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davijar's review against another edition
4.0
There's a lot to say about Beautiful Losers, but I'm not really sure how to say it. This is not a book of this time, and though it may have been ahead of its time when it was written, it probably never really found its audience.
I liked it.
I liked it.
kirstiecat's review against another edition
3.0
Leonard Cohen walks a precarious tightrope balancing the sacred and the profane and, because he is *the* Leonard Cohen, doesn't fall from his great height. At the same time, it is very disjointed and a little unclear. It's an exploration of sexuality but way more than that. Though Beautiful Losers is perhaps Cohen's most well known and highly appraised novel, I liked "The Favorite Game" better. Some memorable quotes from this one:
"Jealousy is the education you have chosen"
"Ordinary eternal machinery like the grinding of the stars."
(p.33)
"You don't polish windows in a car wreck:
(p.40)
"I'm tired of facts. I'm tired of speculations. I want to be consumed by unreason."
(p.46)
"The hospitals have drawers of Cancer which they do not own."
"Nausea is an earthquake in your eye"
"Even the world has a body."
"We are all of us tormented with your glory."
(p.54)
"Steam coming off the planet, clouds of fleecy steam as boy and girl populations clash in religious riots, hot and whistling like a graveyard sodomist our little planet embraces its fragile yo-yo destiny, tuned in the secular mind like a dying engine."
(p. 150)
"In Montréal, spring is like an autopsy. Everyone wants to see the inside of the frozen mammoth"
(p.229)
"Above him on the electric wires perched the first crows of the year, arranged between the poles like abacus beads."
(p. 234)
"Quickly now, as if even he participated in the excitement over the unknown, he greedily assembled himself into-into a movie of Ray Charles. Then he enlarged the screen, degree by degree like a documentary on the Industry. The moon occupied one lens of his sunglasses, and he laid out his piano keys across a shelf of the sky, and leaned over him as though they were truly the row of giant fishes to feed a hungry multitude. A fleet of jet planes dragged his voice over us who were holding hands."
(p.242)
"Jealousy is the education you have chosen"
"Ordinary eternal machinery like the grinding of the stars."
(p.33)
"You don't polish windows in a car wreck:
(p.40)
"I'm tired of facts. I'm tired of speculations. I want to be consumed by unreason."
(p.46)
"The hospitals have drawers of Cancer which they do not own."
"Nausea is an earthquake in your eye"
"Even the world has a body."
"We are all of us tormented with your glory."
(p.54)
"Steam coming off the planet, clouds of fleecy steam as boy and girl populations clash in religious riots, hot and whistling like a graveyard sodomist our little planet embraces its fragile yo-yo destiny, tuned in the secular mind like a dying engine."
(p. 150)
"In Montréal, spring is like an autopsy. Everyone wants to see the inside of the frozen mammoth"
(p.229)
"Above him on the electric wires perched the first crows of the year, arranged between the poles like abacus beads."
(p. 234)
"Quickly now, as if even he participated in the excitement over the unknown, he greedily assembled himself into-into a movie of Ray Charles. Then he enlarged the screen, degree by degree like a documentary on the Industry. The moon occupied one lens of his sunglasses, and he laid out his piano keys across a shelf of the sky, and leaned over him as though they were truly the row of giant fishes to feed a hungry multitude. A fleet of jet planes dragged his voice over us who were holding hands."
(p.242)
edboies's review against another edition
4.0
This book really worked for me. It stuck me as filled with a unique passion and vigor and poetry, humor and tragedy and sex.
sarajoyceann13's review against another edition
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
FILLER
shroudofthesea's review against another edition
4.0
“Catherine Tekakwitha, who are you? Are you (1656-1680)? Is that enough?”
