- Written by Sylvie Simmons
- Published in 2012
- 576 pages
- Rating: ❤️❤️❤️??
Loved reading about Leonard’s early life. Definitely felt like I got to know him a lil better.
Things you get to know when reading this book:
- From which poets he drew inspiration (e.g. Lorca and Yeats)
- The amount of lovers he had (and how they all continued to love him after leaving each other)
- The steps on his spiritual journey, from Judaism to Buddhism
- How he is continuously being described as a gentlemen by everyone that has met him
- What drugs he used (amphetamines being his favourite)
- His upper-middle class background in Montreal
- His indifference of many material goods (he mostly lived in small, scarcely furnished (hotel)rooms/houses)
- His fascinating with fasting
The way Leonard is being described in this book seamlessly fit the feelings that his his songs bring me. I’m very much inspired his life, and I’ve already put some more books about him, his inspirators and related philosophies on my reading list.
Disclaimer: the first 60% of the book were really interesting to me for the said reasons, but I have to admit that the latter 40% came across as a bit dull. In this part, there are soulless descriptions of people that joined him on tours, songs they played on tours, songs he wrote on albums etc. Perhaps that stuff didnt interest me because I’m mostly listening to 5 albums and therefore have little connection to the most recents songs he published, or because most of the important background information that formed Leonard’s personality and life are being described in the first part of the book.