Thursday, September 08, 2005

A much belated letter of gratitude to Leonard Cohen

Dear Leonard,

After being pulled away intermittently by distractions, like bad times in an extended love affair, I finally was able to finish reading your novel, 'Beautiful Losers'. How many times have I thought of starting it all afresh, and thank you Leonard, for giving me that chance. You wrote of a 'second chance' in the last pages of the book, and I selfishly assume it to be aimed towards someone like me. After all, I'm just a mediocre student. Maybe I'll be in a better position to write something more meaningful after reading it again, and rereading it.

All the events and characters seem to be so far off from me now, they've departed, they appear unclear, like those faint stars being covered and uncovered by a slowly drifting night cloud. I never intended to take seriously the happenings in your book and match them against common behavior, as I consider 'Beautiful Losers' to be a novel in its truest sense, where plausibility doesn't hold any meaning. I knew I would be at a loss to read the novel with a critic's mind.

Thank you for writing this book, dear Leonard, and contributing to the history of a Novel.

Sincerely,
S.

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