Synopses & Reviews
The legend behind such songs as “Suzanne,” “Bird on the Wire” and “Hallelujah” andthe poet and novelist behind such groundbreaking literary works as
Beautiful Losers and
Book of Mercy, Leonard Cohen is one of the most important and influential artists of our era, a man of powerful emotion and intelligence whose work has explored the definitive issues of human life — sex, religion, power, meaning, love. Cohen is also a man of complexities and seeming contradictions: a devout Jew, who is also a sophisticate and ladies man, as well as an ordained Buddhist monk whose name, Jikan — “ordinary silence” — is quite the appellation for a writer and singer whose life has been anything but ordinary.
I'm Your Man is the definitive account of that extraordinary life. Acclaimed music journalist Sylvie Simmons crafts a portrait of Cohen as nuanced as the man himself, drawing on a wealth of research that includes Cohens personal archives and more than a hundred exclusive interviews with those closest to Cohen — from his lovers, friends, monks, professors, rabbis and fellow musicians to his muses, including Rebecca De Mornay, Marianne Ihlen, Suzanne Elrod and Suzanne Verdal — and most important, with Cohen himself, whose presence infuses these pages.
Starting in Montreal, Cohen's birthplace, where he first found fame as a poet in the fifties, Simmons follows his trail, via London and the Greek island of Hydra, to New York in the sixties, where he launched his music career. From there she traces the arc of his prodigious achievements to his remarkable retreat in the mid-nineties — when on the cusp of marriage to a beautiful actress and enjoying the success of his best-selling album to date, he entered a monastery on a rocky mountaintop above Los Angeles — and finally to his reemergence for a sold-out world tour almost fifteen years later. Whether navigating Cohen's journeys through the back streets of Mumbai or the countless hotel rooms where he has stayed along the way, Simmons explores with equal focus every complex, contradictory strand of Cohen's life — from the halls of academia to the arenas of rock 'n' roll — and presents a deeply insightful portrait of both the artist and the man whose vision, spirit, depth and talent continue to move people like no one else.
Review
“I'm Your Man is the major, soul-searching biography that Leonard Cohen deserves...a mesmerizing labor of love.” Janet Maslin, New York Times
Review
“A thoughtful celebration of the artists life...Simmons has deftly narrated Cohens evolution....In the end, this biography has the oddest effect: as soon as you finish reading it you feel an overwhelming impulse to go back and begin again, revisiting the story with what you've learned along the way.” A.M. Homes, New York Times Book Review
Review
“A new gold standard of Cohen bios.” Los Angeles Times
Review
“This is the bio Cohen has long deserved, and it makes every prior Cohen book practically unnecessary.” Rolling Stone
Review
“The book is a seductive tribute to a master seducer.” The Onion A.V. Club
Review
“A deep, enlightening book....Simmons, a music journalist and short-story writer, knows how to research and write and keep a critical distance from Cohen, who opens up some but uses his usual weapons, politeness and self-deprecation, to maintain an air of mystery.” The Oregonian (Portland)
Review
“Leonard fought darkness through his work and...the light ultimately prevailed when he triumphantly toured the world for three years beginning in 2008....'You could hear the hairs stand up on people's arms,' writes Simmons of the hushed reverence of his audience. This book demands a similar reaction.” MOJO Magazine
Review
“This is a revelatory biography that investigates not just an artist's life, but the life of his art.” Shelf Awareness
Review
“In I'm Your Man, we see not only the life of one man who was transformed by words, but how we ourselves may be transformed by them.” New York Jewish Week
Review
“Simmons rich, compelling and provocative book...is a star-studded but also frank account of how the music industry really works and, at the same time, a discerning portrait of one especially important musician.” Jewish Journal Los Angeles
Review
“Simmons is a wonderful writer... the book informs like carefully researched non-fiction, but engages like enchanting fiction... Like listening to one of Cohens songs, this complex, beautiful biography requires you to think about it. This book will stay with you. It will change the way you hear Leonard Cohen.” Paste Magazine
Review
“[A] vibrant and enthusiastic chronicle....Carefully weaving the threads of all of his songs and albums through the patterns of his life, Simmons craftily explores the themes that regularly mark Cohen's work: desire, regret, suffering, love, hope, and hamming it up.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Review
“In this elegantly crafted biography, Simmons captures the artist who, in spite of all his highs and lows, is still sharp at the edges, a wise old monk, a trouper offering up himself and his songs.” BookPage
Review
“Exquisitely researched and elegantly written.” Dallas Morning News
Review
“The success of Simmons book is the way it deftly integrates each facet in a unified portrait.” San Jose Mercury News
Review
“Cohen is a complex man and Sylvie Simmons has captured every essence of it in her remarkable book. This is a deeply insightful portrait that is guaranteed to haunt the reader much like his “Suzanne” and “Bird on the Wire.” The Tuscon Citizen
Review
“Compelling biography....A must for anyone interested in one of the most influential songwriters of our time.” Booklist (starred review)
Review
andquot;Tippins tells riveting stories about the Chelseaandrsquo;s artists, but she also captures a much grander, and more pressing, narrative: that of the ongoing battle between art and capitalism in the city.andquot;