so i’ve been entranced by leonard cohen’s lyricism for nearly as long as i can remember, as is the typical response. beautiful losers reads like the best of leonard cohen songs, but without the music and long enough to overstay its welcome just a little bit. well, i shouldn’t say entirely without music—i discovered this book through buffy sainte-marie’s absolutely haunting “god is alive magic is afoot,” a musical setting of cohen’s words on p. 157 of my copy that feels so natural it’s hard to read the rest of the book and not feel a similar chanting rhythm at several points throughout. unfortunately, the spaces between this almost otherworldly sense of time, magic, and capital-h History are largely filled with some of the grossest sex scenes i’ve ever had the pleasure of reading and a whole lot of retreading of familiar ground. the narrator and his true love, F., are fascinating but not quite compelling enough to carry 240 pages. edith remains little more than a disturbingly oversexual depiction of an indigenous woman. catherine tekakwitha is treated with a little more compassion, but not quite full humanity. still, i found myself unable to read any part of this book for very long without reaching for a pen so i could underline some phrase that chilled me to the bone. unsettling, invigorating, and an absolutely hilarious thing to read while approaching a diagnosis of IBS-C.
“A huge jukebox played a sleepy tune. The tune was a couple of thousand years old and we danced to it with our eyes closed. The tune was called History and we loved it.”
so i’ve been entranced by leonard cohen’s lyricism for nearly as long as i can remember, as is the typical response. beautiful losers reads like the best of leonard cohen songs, but without the music and long enough to overstay its welcome just a little bit. well, i shouldn’t say entirely without music—i discovered this book through buffy sainte-marie’s absolutely haunting “god is alive magic is afoot,” a musical setting of cohen’s words on p. 157 of my copy that feels so natural it’s hard to read the rest of the book and not feel a similar chanting rhythm at several points throughout. unfortunately, the spaces between this almost otherworldly sense of time, magic, and capital-h History are largely filled with some of the grossest sex scenes i’ve ever had the pleasure of reading and a whole lot of retreading of familiar ground. the narrator and his true love, F., are fascinating but not quite compelling enough to carry 240 pages. edith remains little more than a disturbingly oversexual depiction of an indigenous woman. catherine tekakwitha is treated with a little more compassion, but not quite full humanity. still, i found myself unable to read any part of this book for very long without reaching for a pen so i could underline some phrase that chilled me to the bone. unsettling, invigorating, and an absolutely hilarious thing to read while approaching a diagnosis of IBS-C.
“A huge jukebox played a sleepy tune. The tune was a couple of thousand years old and we danced to it with our eyes closed. The tune was called History and we loved it.”
fodderonherwings's review
4.0
A reviewer said: “James Joyce is not dead, he lives in Montréal and goes by the name Cohen.” Loved that. The only downside is that I didn’t understand anything.
jgwc54e5's review against another edition
I have no idea how to rate this or review it. A lot of it is mind numbing and insane.
jenok's review against another edition
1.0
I hated this book. I think that Cohen was trying to do two things:
1) utilise flawed characters and experimental form to give us a picture of the human condition
2) challenge readers and literary norms with unsettling form and content
Assuming these were the aims of the book (I suggest them in an effort to be generous) I think Cohen comes closer to achieving the second aim, but really fails on both. Beautiful Losers sticks in the mire of its own ugly content, failing entirely to reach any meaning beyond that ugliness.
Let me explain why I am of that opinion, first considering Beautiful Losers as an attempt to show us what the human condition is like. The content of the book, as I have mentioned, is utterly ugly. There are occasional beautiful lines, but they are so interspersed with racist, misogynistic ramblings that their effect is entirely lost. In a different novel, this interspersing of beauty among the mire might indeed be suggestive of the human condition. Here, however, the narrative is so singularly located within the confines of an ego-centric and morally malnourished consciousness that this concept can't begin to take hold. This work is in no way representative of human consciousness, or by extension, the human condition. It is dehumanising to all but one small faction of humanity - to gross effect.
This "gross" effect may be a deliberate move towards the second aim: to challenge readers and literary norms with unsettling form and content. It isn't effective. Art that makes people uncomfortable is impressive when readers are uncomfortable because they are challenged. This text isn't challenging. It is uncomfortable because it is repulsive. To write a text that is ethically reprehensible without challenge to a dominant view or engagement with the issues at hand is artistically lazy and certainly cannot bring us any closer to understanding the condition that we live in. Sure, it might be illustrative of some of the *kinds* of people who exist in our world, but it doesn't touch on anything transcending those individuals.
