Charles Shaar Murray
Life of a Ladies’ Man
I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen
By Sylvie Simmons
Jonathan Cape 548pp £9.99 pbk
In early 1968, three primary enthusiasms emerged from the dizzyingly eclectic musical mash-up spun by John Peel on his Sunday afternoon Radio 1 show. One was the clattery, rattly Jive Tolkien of that elvish Presley, Marc Bolan, in what was then still called Tyrannosaurus Rex; the second was the Dadaist mutation of delta blues and free jazz created by Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band; and the third was the debut album of an obscure and comparatively elderly Canadian singer-songwriter named Leonard Cohen.
Biographies of pop musicians of a certain age tend to launch their narratives from childhoods spent either dirt-poor in America’s Deep South or Midwest or lower-middle class in wartime Britain. Cohen was a scion of Montreal’s prosperous Jewish bourgeoisie, exposed to radical folk music via left-Zionist summer camp and inquisitive
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm