A Ballet of Lepers: A Novel and Stories

by Leonard Cohen

A never-before-published early novel and stories by the legendary musician, songwriter, and poet Leonard Cohen Before Leonard Cohen’s worldwide fame expanded to fourteen studio albums, Grammy awards, and late-career global tours, he yearned for literary stardom. The Canadian songwriter of iconic hits like “Hallelujah,” “Suzanne,” and “Famous Blue Raincoat” first ventured into writing in his early twenties, and in A Ballet of Lepers: A Novel and Stories , readers will discover that the magic that animated Cohen’s unforgettable body of work was present from the very beginning of his career.  The pieces in this collection, written between 1956 and 1961 and including short fiction, a radio play, and a stunning early novel, offer startling insights into Cohen’s imagination and creative process. Cohen explores themes that would permeate his later work, from shame and unworthiness to sexual desire in all its sacred and profane dimensions to longing, whether for love, family, freedom, or transcendence. The titular novel, A Ballet of Lepers —one he later remarked was “probably a better novel” than his celebrated book  The Favourite Game —is a haunting examination of these elements in tandem, focusing on toxic relationships and the lengths to which one will go to maintain them, while the fifteen stories, as well as the playscript, probe the inner demons of his characters, many of whom could function as stand-ins for the author himself. Cohen's work is meditative and surprising, offering playful, provocative, and penetrating glimpses into the world-weary lives of his characters, and a window into the early art of a storytelling master.  A Ballet of Lepers , vivid in its detail, unsparing in its gaze, reveals the great artist and visceral genius as never seen before.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Canada, Poetry, Music, Audiobook, Novella

272 pages, Hardcover

First published October 11, 2022

About the author

Leonard Norman Cohen was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963.

Cohen's earliest songs (many of which appeared on the 1968 album Songs of Leonard Cohen) were rooted in European folk music melodies and instrumentation, sung in a high baritone. The 1970s were a musically restless period in which his influences broadened to encompass pop, cabaret, and world music. Since the 1980s he has typically sung in lower registers (bass baritone, sometimes bass), with accompaniment from electronic synthesizers and female backing singers.

His work often explores the themes of religion, isolation, sexuality, and complex interpersonal relationships.

Cohen's songs and poetry have influenced many other singer-songwriters, and more than a thousand renditions of his work have been recorded. He has been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and is also a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour. Cohen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10, 2008 for his status among the "highest and most influential echelon of songwriters".

Reviews

[Michael Burke · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I have never fully understood my anger. In fact, sometimes I am frightened by it. It is more of a hate than an anger.”

Leonard Cohen left us a treasure of stunning recordings created after he made his mark as an author. “A Ballet of Lepers: A Novel and Stories” is composed of earlier unpublished writings. Often when a recording artist dies there is a rush to release any salvageable unfinished work, regardless of whether it is worthwhile or merely a cash grab. This novel, these stories– do they give us any insight into the author… or should they have remained buried in some dusty trunk?

Those only superficially aware of his music may be surprised at the tone here. We will not find Judy Collins singing these verses. With streaks of sadism and violence, this version of Leonard is not one you may want to nudge up to. The voices here belong to loners for the most part and you can see why. The violence is explosive and brutal.

In the opening novella, “A Ballet of Lepers,” we see a cop get beaten, we see women get beaten, the protagonist even punches out his grandfather. At one point he concentrates his focus on a side character, a baggage handler he describes as “stupid and ugly and frightened.” This man evokes a “sharp sensation of hate” surging through his body. We are told this is the first real sensation he has felt in a while, but we are witnessing a man who seems to thrive on extremes. What follows is bullying, harassment, and humiliation all to fulfill a thirst for emotional stimuli.

Fear of intimacy is another prominent theme in these stories. Sex is good, but please, God, don’t ruin things by talking about relationships. After sex he finds it intolerable that his partner analyzes the relationship, performing an autopsy on where things stand. Her physical presence is what he wants– it serves to keep the threat of loneliness at bay. This is a far cry from the “ladies man” mystique which grew around him in his later years (a notion he laughed at).