It also doesn't make any great literary statement stylistically. Beautiful Losers has aged terribly since the sixties. It's crass sexual descriptions would have been radical for the literary scene of the day, but now come across as nothing more than what I suspect they always were - shock value for the sake of shock value. This doesn't do any artistic favours for the novel.
Ultimately, I just don't think there's anything radical about a white man writing about rape, race and paedophilia in an unblinking, unflinching manner. I don't deny the stark facts of these aspects of existence, or that there should be a place for expressing them in literature - but it's not here, and it isn't like this.
1) utilise flawed characters and experimental form to give us a picture of the human condition
2) challenge readers and literary norms with unsettling form and content
Assuming these were the aims of the book (I suggest them in an effort to be generous) I think Cohen comes closer to achieving the second aim, but really fails on both. Beautiful Losers sticks in the mire of its own ugly content, failing entirely to reach any meaning beyond that ugliness.
Let me explain why I am of that opinion, first considering Beautiful Losers as an attempt to show us what the human condition is like. The content of the book, as I have mentioned, is utterly ugly. There are occasional beautiful lines, but they are so interspersed with racist, misogynistic ramblings that their effect is entirely lost. In a different novel, this interspersing of beauty among the mire might indeed be suggestive of the human condition. Here, however, the narrative is so singularly located within the confines of an ego-centric and morally malnourished consciousness that this concept can't begin to take hold. This work is in no way representative of human consciousness, or by extension, the human condition. It is dehumanising to all but one small faction of humanity - to gross effect.
This "gross" effect may be a deliberate move towards the second aim: to challenge readers and literary norms with unsettling form and content. It isn't effective. Art that makes people uncomfortable is impressive when readers are uncomfortable because they are challenged. This text isn't challenging. It is uncomfortable because it is repulsive. To write a text that is ethically reprehensible without challenge to a dominant view or engagement with the issues at hand is artistically lazy and certainly cannot bring us any closer to understanding the condition that we live in. Sure, it might be illustrative of some of the *kinds* of people who exist in our world, but it doesn't touch on anything transcending those individuals.
It also doesn't make any great literary statement stylistically. Beautiful Losers has aged terribly since the sixties. It's crass sexual descriptions would have been radical for the literary scene of the day, but now come across as nothing more than what I suspect they always were - shock value for the sake of shock value. This doesn't do any artistic favours for the novel.
Ultimately, I just don't think there's anything radical about a white man writing about rape, race and paedophilia in an unblinking, unflinching manner. I don't deny the stark facts of these aspects of existence, or that there should be a place for expressing them in literature - but it's not here, and it isn't like this.
bookbutterfly111's review against another edition
1.0
Was forced to read this for school and I hated it. Not only is it nonsensical garbage but I can't stand the descriptions of a Native American child getting raped and abused. I'm sick of women being raped and abused for "art" or "shock value" and as a plot device in books. Being forced to buy and to read this piece of hot garbage for school is ridiculous and proof that our education system is complete garbage. No warning, no compassion for women in the class who may have experienced sexual violence and now have to read this piece of steaming dog turd. There's no value to this book.
Typical response: "rape and violence is just a part of reality, it's just showing the reality" - there's a proper way to write about rape and violence against women, a respectful way to write about it that engages with it and then there's this, and all the bullshit tv shows that show women being raped in every other episode purely for shock value and entertainment or to glorify womens suffering as art. Women have to go through being raped and abused or live with the fear of being raped and then everywhere they go their suffering is packaged as art and entertainment or shock value. disgusting
Typical response: "rape and violence is just a part of reality, it's just showing the reality" - there's a proper way to write about rape and violence against women, a respectful way to write about it that engages with it and then there's this, and all the bullshit tv shows that show women being raped in every other episode purely for shock value and entertainment or to glorify womens suffering as art. Women have to go through being raped and abused or live with the fear of being raped and then everywhere they go their suffering is packaged as art and entertainment or shock value. disgusting