The Song of Leonard Cohen: Portrait of a Poet, A Friendship & a Film

Book Description

A memoir of the author's 1981 documentary, The Song of Leonard Cohen. Harry Rasky filmed the wild trip that was the 1979Field Commander Cohen tour. Now he has delved into his personal archives and diaries upon which the film is based, and has woven them into this moving, powerful text. He includes outrageous and intimate interludes with the great Canadian singer-songwriter, including how he and Leonard were mistaken for Bader-Meinhof terrorists by soldiers with machine guns at a German Burger King

Included also are Rasky's never-before-published Bob Dylan Diaries, based on his notes and observations during the filming of a never-completed documentary.

Customer Reviews:

don't bother.......2002-08-15

I love Leonard Cohen and try to read whatever is available about him. This book was so miserable, I couldn't even finish it. The person who wrote it is a whiney sycophant. This horrible drivel isn't worth the paper it's printed on. It really makes the reader hate the person who wrote it. Don't buy this, not even used for a nickel. 'Nuff said...

Read Leonard Cohen NOT his hangers-on!.......2001-08-18

By far this is the worst book ever written about Leonard Cohen. To start with a good portion of the book is comprised of Leonard Cohen's poems and lyrics! The rest is badly written drivel about a man who made a fairly mediocre TV documentary about Leonard Cohen more than 20 years ago. Suffice to say that the book is nothing but a tool to vent off Mr. Rasky's anger at the world for not recognizing his 'talents' as a filmmaker. I did like the book cover but wait a minute that was taken from Leonard Cohen's last album cover as well.

Customer Reviews:

!*!*!Amazing!*!*! .......2007-10-16

In the small town of Hrubieszow Poland, two lovers Meyer and Manya attempt to escape to terrible hands of the German Nazi Soldiers. When many atempts to escape fail, both lovers suffer deportation, seperation, and close-to-death situations. Going to camps such as Flossenburg and Aushwits both Manya and Meyer struggle to hold on, but at the same time rely on one day being together back in Hrubieszow. When both of them believe they will never be reunited with they're families after the war has ended, Meyer and Manya's son Michael Korenblit finds out some informations on his mothers family while making this book.

This book is the most amazing, Holocaust book I have ever read. There is not one book that has takin my breath away or have drawn tears to my eyes such as this one has. Imagine having nothing to hold on to, Do you think Manya and Meyer would have survived without one another? As hard as it got, thoughts of being with eachother kept Meyer and Manya still holding on. I recomend this book to anyone, because out there there really is a God and if you ever loose everything, faith is one thing you cant loose.

Love carried them home.......2007-06-24

I'll admit that this book started out a little slowly for me, but by about chapter 18, I began to be drawn more and more into the story of teenage sweethearts Manya and Meyer, Manya's little brother Chaim, and their friends (even though the writing style employed wasn't always that dramatic or riveting). The story begins when Manya and one of her brothers, Chaim, make the very difficult decision to leave their family in the hiding place in the wall of their house in the ghetto of Hrubieszow to join Meyer's family hiding in a haystack, in 1942. Perhaps I would have been more drawn into the story initially had it begun earlier on and slowly introduced the characters and situation, instead of starting off rather in media res. And perhaps the events might have come even more alive for me had the book been written in the first person instead of by two secondhand parties. It also kind of kills the dramatic surprise by revealing at the beginning that Chaim was discovered in early 1982, with the reader knowing all along he survived instead of only saving it for the epilogue, when it would have had far greater dramatic effect.