The recordings of Leonard Cohen took us through nearly fifty years of thought provoking lyrics covering everything from beauty and romance to ugliness and hate. The works in this book tap into passionate hot spots, but are also powerful glimpses into the man working things out in his youth. These are rich, if not always sunny dispatches.

Thank you to Grove Atlantic, Grove Press and NetGalley and Edelweiss for providing advance reader copies in exchange for an honest review. #BalletOfLepers #NetGalley.

[Janelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Early writings of Leonard Cohen mostly written in the 50s including a novella (the title piece) and a bunch of short stories. They cover themes that are common in his other work, often the characters are poets (perhaps altar egos or autobiographical), there are demented old people, alienated and unusual young people, relationships are strange, sex is everything from beautiful to ugly, violent, or just sad. Many of the characters are awful people. The main character in A Ballet of Lepers is just horrible, he humiliates people, he’s cruel and nasty but I found it hard to look away. The writing is compelling in most of the stories and it’s an interesting read for anyone who is a Cohen fan.

[Kuszma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adott egy híres ember, és adott a híres embernek egy szöveghalma, amit többszöri próbálkozásra sem sikerült kiadatnia. (Bár - aláírom - alighanem még akkor akarta kiadatni, amikor kevésbé volt híres.) Gondolom, nem csak én állok ilyenkor neki úgy, hogy: "Na nézzük, mitől nem jó?" De az a helyzet, hogy jó. A kötet majd felét kitevő kisregény, a Leprások balettje például egyenesen remek: labirintusszerű szerkezet, amibe Kafka és Bukowski bemennek kézenfogva eltévedni. Nyugtalanító mese arról, hogy határaink kompromisszummentes feszegetése óhatatlanul a magány és az őrület szakadékát nyitja meg. És mellesleg még olyan finomságokon is töprenghetünk, hogy az elbeszélő váratlanul megjelenő zavart nagyapja a főhős személyiségének megtükröződése, vagy valódi figura-e? De ha valódi, akkor meg honnan szalajtották?

A novellák se rosszak, sőt. Visszatérő főszereplőjük a szenzitív, önmagát kereső fiatalember (magyarul: az író), akinek fáj, ha nem szeretik, de ha szeretik, akkor meg nem tud mit kezdeni vele. Ismerős típus, nem? Mindenesetre Cohen elég öniróniával rendelkezik ahhoz, hogy ezt a figurát helyén kezelje, hogy mást ne mondjak, maga definiálja a típust legpontosabban:

"Van annyi humorérzékem, hogy egy olyan fiatalembert lássak, aki egy Stendhal-regényből lép elő, hajlik a ripacskodásra, kényelmetlen erekcióval sétál el."

Szóval nemigen értem ezt. Komolyan, itthon Kovács Ákos elbeszéléskötetet adat ki és filmet rendez, Cohen meg ezekre nem talált kiadót? Hogy van ez? Ja, mondjuk lehet, csak nem a megfelelő emberekkel barátkozott.

[So_Unhip_Shan · Rating 2 out of 5]

One Saturday afternoon while perusing the kitchen and bath store known as Indigo, I ran into this volume. Armed with $260 worth of gift cards in one hand, and a soon-to-be-mine citrus zester, I swept it off the shelf, and made my way through the purses, hats, crafts, candles, and exercise equipment to the til.

Having previously read only Cohen's poems, I wasn't sure what to expect: Leonard Cohen is a poet, to be sure, and a beautiful one at that. It shines through in all his prose. Take this passage for example, "We spoke so that we could become tender. It was not the kind of tenderness which follows passion, but the kind which follows failure." Beautiful!

Putting beautiful prose aside, Cohen seemed obsessed with the darkest, most violent, and weirdly sexual themes. There was too much depravity and violence for me to actually enjoy this book of posthumously published work. Maybe there is a reason it was left unpublished, after he rose to fame, while he was still alive...

