Experimental feature: Order Death of a Lady's Man from the UK, Canada, Germany or France by clicking an appropriate flag below.

               

Some items available at Amazon.com are not available in all countries.

Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780140422757
ISBN: 0140422757
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Book Pages: 216
Publication Date: 1979-09-27
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Studio: Penguin Classics

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: great
Review: this is one of the best books ever written. there is no one who is as honest as cohen when it comes to marriage combined hate and love all in one person.

---

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Interesting, difficult to penetrate
Review: While Cohen has never been a very abstract poet, Death Of A Lady's Man (a sly re-titling of his album of the previous year) was perhaps his first foray into more unique poetics. The vast majority of the book, indeed, is not poetry at all (really), but a sort of very loose type of prose. Rather than being the straight up poetry that his earlier volumes mostly were, this is a collection of rants and raves, almost all of them followed by a commentary on the poem, or a type of analyzation. Highly sarcastic. Cohen seems to be analyzing the deconstruction of his former persona (the "Lady's Man") through a failed relationship with his "wife." Pretty heavy stuff. It can be difficult to penetrate at times; and, indeed, you will probably be asking yourself at times if there is any meaning to it at all. Overall, I'd have to say it's not Cohen's best book of poetry (try The Energy of Slaves for that), it is an interesting one. If you're not a fan of him already, this book certainly won't convince you. However, a fan will want it.

---

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Complicated. This is not an intellectual review,
Review: but until a proper review is posted this will have to do...

Mr Cohen is using an old notebook, reworking compositions, poems, notes etc. and commenting on them to describe (I hope!) the loss of his persona to a relationship and what it has done to him and his art. I have assumed that each piece is related, although I haven't read it all as I got half way through and felt like I was illiterate.

However, it is thought provoking with some excellent rants, raves and disgruntled observations.

As a book to dip into occasionally to jar the mind and start thinking on a new level it is very good One very good poem is scathing about the facile use of histrionics to emphasise what one is saying, because words themselves are constructed to describe the object and meaning. It probably has a deeper meaning which I haven't fathomed but it kept me absorbed for a few days.

Sorry I can't be of more help but from this review you will know whether it's your cup of tea. I can recommend this book if you are not afraid of dying and are looking for something that will test your patience. It is a challenge. You will appreciate the quality of Cohen's art even if you don't understand the cultural references. The effort does pay off.

---

---