All that said, however, the book does a rather good job at conveying the increasingly trapped and horrific situation the characters found themselves in. Many of the decisions they made, and breaks from outsiders they got which ended up contributing to their eventual survival, could be attributed to only luck, since many other people in similar situations might have had far different fates for making or not making those same decisions. After leaving the haystack, Manya, Meyer, and Chaim returned to the new ghetto in Hrubieszow, where they were put to "legitimate" work, though always in constant danger of brutality and deportations. Sometime in 1943 (the book isn't very good at all about giving a specific timeline of when exactly a lot of this stuff happened), Chaim was taken, and then a bit later on Manya, Meyer, and a few of their friends were deported as well. Initially the young lovers were in the same camp, but were eventually separated, promising to meet again in Hrubieszow at the end of the war. The two of them went through a seemingly endless stream of camps over the next two years, suffering bestial treatments and conditions, but got through with a little help from their friends, and, most importantly, their love for one another. Under such intense times, what would have been just a routine teenage romance in ordinary time turned into something much more serious, emotions magnified as people turned and clung to those they already had a powerful connection to, nurturing and keeping alive the one remaining thing that they still knew for sure, that kept them sane, human, hopeful, normal. It seems amazing to people living in comfort in the present day that love could have survived and even flourished under such awful inhuman conditions, but after reading a powerful story such as this one, it doesn't seem like a surprising phenomenon at all.

Essential to understanding our history and how love prevails.......2006-12-27

I think this is an incredible book and I don't think the Editorial Review does it any justice. The Editorial Reviewer understood that the story was incredibly moving and wanted it to be written more fairy tale-like, however it is not any fantasy-like because it is and was SO REAL and I think Korenblit perfectly captures its highly-emotive atmosphere. I suggest this as a read not only for historical information about the Holocaust but as an overall life-lesson that love can make you strong and that among all evil there will always be some good.

EVERY person on earth should read this book!.......2006-10-02

I met M. Kornblit, received his book, and read it in two days! It caused me to be thankful for every minute I live in a peaceful country, every morsel of food I partake, every single material thing I have...It is truly the most unforgettable book I'll ever read.

A Story of Real, Enduring Love .......2006-08-19

I had the the privilege of meeting Mr. Michael Korneblit during a recent book signing at the Holocaust Museum in DC. He personally shared what the book is about, then apologized for "making me cry". I could not wait to read the book! Let me admit that I am an audible learner and not an avid reader, but this book is a turning point. It is easy to read and definitely holds one's interest. The authors wisely chose, in this case, to focus on the love story more than the atrocities of the holocaust -- yet certainly get the point across. This is a lovely story about commitment and integrity tested to the limits. God bless these families and all survivors or relatives of those lost. Thank you for this book.

Manya's Story: Faith and Survival in Revolutionary Russia

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What My Grandparents Wouldn't Tell Me
Faith and survival in revolutionary Russia
A Jewish family's survival in the Russian revolution.

Manya's Story: Faith and Survival in Revolutionary Russia
Bettyanne Gray
Manufacturer: Runestone Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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ASIN: 0822531569

Customer Reviews:

What My Grandparents Wouldn't Tell Me.......2007-03-09

My grandparents shielded me from this part of their lives in Russia by refusing to answer my questions about "the old country" when I was a child. This book helped me understand the terrible part of my heritage which I knew was there yet not in such a graphic way.

Faith and survival in revolutionary Russia.......2005-07-14

For Jews in pre-revolutionary Russia, to be drafted in Czar Nicholas' army could be a death warrant. Not only did one have to suffer a seven-year commitment to servitude, but one had to suffer overt anti-Semitism--the kind that swept villages and left hundreds dead in their wake.

Thus it is understandable that a key figure in this non-fiction tale--Israel Abramson, the author's father--chose to pull out some teeth and sever the tendons of several toes to avoid the dreaded service. He came to the little shtetle of Talne in Ukraine to manage Boris Petrofsky's drugstore after Boris was drafted. There in the Pale of Settlement--the area to which Russian Jews were confined from 1794 to 1917--he met Manya Polevois and her family.

It was the fall of 1917, six months after Czar Nicholas had been ousted and replaced by the Socialist provisional government. Socialist Alexander Kerensky and Prince Lvov were running Russia's World War I effort, which was going badly. The Russians were losing, and young boys were ruthlessly drafted and sent to the front without training or experience to die.