[Biddy Mahy]

Somehow writes like a woman and a bachelor

[Sen (Henry’s gloves) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Warning straight people

This contains a novella and collection of short stories. Only a few really interested in me and even then they were not the greatest. Cohen has great prose but his work somehow is just bland. Some of the stories are so completely bewildering and absurd that I found myself enjoying myself but then it’d end before I fully could.
This book focuses on beauty and sex and youth and a lot of men who do not reciprocate feelings with the women in their life. The last few stories in the collection are a lot more interesting (And noticeably less horny) than the first and middle sections.
Sometimes I get the idea that sex is happening but it is so irkingly vague and feels so empty that I don’t even feel the need to try and hide the fact that it’s there because it feels like nothing.
I really do love Cohen as a singer and I thought his books would be great so I am incredibly disappointed by the revelation that it’s extremely mediocre at best.

[Armine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful writing about ugly things. Here, Leonard Cohen is borderline Bukowskian in his passages on women, so I hesitate to openly recommend this work. I believe I enjoyed this more than I normally would, having recently revisited Montreal and walked the same streets as Cohen’s characters. However, even without being spatially situated, I never grew tired of these short stories. Instead, I was drawn to the depraved internal worlds of their narrators. I laughed aloud at the candid examination of the deceit necessary to uphold most relationships and maintain the sanity of most people:

“‘I'm so old, God, I'm so old.’
She lay in my uncovered arms.
‘You are beautiful,’ I lied compassionately. ‘You will always be beautiful.’”

I laughed at the cruel candor of the hopeless, noncommittal types I am all too familiar with:

“What was the use of pretending or making up silly theories about a love based on complete familiarity? Why should we be any different from the rest? They part who exchange promises of eternity as surely as they who have the honesty to remain silent.”

Mostly, I felt the lingering loneliness inherited by the children of those who left the Old Country:

“As I grow older, I realize how monumental was their individual isolation. They even refused to develop a private vocabulary of facial expressions. When my mother tried to use her beautiful eyes and hands to describe something, my father said, "No, no, begin again, English." No subtleties, no intimacies, no secrets- they died, I'm sure, of loneliness.”

[leni swagger · Rating 2 out of 5]

Leonard Cohen might not be the love of my life anymore…

"A Ballet of Lepers" was disturbing, shocking, and not at all what I had expected.

It’s filled with violence, and the characters in the book get a thrill from hurting and abusing the people in their lives. Cohen tried to be edgy and dark but failed to get the actual message across.

As this one was published posthumously, I choose to believe that Cohen didn’t want it to be published. He’ll just be the king of lyricism and poetry to me.

The short stories were fine but not memorable in any way.

[Monica Cabral · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Não há homem à face da Terra que nunca se tenha entregado a fantasias de violência. O poder por intermédio da violência,  que sonho inebriante!"

O narrador deste romance é um homem de 35 anos com uma vida pessoal banal e monótona. Um dia recebe um telefonema dos cuidadores do seu avô paterno que perante a impossibilidade de continuarem a cuidar dele, informam-lhe que o avô vai ter que ir morar com ele. Ora, o nosso protagonista não conhece o avô,  nem sabia que ele era vivo e não tem condições para o receber mas mesmo assim aceita de coração ter que cuidar deste avô desconhecido e recebê-lo no seu pequeno quarto alugado.
A chegada deste avô à sua vida vai mudar completamente a visão do mundo que tinha, o avô é um homem desbocado e violento, o que desperta algo em si, levando-o a cometer actos violentos e obsessivos.
Um Balé de Leprosos,  o romance,  é uma exploração da violência e da beleza,  do amor e da crueldade, da obsessão e da renúncia.  O romance em si é tenso e disseca a instabilidade psicológica do narrador e a sua descida "ao Inferno ".
Os contos inseridos neste livro vão desde os mais simples e aborrecidos, aos mais complexos e desafiadores. O meu preferido é "Polly", um vislumbre perspicaz da paixão jovem da perspectiva de um menino. 
Este romance e contos foram escritos por Leonard Cohen entre 1956 e 1961 quando tinha vinte e poucos anos mas já se notava um pouco a genialidade que Cohen colocou na sua poesia, romances e canções.

