Francis Mus: The Demons of L.C. (new book)

[jarkko]

Francis Mus: The Demons of LEONARD COHEN
ŸIn search of the real Leonard Cohen

The Canadian singer songwriter, more than 80 years old, is more popular than ever. Yet he remains a mystery: the gentleman with the unwavering aura remains inexplicable and ungraspable.¨

Leonard Cohen’s work incites us to ‘confess’ who we are and what preoccupies us. For over 60 years he has been looking for the place where he could find himself. But does such a place exist and is it possible to capture a versatile artist such as Leonard Cohen in one way only?

Cohen-specialist Francis Mus (University of Leuven) researches the constantly returning demons of Leonard Cohen: his image, his relationship to art, his fundamental solitude, his position towards religion and power, his struggle with desire and loss. He searched and found ‘pieces of Cohen’ that have never been published before.

140 x 240 mm | ca. 296 pages
65,000 words
full colour illustrations
hardcover + fabric wrap

For more information, you can reach the author by mail:
francis.mus@arts.kuleuven.be

Ÿ. Including unpublished documents, new interviews and in-depth reading
Ÿ. A complete overview of his artistic career
Ÿ. Preface by Brian Trehearne (McGill University), who has taught Cohen for more than 20 years

The Demons of LEONARD COHEN
‘an impressive range of vital, fresh material from Cohen’s private papers and archives.
Francis Mus shows in his book an expertise still not notable among Cohen’s Canadian critics.’
– Brian Trehearne, McGill University, Montreal

[Christiane]

Thank you, Jarkko, for the information. This sounds really interesting.
So, is there any hope for an English translation of the book?

Greetings,
Christiane

[jarkko]

I believe Francis is looking around to make it happen!

[AlexandraLaughing]

Presumably it would be worth getting in Vlaams/Dutch even if you don't read the language, if there are extracts of unpublished LC material of any length (which would presumably be in English).

[Ria Bellen]

My copy arrived today (I'm Dutch-speaking). Of course I didn't have the time yet to read the whole book. But what is written in this edition in english are song lyrics and poems already published somewhere. So I think it's better to wait a while if you don't understand the language. Probably there will come a french translation as well.

[AlexandraLaughing]

Thanks, Ria. Will you give us a digest when you have read it?

[gui01]

Francis Mus was interviewed about his book on Radio 1 (Dutch speaking radio of Belgium).

For me, it's a little chaotic and full of interruptions because several people are around the table. Anyway, you can hear the interview (in Dutch) here:

http://www.radio1.be/programmas/interne-keuken/lc

Some remarkable themes of the interview in a nutshell:

- This book is a personal history about LC, not a biography. It is a book about the fascination for the music and the person of LC, without always understanding the meaning of his lyrics.

- LC wrote his first poem at the age of 9. The occasion was the death of his father in 1944. LC wrote some words on a piece of paper and burried it in the garden. Later, LC has confirmed, but also denied this story.

- The story of "Lover, lover, lover": LC wrote this song in Egypt during the Jom Kipoer War in 1973. Later, he declared that he wrote it for the soldiers at both sides of the front line.

- The author had access to the 15 boxes of the LC archives in Toronto, except 1: that particular box may only be opened after LC's death.