie out when he heard he might lose his home.

He was a perfectionist and I was lucky enough to see him perform 3 times. Once in the late 60s in Scotland wearing a leather jacket and black roll neck sweater and black trousers, in my homeland Scotland, he even attended a Buddhist retreats there, and twice here in South Australia. Then he only wore Armani suits and a shirt and tie with a hat. He was asked by his band why not wear relaxed clothes on flights? His answer was “wait and see”. As soon as the plane landed the photographers were there to see “I’m your man” as the song goes!

He never failed to mesmerise me and reduced me to tears with his songs and his poems. Some music does that to me as does Lazarus by my other icon David Bowie. To lose both in 2016 was so very hard and for me too sudden.

Leonard gave it his all despite the pain with bad back discs and in the end he passed away after a fall at home probably weakened by leukaemia on 7th November 2016. It was amazing with his lifestyle he lived to 82. That last concert he said goodbye we all knew it was his last for us here. He raised his hat showing his grey shorn hair and skipped off the stage. The crowd went wild and there were many tears.

He became a Zen master and lived a full life. He stopped smoking thinking his voice would go up but it only reached a deeper baritone. He told his band to play low so we could hear every word. His latest bass player was a jazz bassist previously and found it difficult to hold back. One day Leonard said to try another bass line which at first he thought he was joking. He did it then realised Leonard did not even need a bass player he was the bass. He only needed the timing. That for me showed the genius he was and still is.

I have a few of his poetry books. “Flame” was released posthumously hint Kylie for Christmas! He had one son Adam and a daughter Lorca with Suzanne Elrod. He wrote the song Suzanne for her. His son suffered an horrific car accident while working as a roadie for a band in the 80s. He suffered a broken neck, nine broken ribs, a punctured lung. crushed abdomen, and fractures to his knees, ankles, and pelvis. He had holes drilled above his eyebrows to hold his head and neck in place and was lucky to survive. Leonard was beside his bed every day where Adam had been air lifted to Toronto. He was not a very present dad but did rally when needed as Suzanne had custody of the children. He did spent holidays with them.

Marianne Ihlen I’m sure she was the only one he really loved. He wrote “So long Marianne” for her. He passed away only a few months after her despite them no longer being together for a long time. She passed away 29th July 2016 ironically also with leukaemia. Her friend wrote to him to say Marianne did not have long to live and he replied to her friend which she then read out to her….

"Well Marianne it's come to this time when we are really so old and our bodies are falling apart and I think I will follow you very soon. Know that I am so close behind you that if you stretch out your hand, I think you can reach mine. And you know that I've always loved you for your beauty and your wisdom, but I don't need to say anything more about that because you know all about that. But now, I just want to wish you a very good journey. Goodbye old friend. Endless love, see you down the road…" When I read the lines "stretch out your hand," she stretched out her hand. Only two days later she lost consciousness and slipped into death. I wrote a letter back to Leonard saying in her final moments I hummed "A Bird on a Wire" because that was the song she felt closest to. And then I kissed her on the head and left the room, and said "so long, Marianne."

He wrote a shorter version of his letter to be read at Marianne’s funeral …

“Dearest Marianne,

I'm just a little behind you, close enough to take your hand. This old body has given up, just as yours has too.

I've never forgotten your love and your beauty. But you know that. I don't have to say any more. Safe travels old friend. See you down the road. Endless love and gratitude.

— your Leonard”

So very sad he could never fully commit to one woman. Too much drugs and alcohol and women was his downfall there. He was like a magnet to them with his quiet demeanour and soothing voice and obviously good in bed. He studied Judaism since a boy and Buddhism and did yoga daily and became a Zen Master. I suppose that came too late after this years of abuse and he suffered terrible depression. He had brief affairs with Janis Joplin and Joni Mitchell and was a great friend to Judy Collins who did some of his songs. He wrote many for other artists too. On one but probably more tours he was booked into a better hotel than the band. He said “oh no that doesn’t happen. Either I move or they do”!

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written in a most unusual fashion, UNTOLD STORIES consists of the memories, stories
and observations of over 550 people in close on 500 pages. An "oral biography."
And this is only volume 3.

Reading the book is akin to overhearing hundreds of private conversations, hearing snippets
of interviews and then putting the pieces together to form a coherent portrait of the man.
Like organizing all the tiny pixels in a tv image : finally, a single picture.
Artist, novelist, poet, lyricist, songwriter, singer, humanitarian, friend.
His last 30 years.

I was drawn to this book for several reasons :
I'm a Leonard Cohen fan, the later years. Big time.
It wasn't until my own later years that I came to appreciate his work.
His time as a student of Zen Buddhism and eventual ordination as a monk. Finding himself.
Seeing the resurgence of his career after his bank account was wiped out by a trusted friend,
a spurned former lover. Fortune lost ; upset but no bitterness.
His exhausting sell-out concerts world wide , at age 70+, and tireless work to produce
new albums ; to write new poetry and rework old ideas. Despite his age and the onset of
debilitating illness.
He always chose a simple, spartan lifestyle much of his life. He freely gifted money to friends,
relatives of friends and made charitable donations regularly. It was never about dying rich.
He just wanted to leave a legacy for his children.