[George Ilsley · Rating 2 out of 5]

This volume is a novella (the title work) plus 15 or so short stories; early works from Leonard Cohen.

I started with the short stories and they were okay, up and down. At least they were short. Three had the same characters in terms of the names, but they did not seem like they were the same people in each story.

There is also what the editor calls a "playscript" in his Afterword; however, this reads as another short story.

Apparently Cohen tried to publish these works in his lifetime, but it probably helped his reputation that they remained unseen until now.

I read about half of the title novella, skimming parts, but could not force myself to continue.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

His senile, insane, jewish Paternal grandfather who barely speaks english drives him towards a black epiphany, violence is the answer, I ought to express myself totally, the purest expression of that, is a freely outburst of violence, a clean expression of will, to throw poop at the landlady is another expression of this, though belting her is not, nonetheless, his grandfather’s insane violent arrival drives him into a bought of messianic religious psychosis and totally ruins his dead end life with his aspirations of sadism & cruelty flatly deflating into pathetic cries of loneliness, this was equal parts intriguing as it was repulsive, and I think correctly rectifies this “sensitive young man” persona as being multifaceted, expanding in both directions, “sensitive young men” are so sensitive they are prone to disgust, and hate, misogyny and bitterness, ugliness, naked displays of ugliness, cruelties, that’s fine, so long as we don’t pretend they don’t partake or aren’t capable of this, the same man, Leonard Cohen, who made mournful, soft, lovely, loving, Godful songs, of course sings “Songs of Love and Hate”, hateful ugly expressions of the same sensitive man in A Ballet of Lepers, the same mind, its a relief almost to know that he wasn’t a sweet man, he’s just as ugly, if not uglier than the rest of us, so I can be disgusted, and I can be confused at more innocent, childlike tenderness and betrayals like his short story “Polly”

[Rafael Estepa · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Llegó a entender que, para él, la pasión era un delicado equilibrio entre el atractivo y la repulsión.” Debo ser sincero, el libro no me ha gustado especialmente. A nivel edición es raro comenzar con una novela corta y continuar leyendo relatos. La obra, en general, me resulta excesivamente violenta e incómoda. La narrativa muy poética. En demasiadas ocasiones he sentido que rompía el pacto de ficción y me sacaba, en cierto modo, de las tramas de los relatos. Un lenguaje muy lírico y bello, muy trabajado para ser escritos de su edad temprana, pero, no en pocas ocasiones, me perdía de la historia.

[MJ's Latte☕ · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I lied. Her body no longer surprised me. I knew all its secrets. It was lying naked in my prison, languishing there, until the rest of her pilgrim lovers would discover her and be surprised. It thought of those lovers, countless thighs and breasts, countless bodies in their history who would still gasp in surprise at her first unclothing as they had for all the first unclothings in their long journeys" (46).

I would have given this five stars if the short stories were not included. The novella itself was worth five stars.
A lot of the reviews I see on here say the writing is misogynistic or glorifies violence. I would disagree- it explores it. Cohen in "A Ballet of Lepers" tries to explore the reasons why people are violent, what emotions drive violence, and why some people indulge in pain as they would pleasure. The main character, unnamed and 35 living in Montreal, has (spoiler: who he thinks is but is actually not) his grandfather living with him who is violent, barely speaks English, and is slowly dying. The very first interaction the narrator has upon meeting his grandfather is when he is pissing in the streets and beating up a policeman. He takes his grandfather in regardless of this behavior, I don't think to support it like some reviewers say, but to understand it. And I think that's what a lot of the dense reviewers on here are missing is because the main character does not ever fully endorse violence, even when he is committing it; he always feels a remorse afterwards or reflects on the behavior. He's not sadistic because he doesn't do it for fun. Even in the scene (spoiler) where he beats the woman he's been having an affair with, Marilyn, after lying to her for months about his love for her, a) she begs him for it b) he is seeking a sort of justice for the lies he told her and while it was a really hard scene to read this is where Cohen explores the root cause of sado-masochism; connection. Marilyn says when the narrator tries to break up with her (and honestly she basically assaults him.... why isn't anyone mentioning that??) ""Hurt me," She gasped, "I love you""(80), which one could argue is Cohen playing out a fantasy of his own but I think he's really trying to get at the masochism here, considering the violence here is consensual "I do not think she resisted, she urged us to continue, pleading with us not to stop, until the three of us were moving in the same frantic dance, like three items of debris on the same wave of a heaving sea" (81).

