About this title: Singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen was also a poet and novelist. BEAUTIFUL LOSERS, his second and last novel, first published in 1966, has become a cult favorite. Essentially plotless and written in lyrical prose much like that of Cohen's songs, the story involves three characters--the narrator, his dead wife, and his best friend, who has also died. ...
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Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books USA
Date Published: 1993
ISBN-13:9780679748250ISBN:0679748253
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. clean pages, cover was slightly bent, fast shipping delivery with confirmation number, Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 256 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: Reprint Used
Binding: S Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Panther/Granada, London
Date Published: 1973
Description: Good-Cheap Reading Copy. Mass Market Paperback A Good cheap reading copy. Creasing and wear to wraps and leaning spine. Age discoloration to pages and page edges. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 1993-11-02
ISBN-13:9780679748250ISBN:0679748253
Description: Good. This paperback book is clean with clean edges, no writing on the inside pages. The cover has some wear & pages are slightly tanned. The book is tight and is in very good condition. We have a 100% refund 5 day NO HASSLE return policy if you are not satisfied. -We ship daily with USPS Delivery Confirmation. read more
Edition: First Vintage Books Edition
Binding: Quality Paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books / Random House, New York
Date Published: 1993
ISBN-13:9780679748250ISBN:0679748253
Description: Very Good Plus. Currently in print for $14.95. NO marks or underlining. This item is IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 1993
ISBN-13:9780679748250ISBN:0679748253
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Vintage Books
Date Published: 1993-11-01
ISBN-13:9780679748250ISBN:0679748253
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780679748250. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS Country = UNITED KINGDOM
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780007318384ISBN:0007318383
Description: BRAND NEW PAPERBACK. 256 pages. One of the best-known experimental novels of the 1960s, this uninhibited tale centres on the hapless members of a love triangle, and their sexual obsession and shared fascination with a mythic saint. (Paperback) read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Books
Date Published: 1967
Description: Like New. Beautiful paperback book. No markings, like new in every way, but has been read and does not sit closed tight like brand new. Fresh and clean. Mendopower Employment Services carefully and promptly packs each book in high-quality bubble lined, envelopes. We commence all orders immediately and appreciate your business and welcome any questions. read more
Edition: First PB in This Edition
Binding: Paper Back
Publisher: Granada Publishing, London
Date Published: 1972
ISBN-13:9780586035788ISBN:0586035788
Description: Good + No Jacket. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Spine a little faded. Very light reading creases. Covers a little rubbed. Pages yellowing. Previous owner's name on title page. 239pp. read more
"I think that Cohen should stick to music where he is indeed the master. Although this book was considered a breakout in Canadian fiction, it did not hold me as a reader, the writing was too jarring and jerky (considered by others as artsy, perhaps) - I strained through the entire book, just because it was recommended reading and gave a loud sigh of relief when I finished it"
"I don't know what the hell to say about this book. So I'll talk about the feelings. Sometimes, I had to shut it because it was too nauseating. Sometimes I thought it was delicious, and disgusting. Sometimes my thoughts ran in parallel with it. At one point I declared that it was the best book in all the world because it just felt...so good.
I'll try to break it down. This was by far the strangest and most uninhibited thing that I have ever read. I felt as though I had never read a book before. Cohen wrote it when he was severely, severely depressed. Severely depressed. And I'll say it again. He was severely depressed. There's no point in trying to understand the ins and outs of the whole thing, because I just don't think you're supposed to. I'll copy-paste what it says on the back anyway...
"One of the best-known experimental novels of the 1960s, Beautiful Losers is Cohen's most defiant and uninhibited work. The novel centres upon the hapless members of a love triangle united by their sexual obsessions and by their fascination with Catherine Tekakwitha, the 17th-century Mohawk saint.
By turns vulgar, rhapsodic, and viciously witty, Beautiful Losers explores each character's attainment of a state of self-abandonment, in which the sensualist cannot be distinguished from the saint."
I don't usually talk books over with my mom, but I did this time, after I told her it was the best book ever, and she believes it's a love-hate. There's pretty much no in between. For her it was more of a hate, she is glad she read it but she has no desire to ever again. For me it was a love. I think any strong reaction is a good one; is book is provocative beyond anything I've ever seen or read. But not for the faint of heart."
"I was once told that "art is the point where order meets chaos", and that definition is one that kept coming back to me while reading this novel, as it is very concerned with the points at which opposites meet. The plot of the book concerns istelf with a nameless, faceless narrator, his complex relationship with his best friend F. and his wife Edith, and his increasing obsession with a 16th-century Iroquois saint. However, it's important to remember that this is poetry, so plot is relatively unimportant.
One of the most interesting elements of Beautiful Losers is that while the story of Kateri Tekakwitha, the Iroquois saint, is presented with crystal clarity, the story of the narrator and F. is told in a beatnik stream-of-consciousness that I found reminiscent of Burroughs. I think that Cohen is making a statement about nostalgia here - people yearn for the past not necessarily because it was better, but because it is structured, organized, and predictable. That's a strong pull, especially when contrasted with the pandemonium of choice that the present provides for us.
As it moves into its second part, Beautiful Losers transitions from the nameless narrator of the first part to F., who is composing a letter to his friend. In this we are presented with an opposing view - that the past was never as perfect as we made it out to be, and that the present is a source of opportunity as well. F. states this most clearly when he states that, even in the secularized, technological times in which we live, "God is alive. Magic is afoot." Einstein said that he can live our lives as if nothing is a miracle, or that everything is a miracle. Cohen counters, with this book, that both of those statements are equally true, forming a yin and yang to one another."
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