 I bid you good-bye There's nothing to add I've tried and I try to stop going mad... (from early version of "The Book of Longing") Reviews & Articles 12) Canadian Press, May 16, 2006 |
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Humour, playfulness abound as Leonard Cohen promotes poetry collection Cassandra Szklarski, Canadian Press Published: Tuesday, May 16, 2006 TORONTO (CP) - Leonard Cohen knows the end is near. And when it comes, it won't be pretty. "Most third acts are pretty grisly - for everybody," the 71-year-old Cohen announces, seated at the head of a conference table in his publisher's office. "They involve old age, sickness and death. You preside over the disintegration of your own career and your own body and your own life, and your friends go. "I'm just on the outer edge of the third act - assuming that they'll give me a few more years - so it hasn't really started to collapse yet, but one knows that it is going to, as it does for everybody." Yes, we've caught Cohen in an upbeat mood. But, despite the dour comments, he's got a glint in his eye. He's happy and productive and his financial troubles are behind him. Cohen says his emergence from potentially crippling money woes, in which his longtime manager allegedly bilked more than $5 million from his retirement savings, have left him nourished and refreshed. "You can go either way as you get older, you can get heavy and bitter and ponderous or you can get sort of playful," a relaxed Cohen says in his trademark velvet tone. "I have no complaints." Remarkable, considering that he expects to recoup none of the $9 million awarded earlier this year in a lawsuit against Kelley Lynch, his one-time lover and manager for nearly 17 years. He was reportedly left with about $150,000 to retire with. With the legal battle behind him, Cohen is turning his attention to a slew of new projects, including the breezy collection of poems and illustrations, Book of Longing. It was more than 20 years in the making, and cobbled together from scratchings etched in Montreal, Mumbai and at Los Angeles's Zen Center, where he was ordained as a Zen monk called Jikan. Cohen says the work shifted through various incarnations, including a surrealistic turn that for a time bore the name the Book of Blue Coffee. With more than two decades separating this volume from the last, one might be tempted to call his 12th publication the Book of Prolonging, Cohen admits. "I never felt there was any urgency to publish," he says. "I always scratch away and fortunately, these projects came to completion at a time when it was very helpful because I was able to recover, slightly, from a financial level . . . These things all happen at a really good time for me so that my fortunes are not exactly restored but things are very, very good." Aside from the book, Cohen is promoting a jazz CD by his paramour Anjani Thomas. He produced the record Blue Alert and co-wrote the songs. And then there's the documentary movie set to be released in June. Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man, features interviews and concert footage. Currently, he's chipping away at a new CD and says he expects to tour upon its release. There's no slowing down into that final act, Cohen says. "It's a rigorous life, but it's a good life." (c) The Canadian Press 2006 Retrieved from www.canada.com / Contributed by Anne ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Back to Reviews & Articles. Welcome | Index | Works by Leonard Cohen | Reviews & Articles | Index of Titles / drawings, first lines & online poems | e-card | Credits & Thanks |
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