The main narrator is definitely psychotic. That's an important aspect of this book to remember. And I think his grandpa is too, potentially with age or an underlying disorder, and I think they sort of feed off each other. "We are not mad, we are human and we want to love, and someone must forgive us for the paths we take to love, for the paths are many and dark and we are ardent and cruel in our journey, murdering anything in our way, rock, animal, child or corpse; and someone must forgive us for the rituals we invent to isolate purity, for we we want our love to be pure" (83). That's something he writes in one of the reflective states WHICH IS ONE THING I LIKED ABOUT THIS BOOK-- is that it toggled between detached narration and introspective reflection. I loved that. Without these inserted reflections, I think it maybe would've been considered to be a glorification of violence. I laughed to myself at the end of the paragraph on pg 83 when he says "But now, I must return. I have suspended the story long enough with these reflections." The moments where he breaks the fourth wall are where the narrator really shines.
I have to say, I didn't like Marilyn. Not because of how she was written, because I think she was well-written, and I know we weren't supposed to like her because the narrator doesn't, but I think she's just overall unaware. She doesn't see the narrator as a real person like the narrator sees her; which is what I thought was interesting considering this was written by a man and in a heterosexual relationship I think most of the time the dynamic would be switched right, don't men not normally see women as being their own beings? The narrator expresses a lot of empathy for her even though he isn't attracted, "Why did she offer me this body, that she used all day, which worked, sweated, eliminated, ached?" (46).
Another epiphany moment I liked was, "What was happening to me? Was anything happening to me? Perhaps that has been the greatest error in my life, believing that something was changing, that I was taking some new direction. What a concept that is; what an illusion for those who are bound to the wheel" (30). Leonard's identity as a poet is really apparent in moments like those.
The writing was brilliant. The grandfather and his plot twist was fucking crazy.

[Max Nemtsov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Голос Коэна - в каждой фразе, эту интонацию невозможно эмулировать. При том, что это ранние его тексты, преимущественно до 1960 года, а повесть была и вообще до "Любимой игры". Но ритмизованная проза уже совершенно безошибочно мастерская и его.

Spring was definitely on the city. There seemed to be people at every corner, just lingering. Young men, with greased hair and open shirts, stood against walls and plotted fantastic orgies with every passing female. Old men clustered around public benches and set up new governments

Удивительным образом роман между героем и героиней тут тоже, как и у Петрова в "Турдейской", насквозь литературен, но зеркален: слова и образы генерирует Мэрилин, героя-рассказчика тянет к простому бытию. А функцию войны выполняет дедушка, который "освобождает" героя своей тягой к насилию  (прочесть две эти повести подряд оказалось интересно, так совпало). Ну и обычные неоднозначные мучительные отношения всех со всеми, как у Коэна везде - и в песнях, и в стихах, и в романах.

Ну и совсем волшебные рассказы - вполне автобиографические, но с отзвуками многого - и Карвера, и Джойса, и Бартелми, и кого не (ну и немного Кафки там растворено везде, куда ж без окаянного Кафки - особенно в рассказах про мистера Юмера-рифмуется-с-тумором):

All day, they carry their unwritten novels and unpainted pictures around in their heads.

И это в целом осколки и грани жизни совершенно особого куска жизни и культуры во времени - золотая джазовая творческая молодежь провинциального Монреалья в 50е - средоточия совершенно иной для нас вселенной. И да, чудесные рассказы о детстве, такие бы надо в любую школьную хрестоматию.

И прекрасный греческий рассказ о тусовке этаких международных постбитницких экспатов ("плавник" как он их называет) на Идре. А также рассказик (вернее набросок), в котором Коэн написал типа фантастику (на самом деле нет - это скорее еврейская притча), за что его русские любители, не знающие другой литературы, несомненно причислят к лику фантастов.

[Finnegan Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is important to review this book under a specific lens: Leonard Cohen did not publish these stories, and thus in some way or another, they were not ready for the public eye. As such, there is a certain amount of leeway that can be granted here. The book consists of a short novel, and a variety of short stories with varying topics and characters.

The main novel, A Ballet of Lepers, is indistinguishably a Leonard Cohen piece. From the first sentence, his poetic and dramatized seeps through every line. Romantic and hopelessly artistic descriptions of both divine beauty and mundanely asinine normalities scatter throughout each paragraph, providing a good view of the artistry of his work. You can tell it is from early in his writing career, as his skills as a fiction writer develop throughout the book. At the beginning, sentences contain single, brief clauses or ideas, and are short, abrasive, abrupt. As the story progresses, sentences become longer, ideas become stretched out, ideas become more succinct, and the story begins to flow more naturally.

One thing about the novel is that I really did enjoy it. I was driven by the story, intrigued by the characters, and once I had figured out what was happening behind the overly romantic descriptions, could not stop reading. That being said, after reading the book, I was left with a strange feeling: I did not agree with the lesson being told here.

Cohen, in this novel, seems to convey love as a violent and cowardly thing to do. In this book, relationships are described less as love and more as an eventual necessity; when someone becomes too bored, too tired, too old to continue pursuing others, a relationship becomes a sad eventuality. I do not agree with this, however, it has been a fulfilling perspective to try and reason with.

I think the core component behind the violence and cowardice present and associated with love in this novel is the idea of loneliness. Nobody wants to be lonely, something that I find ironic considering that the relationships described in this novel (the supposed solution to this problem) seem to be the loneliest of all. From this perspective, the narrator seems to view love as a pointless endeavor altogether. That being said, reflection upon this idea has led me to some equally positive ones. If I could talk to the narrator, I would express that love should not be a solution to anything, especially loneliness. Love is an opportunity, something that presents itself to you and takes over completely. To look for love, means you are looking for a solution. Love has to come to you, and when it does, it is happy, hopeful, romantic, and inspiring - none of which are feelings or ideas shared with the narrator. This type of love is an addition to a life moving forward, not a solution to part of a life in the past.

Unfortunately, the short stories did not hit the mark for me. There were a select few I quite enjoyed; Saint Jig, the stories with Mr. Eumer, and Short Story on Greek Island. However, I felt that the overly artistic and dramatic writing style did not lend itself as well to short story form, as it became difficult to follow what was happening, who was talking, and what the story way. The stories listed above were concrete about the characters, the plot, and and setting, which made them much more digestible to read. The short stories also diverged a little bit from the hopeless rhetoric of the novel, although sometimes in an equally negative direction. Short Story on Greek Island I found especially interesting, and really enjoyed the setting, but did not escape the association between violence and love that I find a bit jarring in this setting. Similarly, the stories of Mr. Eumer were interesting and fully fleshed out, but felt uncomfortable at times. Saint Jig, I would love to read a full book of.

Although the messaging of the book may not have resonated with me, it prompted some valuable reflection. I read this book in its entirety side by side with my lovely girlfriend. We talked with each other about how the book made us feel, and our thoughts on love and how it was portrayed here. I appreciated the opportunity to connect in this way, and it made me grateful that the love that found me was an opportunity, not a solution.

[Diane Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book comprises some of Cohen’s early writings; a novella and 16 short stories. The novella reminded me of L’Étranger by Albert Camus. There is the same sense of alienation, of a failure to fit into accepted norms and a desire for intimacy which the author cannot achieve. The stories are similar, beautifully written, but strange and often unsettling. I’m not sure I enjoyed this book, but it was certainly interesting.

[jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

they part who exchange promises of eternity as surely as they who have the honesty to remain silent. last year's beloveds are the same as this year's. it is only the lovers who have changed. love is constant, only the lovers change. i sometimes picture the whole thing as a great game of musical chairs. when the music stops, a few, very few unfortunate ones, cannot continue in the game; the rest find a place to sit before the music starts again. in the scramble, of course, there are bruised knees and hearts, even an assault or a murder, and literature is composed of these casualties but usually one chair is as good as another.

comprised of the titular novel, 15 short stories, and a single playscript, a ballet of lepers is the second posthumous collection of writing by canadian singer-songwriter and author leonard cohen — following 2018's the flame. written between 1956 and 1961, when cohen was in his early and mid-twenties, these previously unpublished pieces find the young wordsmith exploring themes that would later define both his poetry and music, including sex and romantical yearning, individuality and life without limitation, violence and brutality. cohen's black humor is present throughout and a certain youthful vigor (that matured into a sagely enlightenment over the decades to come) lend these early writings a perhaps less-perfected quality when compared to his exacting, precise lyrical compositions. "a ballet of lepers" is the book's strongest and most impressive entry, but several of the stories — including "saint jig," "signals," "polly," and "mister euemer episodes" — are excellent.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5! I love Leonard Cohen! Such a beautiful book that deserves more recognition… Having lived in Montreal, reading this book felt especially intimate and nostalgic for me as many of the stories take place there <3

“Your eyes are trained for continents. Half my bed is too little empire for your imperial appetite. I will always imagine you in the air, at the summit of a mountain or on the roof of a great Manhattan hotel.”

[Benji Light · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can see why these weren’t published when he was alive!
While some of the short stories and one-liners (e.g. “one thing is for sure: I know how to relax in a bathtub 🗣️🗣️) were okay, it was mostly an agonising read full of bitterness and depravity. Would only recommend to Leonard Cohen fans that can’t get enough of his work.

[Mariana Jimenez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exquisite for the most part. In respect to what remains, it was interesting to see how it contributed to his larger body of work.

[jp arsenault · Rating 4 out of 5]

a cute guy rec me this book, otherwise i would never have read it. it's was weird and cool, tho.

[Arlette Roos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hier en daar heel mooi poëtisch, maar wel een beetje ongezellige verhaallijnen telkens (waarvan ik er een paar ook niet helemaal begreep). Hou t verder toch maar bij zijn muziek geloof ik :)

[archive · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actually read this book last year! I stopped reading after the Short stories. I really liked the novel. I can see why Ottessa Moshfegh wrote a blurb

[Wolfe Tone · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5*

I prefer Cohen as a poet and a singer, but this was still an interesting look into the mind of the young Leonard. Some stories work very well, some less so.

[Alex Sarll]

Various early writings (1956-61) from Leonard Cohen, in which you can absolutely see the same mind and sensibility that would so enrich the world through his music, while also having a pretty good idea why they've remained in the vault up to now. The title piece is a short novel, which begins in classic Cohen territory, sex and mortality waltzing together: "For a minute or two, we inspected our thirty-five-year-old bodies. And truly at that moment our flesh, flesh which we all know dies swiftly and unlovely, was beautiful." There's rueful wisdom: "They part who exchange promises of eternity as surely as they who have the honesty to remain silent. Last year's beloveds are the same as this year's, it is only the lovers who have changed." There is a man writing in blissful ignorance of the notion that, in a supposedly more liberated future, there would one day be such a thing as the Bad Sex Award: "Sweat is perfume, groans are gold, gasps are bells, shudders are silver. I wouldn't have traded this for the ravages of the loveliest swan." But the stretches of a Cohen at once still forming and yet bordering on self-parody haven't quite found the appropriate chassis yet. The plot - a man who sleeps in his clothes to save time, then makes his colleague look bad with the fastidious boss; a horny young man forced to forego his privacy in order to put up his outrageously violent and ill-mannered grandfather, yet still grumpily fornicating in the shared room – feels much more like a knockabout US comedy film. Is this a record of the incongruous inner life of the star of a nineties gross-out movie? The more we see of the awful ancestor, the more he feels like a realistic – and thus considerably less amusing – reboot of Father Jack. Soon, the narrator is treating the old man as some kind of stinking oracle, finding romance with Marilyn a chore compared to the delights of stalking a baggage clerk he's taken against. There is a distance between narrator and author but, I suspected, never quite as much as the author might have liked – perhaps one reason why the older, wiser author never saw fit to publish this while he was still with us. Especially when it gives the impression of having been abandoned with an ending which, while it can't altogether be called unfair or random, does retrospectively confer on the whole enterprise the air of a grotesque shaggy dog story.