No, I did not read volumes 1 or 2.
Probably won't.
Not really interested in the young playboy who was struggling to "find" his voice, his way.
An incredible laundry list of one night stands and short term live-ins ? Who cares.
As late-life friend, essayist and novelist, Pico Iyer said, " 'I love being on the road,'
he (Cohen) told me. ' It's domestic arrangements I find impossible.' "
As the song goes, "EVERBODY KNOWS."

Michael Posner ends his book with a few well chosen words.
He explains my own attraction to Cohen, his art and his music :
" - a glorious, late-life gift to me, as he and his work have been to so many millions."

[Celine La · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael Posner's ways of unravelling the complex character of Leonard Cohen by having his friends, lovers, colleagues and acquaintances reveal their experiences with him in their own words is sheer genius. It feels strangely intimate, as if one had invited each of them to drop by your home, and they suddenly tell you all over a glass of wine.

Having been Posner's victim (for lack of a better word), I can tell you that he was a brilliant advocate for Cohen. Just as I had given him everything I remembered or thought I should say to him, he left me with one more question that kept me awake at night. This made me feel somehow responsible. Have I done justice to Leonard? Do you know if I have been a fair witness? How will the world view my contribution? I would wake up the following day and dutifully own up. This led to even more questions.

In this last book, Posner cleverly included Kelley Lynch among his witnesses. This was Leonard's long-time manager who stole all of his pension, some five million dollars and became one of the most hated women internationally among his fans. As with many of the women in his life, Lynch's relationship with Leonard was complicated. At times, she was a business partner; other times, a friend and confidant; and at other times, a lover in love with him and, sadly, someone who felt used by him for his gratification. With such a blurred vision of their relationship, it might give Kelly a reasoning, if not a justification, for her betrayal of Leonard's trust and complete disregard for his future welfare. Lynch was being paid handsomely (15% of all his income), but that was not enough for her. What she seemed to have aimed after was revenge. A wiser man would have seen that one was coming.

Leonard's deep friendship with Zen Master Joshu Sasaki Roshi is also significant in this latest book. His attachment to this man, who was exposed as an abuser of his female followers, was perplexing.

Another biographer might have avoided such controversies for fear of alienating Cohen's family, close friends, and other valuable contributors. However, one cannot help but admire his courage and tenacity in getting to the bottom of the real Leonard Cohen rather than preserving a false image of this extraordinary man. Whatever weaknesses he possessed, Leonard was no ordinary person, and he had a unique talent and charisma that did more good than harm.

As described in volume 2, Leonard and I met in 1977 in Los Angeles at crossroads. After a two-year relationship, I had just broken up with Pulitzer-prize-winning playwright Howard Sackler. Leonard was separating from his long-time partner Susanne Elrod and the mother of their two children. His beloved mother was terminally ill in Montreal and needed his attention. Such considerations meant our being apart for many months while he resolved these obligations, and telephone conversations and old-fashioned mail correspondence carried out our relationship.

Leonard went to some length to convince me that his days as a Lady's man might be over, but always I remained cautious. He arrived at my Hollywood studio apartment in Fountain Avenue with a dozen copies of Death of a Lady's Man. Our relationship was given a chance to develop in Montreal when the producers of City on Fire flew me in to do the final re-write and then to promote the film. Our relationship was quiet, intimate, peaceful, and away from the limelight. When the Press showed an unusual interest in the story of this French-Canadian and a woman to boot writing a big Hollywood blockbuster, Leonard stayed well out of it and enjoyed my fame vicariously.

He would write a song about our relationship in a way that was in tune with the man he aspired to become. It was the beginning of a new way to love, romantic but not necessarily erotic, more a spiritual calling than he had experienced before. He wrote laboriously about it over many weeks, working each night and waking me up in the morning with the sound of his guitar and yet another stanza.

Sometime later, after the relationship had progressed from lovers to friends, he invited himself to come over, proudly played the song he had recorded and gave me a cassette. It made me smile when Leonard sang this song to another lover in this third volume and told her he had written it overnight for her.

Thank God I was sensible enough not to take him too seriously, and I was the one who got away. He had been a chapter in my life, not a whole book. The real blessing about this third book for me is the answer to a question I often asked myself: "What if?" It answered it admirably.

Bless you, Michael Posner, for dedicating your time and effort to expose a realistic picture of the fascinating and, at times, messy life of an extraordinarily talented man.