andmdash;The New Yorker
and#160;
andquot;An impossible order for any writer: Get the Chelseaandrsquo;s romance down on paper and try to keep up with Patti Smith and Joni Mitchell and Arthur Miller. But Sherill Tippinsandrsquo;s history does a vivid job of taking you up into those seedy, splendid hallways, now gone forever.andquot;
andmdash;New York Magazine
and#160;
andquot;An inspired investigation into the utopian spirit of the Chelsea Hotelandquot; andmdash;
ELLE
and#160;
andquot;Cool hunters will appreciate Sherill Tippinsandrsquo;s Inside the Dream Palace: The Life and Times of New Yorkandrsquo;s Legendary Chelsea Hotel, a social history of the cityandrsquo;s sanctuary for postwar artists and It girls.andquot;
andmdash;Vogue
and#160;
andldquo;With her lively Inside the Dream Palace, literary biographer Sherill Tippins succeeds where other historians studying New York landmarks have failed: She understands that even the most splendid buildings are mere settings for the personalities that inhabit them, and wisely bypasses rote chronology for the vigor of cultural excavationandhellip; The Chelsea Hotel may face an uncertain future, but Tippinsandrsquo;s enchanting book guarantees its renown for generations to come.andrdquo;
andmdash;Time Out New York
and#160;
andldquo;Inside the Dream Palace opens door on a vivid Chelsea Hotelandhellip;andhellip;[an] engaging, readable historyandrdquo;
andmdash;The Los Angeles Times
and#160;
andquot;A revealing biography of the fabled Manhattan hotel, in which generations of artists and writers found a haven...A zesty, energetic history, not only of a building, but of more than a century of American culture.andquot; andmdash;
Kirkus
and#160;
andquot;Tippins smoothly conveys the atmosphere at the Chelsea in its early days through her descriptions of Gilded Age luminaries like William Dean Howells, while she focuses on the hard-drinking Thomas Wolfe and the suave composer Virgil Thomson in her treatment of the Depression era. However, the prose comes fully alive as Tippins documents the shifting currents of New York bohemia in the decades after WWII. The list of luminaries who helped to create the Chelsea magic include Arthur Miller, Arthur C. Clarke, Edie Sedgwick, Harry Smith, Bob Dylan, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jack Kerouac, and many, many othersandmdash;a veritable whoandrsquo;s-who of American postwar artists. A fascinating account of how a single building in New York City nurtured a community of freaks, dreamers, and outcasts whose rejection of the status quo helped to transform it.andquot; andmdash;
Publishers Weekly
and#160;
andquot;Zealous, big-picture researcher Tippins not only tells compelling tales, she also weaves them into a strikingly fresh, lucid, and socially anchored history of New Yorkandrsquo;s world-altering art movements. Though its future is uncertain, Tippins ensures that the Chelsea Hotel, dream palace and microcosm, will live on in our collective memory.andquot;
andmdash;Booklist, starred
and#160;
andldquo;Not only essential to the understanding of this crucial New York Cityandmdash;and therefore Americanandmdash;cultural landmark but as majestic and populous as the edifice itself, and completely entertaining.andrdquo; andmdash;
Daniel Menaker, author of My Mistake: A Memoir
and#160;
andldquo;New York, the greatest city in the world, has been a magnet for bohemians since it was founded, and the Chelsea Hotel has been Bohemiaand#39;s home address for more than a century. Sherill Tippins captures the mad magic of this storied building. She has written a history, not just of a hotel, but of a dream: the dream that art can change the world. Her serene and nonjudgmental eye gives coherence and shape to a story that resists any conventional frame. The Chelsea has had its high points and low, supreme artistic achievements and drug-addled suicides, sometimes in the same room. Tippins is an indispensable urban historian; her book is a guide to the lofty aspirations and crashing disappointments of Americaand#39;s artistic avant-garde over the last century and a half. An unforgettable read.andrdquo;
andmdash;Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director, New York Public Theater
and#160;
andldquo;The Chelsea Hotel is so much more than the place where Sid Vicious may or may not have killed his girlfriend; it was a social experiment turned incubator for creativity. It was home for the artists and weirdos that made this city so interestingandmdash;famous, infamous, and everything in between. Sherill Tippins has done a masterful job of condensing a history that could be volumes long, into a book thatandrsquo;s enthralling, enlightening and understandably wistful.andrdquo;
andmdash;Judy McGuire, author of The Official Book of Sex, Drugs, and Rock and#39;nand#39; Roll Lists
and#160;
andldquo;An amazing history of not only the Chelsea Hotel but New York City itself. Thank you, Sherill Tippins, for this exciting story of how a building became a community and went on to be a legend. Inside the Dream Palace reads like the best fiction and never ever slows down from beginning to end.andrdquo;
andmdash;Country Joe McDonald, activist and lead singer of Country Joe and the Fish
and#160;
and#160;
and#160;
Synopsis
The New York Times-bestselling, definitive biography of lengendary artist Leonard Cohen
Singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen is one of the most important and influential musical artists of the past fifty years--and one of the most elusive. In I'm Your Man, journalist Sylvie Simmons, one of the foremost chroniclers of the world of rock 'n' roll and popular music, explores the extraordinary life and creative genius of Leonard Cohen.