The rest of the book comprises one radio play – which seems somehow incongruous, even though it was with words and voices that Cohen would go on to make his name, and even though here it's not formatted as one anyway – and assorted short stories, mostly at the shorter end of the spectrum. Some have distinct overlap with the novel, whether that be the fascination with deformity in Saint Jig or the senile, incontinent grandfather in A Hundred Suits From Russia. Elsewhere, it's more general, vignettes of callow jealousy and performative heartbreak, not dross exactly but (with the possible exception of the especially autobiographical The Jukebox Heart) a long way from the gold into which their author would later refine such concerns. Several follow Mister Euemer, an everyman figure one could easily see becoming the spine of Cohen's career in an alternate world where his career followed Updike more than Dylan, and his wife; the best of these is the emotional rollercoaster of Lullaby: "Into the night, she wept for the youth she thought she had been cheated of, and for the spires, towers, canals, and hills she would never see, and she wept secretly for the romances in obscure village inns which she would never enjoy." But I think my favourite of the lot may be Polly, a tangled little tale of burgeoning sexuality which also manages to feel weirdly like rebadged slash of Taskmaster, a programme it preceded by more than half a century.

(Netgalley ARC)

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before this book I had only read Cohen’s poetry and listened to his music, delving into these short stories gives you a better understanding of the man who wrote the mighty “Hallelujah”. That song was constantly on my mind as I read about these characters and witnessed what was going on in their heads and in their lives, there is a constant underlying sadness in everything they do, each short story is a snapshot of a moment that finds it’s way under your skin.

A week is a very long time captures the beauty of Cohen’s words. A couple stood nude at a window witnessing a man down on the street hunting for a cat, in a few lines their whole relationship becomes understood and as the scenes with the cat hunter conclude you can see only one way the story for the couple can end. Pure brilliance.

The short novel story A Ballet of Lepers made for easy reading, a destructive grandpa arriving in the protagonist’s life turns this story on it’s head, the Grandpa’s input is only small but it dominates everything. I really enjoyed it and for some reason, I’m not sure why, as soon as the Grandpa makes his entrance I had an elderly Bukowski pictured. A good story with a satisfying conclusion.

If you are a fan of Cohen then you gotta read this book and maybe then try some poems with The Energy Of Slaves.

Blog review: https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2025...

[Toby Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like a 2.5 but this rating is absent.

I’m a great fan of Leonard Cohen’s music, hence my interest in reading his prose… this, this is quite different.

Don’t get me wrong, you can tell it’s Leonard. His consistent themes in his songs, from alienation to sexual desire and womanliness, are all present here, though there’s an ugliness you get from his words, a violence of spirit.

The story of the novel(la), A Ballet of Lepers, is not really present. It’s more like it has a concept and scenes populate it that serve said concept. It’s also, as reviews have pointed out, rather humourless. I saw a remark, made somewhere I cannot recall, about how Cohen was the only Jew who had not an ounce of humour in his prose. I can see where they’re coming from…

A lot of the short stories, as well, offer little in emotional resonance. There are a lot of very pretty and elaborate sentences, though to what purpose? I could cite one or two of the stories that had any impact aside from mere appreciation.

Cohen’s gift was his poetry. He could squeeze so much meaning into so few words. You listen to a song like Hallelujah and that’s clear. Over the novel, his poetry is diluted and his strength falters. I am glad I read it, at least to experience it myself, but I doubt I shall return.

[Alice He]

Leonard Cohen slays

[Daniel Recasens Salvador · Rating 3 out of 5]

Suposo que només pel fet de ser Cohen ja té mitja feina feta, però el fet és que el conjunt evidencia el talent per explicar històries i construir personatges. I traduït per la Míriam Cano!

[Alex Sjerven · Rating 1 out of 5]

Leonard Cohen hates women