The third novel

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peter danielsen
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The third novel

Post by peter danielsen »

I understand that Leonard Cohen wrote a third novel which he withdrew in the last moment. Any one heard of this?
Peter
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peter danielsen
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Re: The third novel

Post by peter danielsen »

I have the idea from the book "Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen" edited by Jeff Burger.
In this book it says: "He´s spent the last two years working on another novel, but withdrew it from his publishers at the last moment[This reference is apparently to an attemtempted third novel. Cohen had already followed the Favorite Game with Beautiful Losers, his second novel, ten years before this interview,-Ed]
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bigdee
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Re: The third novel

Post by bigdee »

He did write an unpublished first novel "The Ballad of Lepers" in 1958 before "The Favorite Game" and "Beautiful Losers". Maybe that is the 3rd novel you are referring to? The manuscript of it is viewable at The University of Toronto's Leonard Cohen Archive. Some mentions of it can be found in the links below:

https://www.leonardcohenforum.com/viewt ... rs#p298281

https://www.leonardcohenforum.com/viewt ... ers#p88673
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peter danielsen
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Re: The third novel

Post by peter danielsen »

No this is a novel written after that
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Christiane
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Re: The third novel

Post by Christiane »

Peter, you are right. LC had written a third novel in the seventies. It was mainly about his relationship with Suzanne and he didn't publish it because he thought it was embarrassing and hurting for some people he had mentioned in the novel. At least that's the story he once told in an interview.
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peter danielsen
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Re: The third novel

Post by peter danielsen »

Thanks Christiane
Maybe we could hope for it to be published later
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Maarten
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Re: The third novel

Post by Maarten »

In a late 1974 interview for the Dutch music magazine “Oor” Cohen says he wrote a novel called “The woman being warned”. No further info given.

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Re: The third novel

Post by tomsakic »

The Woman Being Born - which was actually then retitled to My Life in Art (and, at one point, to End of My Life in Art), and then reworked as Death of a Lady's Man and published in 1978.

Linda Hutcheon, famous academic, included Death of a Lady's Man in her book about Leonard's prose, not poems (she has two small books dedicated to LC's literary work), claiming it has story and narration and seeing it as fictional book (not poetry).

Now, what Peter alludes to is probably Leonard's late regret that he abandoned writing novels, and as far I recall, in mid-2000s, before he ever dreamt he would go touring again, he was talking around in couple of interviews that his only wish is to write his third novel. I guess he dropped that as he went touring in 2008, made many new albums and wrote The Flame.
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Re: The third novel

Post by hollandjose3 »

peter danielsen wrote: Sat Feb 08, 2020 10:08 pm I understand that Leonard Cohen wrote a third novel which he withdrew in the last moment. Any one heard of this?
Peter
Whoahh :shock: This is very interesting!epoxy floors des moinesI don't even know about this. :( I am sad that I never had any idea about it.
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