I'm Your Man is an intimate and insightful appreciation of the man responsible for "Suzanne," "Bird on a Wire," "Hallelujah," and so many other unforgettable, oft-covered ballads and songs. Based on Simmons's unparalleled access to Cohen--and written with her hallmark blend of intelligence, integrity, and style--I'm Your Man is the definitive biography of a major musical artist widely considered in a league with the great Bob Dylan.
Readers of Life by Rolling Stone Keith Richards, and Patti Smith's phenomenal Just Kids will be riveted by this fascinating portrait of a singular musical icon.
Synopsis
Singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen is one of the most important and influential musical artists of the past fifty years — and one of the most elusive. In
I'm Your Man, journalist Sylvie Simmons, one of the foremost chroniclers of the world of rock 'n' roll and popular music, explores the extraordinary life and creative genius of Leonard Cohen.
I'm Your Man is an intimate and insightful appreciation of the man responsible for “Suzanne,” “Bird on a Wire,” “Hallelujah,” and so many other unforgettable, oft-covered ballads and songs. Based on Simmons's unparalleled access to Cohen — and written with her hallmark blend of intelligence, integrity, and style — I'm Your Man is the definitive biography of a major musical artist widely considered in a league with the great Bob Dylan.
Readers of Life by Rolling Stone Keith Richards and Patti Smith's phenomenal Just Kids will be riveted by this fascinating portrait of a singular musical icon.
Synopsis
The history of New York's legendary Chelsea Hotel,and#160;whereand#160;artists of all stripes, legends themselves,and#160;have lived and loved and workedand#160;for more thanand#160;a century.
Synopsis
Winner of the Marfield Prize, National Award for Arts Writing andldquo;Tippins tells riveting stories about the Chelseaandrsquo;s artists, but she also captures a much grander, and more pressing, narrative: that of the ongoing battle between art and capitalism in the city.andrdquo; andmdash; The New Yorker
Since its founding by a utopian-minded French architect in 1884, New Yorkandrsquo;s Chelsea Hotel has been a hotbed of artistic invention and inspiration. Cultural luminaries from Bob Dylan to Sid Vicious, Thomas Wolfe to Andy Warhol, Dylan Thomas to Dee Dee Ramone andmdash; all made the Chelsea the largest and longest-lived artistsandrsquo; community in the world. Inside the Dream Palace tells the hotelandrsquo;s story, from its earliest days as a cooperative community, through its pop art, rock-and-roll, and punk periods, to its present transformation under new ownership. By exploring what it takes to maintain a creative community and how artists have enhanced and informed New York City life, Tippins, author of the acclaimed February House, delivers a lively and masterly history of the Chelsea and those who cohabitated there.
andquot;Not only essential to the understanding of this crucial New York City andmdash; and therefore American andmdash; cultural landmark, but as majestic and populous as the edifice itself, and completely entertaining.andquot; andmdash; Daniel Menaker, author of My Mistake
andldquo;With her lively Inside the Dream Palace, literary biographer Sherill Tippins succeeds where other historians studying New York landmarks have failed: She understands that even the most splendid buildings are mere settings for the personalities that inhabit them, and wisely bypasses rote chronology for the vigor of cultural excavation . . . The Chelsea Hotel may face an uncertain future, but Tippinsandrsquo;s enchanting book guarantees its renown for generations to come.andrdquo; andmdash; Time Out New York
About the Author
Sylvie Simmons is an award-winning writer and one of the foremost music journalists working today. Born in London, she moved to Los Angeles in the late seventies and started writing about rock music for magazines such as Sounds, Creem, Kerrang! and Q. She is the author of acclaimed fiction and nonfiction books, including the biography Serge Gainsbourg: A Fistful of Gitanes and the short-story collection Too Weird for Ziggy. She has lived at various times in England, the United States, and France, and she currently lives in San Francisco, where she writes for MOJO magazine and plays the ukulele.