So Long, Marianne

May 5, 2014
Leonard Cohen's fans know the song that carries her name, but this book offers a tender and intimate telling of the young love that inspired it from both the muse and poet. Based on interviews with Marianne Ihlen and Cohen, Hestamar offers a biography of woman who inspired two famous writers. The first half of the book recounts Marianne's turbulent relationship with the Norwegian author Axel Jensen. Cohen enters the story only after Jensen abandoned her and her infant son, with a gentle and generous love that lasted for years and, as he wrote in a poem, "still lives in spine." A vivid glimpse of life on the Greek island of Hydra where artists traveled to live, love and escape convention in the heady â60s, with excursions to Norway, Montreal and New York, this thoughtful story of a young woman finding her own way in and out of love is a good read in its own right. The glimpse into Cohen's memories and heart is a particular treat for his fans, and they will be pleased to find several previously unpublished poems.

June 1, 2014
As any Leonard Cohen fan knows, So Long, Marianne is one of his best songs, and it is about a real person. Cohen met Marianne Ihlen (then Marianne Jensen) in 1960 on the Greek island of Hydra, where her husband had abandoned her and her infant son for another woman. The coming together of Marianne and Leonard was like a slow waltz, writes Hesthamar. Ultimately, Cohen invited both mother and son to live with him back in Montreal. She accepted and became one of his literary muses. But this is also Marianne's story, from her youth in Oslo, her marriage, her life on Hydra and with Cohen in Montreal. Later, she visited the restless Cohen when he was living at the Chelsea Hotel in New York, only to be told by him that his bohemian world was no place for a young mother. Hesthamar reports that Marianne moved back to Norway in the early 1970s to follow her own path. A quirky and unusual addition to the Cohen files, with previously unpublished poems, letters, and photographs.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)