Scan barcode
rainbowbookworm's review against another edition
5.0
It has been a while since I have picked up a poetry book and read it in one sitting. I borrowed this one from the library and ended up buying a copy for myself. The audiobook is also fantastic.
mobilisinmobili's review against another edition
2.0
I love Leonard Cohen dearly. I was looking for a book of poetry, this is more a collection of song lyrics. If you're interested in those I'd recommend listening to the songs. The rest of the fragments, with the exception of a dream he had about Tom Waits, and the tremendous speech to the Asturias society transcribed at the very end, did little for me. I think I'll take some time to revisit some of his earlier collections of poetry.
sie_grace13's review against another edition
4.0
A wonderfully crafted escape from everything going on in the world right now. My heart is full but somehow crushed all at once.
Thank you, Leonard.
One two three, one two three one.
Thank you, Leonard.
One two three, one two three one.
sarahnquigley's review against another edition
5.0
I am eternally grateful that Leonard Cohen was part of this world.
livmccaughey's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
laura_trap's review against another edition
5.0
I spent my entire Sunday reading this beautiful (and last) collection of Leonard Cohen's work. He is one of my favorite poets, I find that his voice is true, his writing has a sharp edge and dry wit to it that I connect to. And "The Flame" is no different. In this collection, which truly is a wide ranging collection of poetry, lyrics, snippets from various notebooks, and such, focuses on mortality and death, yet light and flame, there is a sense of lamentation here, a sense of God and religion, of reliving and walking through memory, of remembering the feeling of desire now that is extinct in old age. Cohen's final works are brilliant, touching, and emotionally moving. Unlike some of this other works which leaned towards a crassness and desire, here there is a certain tenderness, like this words reach out to caress the reader's hand as you read. One particularly piece of imagery that re-occurred through the poems was the image of the lily - a beautiful flower, associate with renewal in Christianity, they are also the flower for funerals. I did not want to part with this book, his words were so touching. Yet there was his humor too, his wittiness, and vitality, those were not absent, but presented along with the more sobering thoughts of memory, mortality, and the snuffing of a flame.
"out of the night/ the trees step forward/ a solitary bird/ sharpens its song/ on the stone-gray dawn"
"out of the night/ the trees step forward/ a solitary bird/ sharpens its song/ on the stone-gray dawn"
margarete's review against another edition
3.0
enjoyed the first half but it got repetitive. Leonard Cohen still the GOAT tho