Ira B. Nadel has written authoritatively on the art of biography. He has also had a previous run at the life of Leonard Cohen in a slender volume for ECW, which augured well for a full-length version. In that book Nadel showed precisely the rapport with his subject that produces first-rate biography. There was every reason, therefore, to anticipate a brilliant literary biography.

The present book almost fulfills that promise. The research is exhaustive, the psychological insights are intelligent, and the life and work are well integrated. In addition, the narrative is lively, as befits the story of the Byronic poet who has transformed himself into a popular entertainer with wide international appeal.

But the book does fall somewhat short of expectations. Since finishing the earlier book, Nadel has met Cohen and enlisted his help and support. A vignette in the acknowledgements describes the two reviewing the manuscript together in an isolated cabin at the Mt. Baldy Zen Center. In his opening paragraph Nadel speaks of asking Cohen if the book can be classified as an authorized biography. Unfortunately, it has the flaws often associated with that designation.

It is difficult enough to write on a living subject even without developing such a cozy relationship. The result here is that the biographer’s earlier admiration is heightened by gratitude and his critical sense completely disarmed. His attitude is reverential and too many anecdotes by Cohen and his friends that sound apocryphal are taken at face value.

W.H. Auden wrote memorably of Yeats that he was “silly like us.” The same could be said of Cohen and his portrait would not have been diminished by a clear-eyed assessment of his particular brand of silliness. Such shading would have given it depth and complexity.