A Ballet of Lepers: A Novel and Stories

While the ecumenical depth and gentlemanly grace of Leonard Cohen does not encourage scorn, and certainly not among his fans, it is hard to see the recent publication of A Ballet of Lepers as little more than a posthumous clearing of the archives. The last Leonard Cohen book I read was The Flame in 2018, a posthumous collection of poetry that, nevertheless, displayed an effortful curation and the refined talent of the artist's later years. It was a project that the octogenarian Cohen had been working on but had been unable to complete by the time of his death. A Ballet of Lepers, on the other hand, is that other sort of posthumous publication: an early work that would have remained justly obscure if not for its author's later fame show more derived from better works.

Before he started to establish himself as a respected singer-songwriter with the 1967 album Songs of Leonard Cohen, Leonard Cohen had tried to make it as a literary figure. But before even his strange experimental novels The Favourite Game (1963) and Beautiful Losers (1966), and around the time of his first poetry collections Let Us Compare Mythologies (1956) and The Spice-Box of Earth (1961), the young unknown Cohen also wrote this short novel/novella A Ballet of Lepers, published here for the first time in 2022, attended by sixteen short stories from the same period.

Compared to his two novels, the Lepers novella is surprisingly easy to read. It's often simple writing and plotting, though Cohen displays some of his nascent lyricism and, as editor Alexandra Pleshoyano writes in her Afterword, there is early evidence of the themes that would direct his later artistic pursuits (pg. 253). There's an indulgence of sex and a temple-like adoration of women, and a creative link between the sexual and religious experiences that would bear much greater fruit in his later work (not least his signature song 'Hallelujah'). Fans will be intrigued by this Cohen in embryo, though also perhaps turned off by the emotional cruelty sometimes on display, and by some of the acts written about (including some fecal-related matters). At times, Lepers reminded me more of a poet of the mud and grime like Charles Bukowski than the Leonard Cohen we know and love.

The short stories were a surprise: I hadn't expected them at all and had never really considered the possibility that Cohen would write short stories. It's strange to read them with his name attached. Like Lepers, they're accessible and concerned largely with sexual affairs, which can make them seem frivolous and banal in retrospect. ('Signals' might be the best of the lot: "Sometimes, her hair was arranged so intricately that I just sat and stared at it as though it was some beautiful forbidden puzzle." (pg. 139)) The stories become increasingly disposable as you are reading them, only confirming the sense that A Ballet of Lepers, as a publication in 2022, is a curiosity rather than an experience. The young Cohen struggles to convey the things that really give literary weight: a sense of place; a sense of knowing and imparting secrets about the world; an ability to stage high-quality dramatic events to serve as counterpoint and emphasis to his themes. The weight in the book comes from the name of its author, and while it might not be on perfect display in Lepers, no one familiar with Leonard Cohen's subsequent career could doubt it is a considerable and worthy weight. show less

A novella and a group of short stories written in the 1960's by man much more famous for his musical skills. By and large the characters in the book are flawed and in general flee from close personal relationship - especially men from women. Overall, the book is pretty depressing as the characters lack stability in their lives. Cohen is a good author (not great and wrote these when he was very young and it shows to some extent. Good for those Cohen junkies out there.

Thank you Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for the ARC copy of "A Ballet of Lepers."

I give this book 2 stars because it was dark, depressing, deviant and sexual in nature. I just don't like those combinations. It does have an atmosphere of other classic novels such as "Of Mice and Men" and "The Catcher in The Rye" minus the emotional part. I think it has the making of a great novel but emotionally it just wasn't there. I did not feel sympathy towards the characters. There are some short stories that have potential but it was just too short. I would try to read Mr. Cohen's poetry, maybe that would be better.

I chanced upon this when I was looking for an Ottessa Moshfegh book to listen to while working - she reads this novel and stories by Leonard Cohen - they were gritty and dark - in other words - excellent - also nice to hear Moshfegh's voice.