[Lino Matteo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Crack in Everything

There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in

Leonard Cohen, Untold Stories: That's How the Light Gets In, Volume 3
Michael Posner ’s “Leonard Cohen, Untold Stories” is a voyeur’s dream account of a remarkable life that was lived, shared, and hard to emulate.
There was a crack, the light got in, and then I moved along – truth me told. For me, there was too much of the light. Too many voices. Too many thoughts – often contradictory – but then Cohen was not a simple man. It might have been preferable to have more of Cohen in his own words. Fortunately, there was enough of his words, to keep me reading, searching, and smiling. As the author explained, “Oral biography is an imperfect genre. It relies almost entirely on human memory, which is notoriously fallible.”
Oral biography is an imperfect genre.
In other words, don’t believe everything that you hear. Don’t believe everything that you read. Do believe the music and the songs – not necessarily the words and the melodies but the feelings that they impact you with. Believe that. For me it was Hallelujah. He had me at, “Now I've heard there was a secret chord: That David played, and it pleased the Lord.” (Please note: I have heard people shout the song down, and praise it with applause – that that was in a church setting, but I digress).
A former professor, Louis Dudek, who was not originally a fan, “Leonard Cohen has been faithful to the truth of the search for his being…. He has won through, so far as anyone can win through in this difficult struggle.”
That said there were insights, there were gems, and there was scanning of parts, but engrossed in others. A little surprizing that this was volume three, but Leonard was a special guy. It sticks to the hearts of we Montrealer’s.
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in

Part of the book can be summarized with this quote from his friend, Barrie Wexler: “I joked that his spiritual mumbo jumbo wouldn’t work on a confirmed Jewish hypochondriac like me. (Cohen) shot back that it would if administered by another confirmed Jewish hypochondriac. And it did.”
Let’s conclude with the words of that noted songwriter and wordsmith, Bob Dylan, another Jewish fellow, but not sure if he too is a hypochondriac: “When people talk about Leonard, they fail to mention his melodies, which to me, along with his lyrics, are his greatest genius. Even the counterpoint lines – they give a celestial character and melodic lift to every one of his sones. As far as |I know, no one else comes close to this in modern music.”
Leonard Cohen has been faithful to the truth of the search for his being ~ Louis Dudek
A final thought, with more pictures, this would be a perfect coffee table book. Just saying.

Lino Matteo ©™
Twitter @Lino_Matteo

PS: “Legacy? I never thought it would mean anything to me when I’m dead. I’m going to be busy.” ~ Leonard Cohen
https://linomatteo.wordpress.com/2023...

[Nick Van · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fitting end of a monumental attempt to capture an elusive prey, the great artist and man Leonard Cohen. The first two volumes revealed Cohen as having lived an extremely compartmentalized life, and it is here in these final years and death that (as one witness says) the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle all come together to form a portrait. These books may not become the final biography on Cohen, but they certainly form its first draft. Posner has done crucial work in collecting these voices, and in presenting the most comprehensive portrait of a man who didn’t want to be painted, but only known on a personal, intimate level. Posner has done first-rate work in showing us the man, which both informs Cohen’s artistry, but also makes it even more mysterious and magical. A book worthy of its considerable subject, and sure to be as long-lived as Cohen’s immortal legacy.

[I.D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was probably the best of the trilogy focusing on the last few decades of Cohen’s life. It’s maybe the least understood era and the interviews add a lot to the understanding of what went on. The final year stuff was particularly illuminating. I still question some of the people allowed to speak (Lynch) and the lack of corroborated evidence for some wild claims , but the oral nature of the book does allow for falsehoods. Part of me thinks that’s almost a lazier way of approaching the topic, but it did occasionally produce some interesting insights. Overall this series was hit and miss with book 2 being the worst by far. Book 1 was okay, but a bit inessential. Book 3 saves the whole project honestly.

[Patricia L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't read the first two volumes and started in the middle of this volume 3 in order to hear from Kelley Lynch. I read to the end then had to read the beginning. The stories are so rich, especially in the second half. You even learn how the light gets in.

Everyone seems to have a different Leonard, Leotard, LC, the Jew, the Buddhist the monk. Surely there is a great joke that would use his many personalities.

The only issue I have with this marvellous biography by his friends is why wasn't Ira Nadel (also a biographer) not interviewed?

[Seth Arnopole · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third volume of an oral history of the life of Leonard Cohen begins around the time of the recording of his landmark album I’m Your Man and takes us through through the triumphs and the tribulations of the final two decades of his life.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best of all three!

[Helen Fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

[CJM · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exhaustive, fascinating, a must read for Cohen fans. This three volume biography will enhance anyone’s understanding of his oeuvre without setting biographical boundaries on the reader’s own interpretations of his work. On the darker side, it’s tough to hear about his relentless, pathological womanizing and the prevarication and psychological abuse inflicted on several of his paramours. But the work is greater than the man. It outlives him. Ultimately it’s the reader’s decision whether or not to love the art while hating— or at least having second thoughts—about the artist. In the meantime, these three books in my mind replace the fine but limited Sylvie Simmons bio of several years back, and while a more intensive and critical study of Cohen remains to be written, this set will satisfy any but the most cranky Cohenphile.

[David Keith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Grotesque to the bone of naked truth & not cracked up to what should have been. Elaborate and vulgar which is expected from the words of a man who is a beautiful loser. The light gets into the darkest reality of life bleached and wiped down leaving no room for decency. I thought I knew Mr. Chosen but, did not approve of his life style.

[Grace Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

LONNNGGGG - about the later years of his life (monk behaviour) but I am a sucker for Leonard cohen