In October, Lenin returned to Russia, and in November, Ukraine's parliament refused to turn over power to the Bolshviks, establishing instead the Ukrainian National Republic. For the first time in their history, Ukraine's Jews were promised a measure of freedom, but instead, pogroms followed.

In March 1918, Russia and Germany signed the treaty of Brest-Litovsk, in which Russia conceded Ukraine to the Germans. Israel, fearful of pogroms, came running to the Polevois family for assurance. Just then the German officers walked in and commandeered the Polevois home. They remained until November, 1918, when Germany conceded Ukraine to Russia and the forces of Simon Petlura. In the armed Ukrainian-Russian conflict that followed, Petlura's soldiers conducted wholesale massacres of Jews.

The bright spot that year in Talne were the weddings of Ruchel Polevois, to a Pavlusha in early May, and of Manya to Israel Abramson, on May 30, 1918. As a wedding gift, Yosel Polevois gave a fully stocked drugstore in nearby Manistritch to his son-in-law. The summer was idyllic, but by the following spring, pogroms struck again.

I will not reveal the rest of this dramatic story for young adults, but it was after many ordeals and still more pogroms that Manya and Israel determined to flee to America.

The book tells the frightening tale of anti-Semitism in early twentieth century Russia and Ukraine--very well.

--Alyssa A. Lappen

A Jewish family's survival in the Russian revolution........1997-11-04

This is a book that tells a rare story...the Russian revolution and a Jewish family's fight for survival in pogrom torn Ukraine. There are not many books that cover this subject, and Bettyanne Gray tells it better than most. It has the flavor of the rural Russian shtetl lifestyle, while at the same time describes the destruction wrought on Jewish communities by the Red, White, and Ukrainian armies vying for supremacy during the revolution. A quick but very good read. END

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This book is good for emergent readers!
Multiple Lessons For Early Childhood Education
"Rain" - useful in the classroom!
Vivid, colorful illustrations make this book worthwhile

Rain

Manufacturer: Chrysalis Children's Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

ASIN: 185602413X

Amazon.com

As the red soil of the African savanna becomes parched and cracked, the porcupine SMELLS the rain coming. She tells the zebras, who SEE the rain coming and gallop off to tell the baboons. The baboons HEAR the rain coming. The rhino FEELS it. And the lion TASTES the rain. All the animals use their senses to predict the change of weather. Soon, the sky opens and it rains and rains and rains until every river gushes and gurgles. When it stops, green buds and grasses sprout and the animals find shelter in the shade of the big leaves and the cool, squelchy mud and relish the "fresh, juicy fruit from the trees" and long, refreshing drinks from the water hole.

Manya Stojic's exuberant picture book celebrates nature's sometimes extreme but always magical methods in madness. From scorching drought to frenzied rainfall and back again, all the animals live in harmony with this natural cycle. Stojic's artwork is stunning--lush golds, fiery red-oranges, cool, wet blues, and brilliant greens burst off the pages, while the soft grays, blacks, and browns of the savanna creatures, with their visible brush strokes, seem to come alive before our very eyes. Rain is as golden, vibrant, and palpably refreshing as Flora McDonnell's Splash!--another wonderful picture book about delicious, delicious water. (Ages 3 and older) --Emilie Coulter

Book Description

When rain comes to the parched African savanna, the animals use all their senses to track the storm. The porcupine smells rain in the air. The zebras see lightning. The baboons hear thunder. The rhino feels the first drops. And the lion tastes the cool water. For a time, the grasslands abound with new green leaves, juicy fruits, and fresh pools of water. But soon the hot sun dries out the land, and the animals must again wait for the next big rain.

Manya Stojic's picture book debut is as satisfying and refreshing as the rain she describes. With paintings that are exuberant and saturated with color and a simple text that rolls off the tongue with pleasure and ease, here is a book parents and teachers will enjoy sharing again and again.

Customer Reviews:

This book is good for emergent readers!.......2003-10-15

Stojic's book is very good for emergent readers. It expands children's knowledge and takes them to a far away place. The print is vivid, it helps emergent readers feel like real readers because the text is repetitious and it contributes to children's sense of story because it ends the way it begins. In all, it's a great book for preschoolers and kindergarten children!

Multiple Lessons For Early Childhood Education.......2001-03-16

Stojic suceeds at her first children'book! Educators/parents can use this book for lessons in African animals, the five senses, and how the Earth needs rain for vegetation and the food we eat. The illustrations are bold and give the feel of the dry African landscape. After the rain comes the illustrations are lush and feel like what we know as spring. Early readers can identify words in the large text. A must have for Early Childhood Educators!!

"Rain" - useful in the classroom!.......2000-08-01

"Rain," written and illustrated by Manya Stojic, is a very simply written but bold story about how animals could react to the rain in the parched African savanna. Using the five senses of smell, sight, sound, touch and taste, African animals give different commentaries about the coming rains. The bright, bold illustrations are of great value to the book; they make it fun and enjoyable. Using large fonts and bold letters along with the pictures, one can almost feel the heat of the desert rise from the pages as well as the coolness of the rains.

The rain cycle could be taught along with this book, showing the benefits of the rain. Life depends on the rains - the grasses grow and fruits develop and mature. Life is sustained again by the blessings of the rain.

The book is great for helping young readers build their vocabulary. Sentences such as "A porcupine sniffed around" contain verbs that are easy to act out for children - the children can "sniff" as the porcupine talks about it. Besides the use of basic verbs, it also contains a good variety of descriptive adjectives (ie. cool, soft, squelchy mud). For teaching opposites, such as dry, wet, empty, full, "Rain" can be useful. I see great potential for this book in my bilingual class.

Manya Stojic has done a great job on this, her first children's book.

Vivid, colorful illustrations make this book worthwhile.......2000-05-10

This new release would be a great addition to your child's library. It tells the story of how the wild animals sense that the rain is coming, and then how they celebrate the results of the life-giving rainstorm. The illustrations are done in bright, primary colors that are very eye-catching. I think this is a great book for those long, hot summer days.

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Can You Move Like an Elephant?
Judy Hindley
Manufacturer: Barron's Educational Series
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0764125869

Book Description

It's a brightly illustrated interactive book that really gets boys and girls moving! A picture showing elephants appears with text that asks: “Can you do what an elephant does? Deep in the jungle, the elephants go—slow, slow, to and fro, swinging their trunks from side to side.” Kids are challenged to move like an elephant . . . then like a slithery snake, and then like a swinging monkey. The colorful pictures that follow show a peacock, a snail, a big yellow butterfly, a springing tiger, a running deer, a herd of frightened animals, and a flock of flamingos. Finally, kids are asked if they can cuddle up and go to sleep like a small rabbit in its burrow. Here's an imaginatively illustrated volume that also makes a perfect bedtime story. Endpapers contrast Manya Stojic's vivid art with color photos of kids imitating the animals. (Ages 2-6)

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great book--if only I can remember what it was about

Fantastic Stories
Abram Tertz
Manufacturer: Northwestern University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0810107279

Customer Reviews:

great book--if only I can remember what it was about.......2005-10-23

In 1988 I stumbled upon this book at random at my university. I found unusual Soviet Union/Russian samizdat fiction, and this one was one of my major finds.The stories were drop-dead hilarious and just tour-de-forces of satire. I presented a book report at my college Soviet Lit class and actually generated a lot of interest in this writer among friends. (That same year, I also "discovered" Vladimir Voinovich's silly Moscow 2042, Nina Berberova's Tattered Cloak and M. Ageyev's Novel with Cocaine).

Of course, after then, the identity of Abram Tertz was disclosed as Andrei Sinyavsky, and some of his other works became available to the west (including the autobiographical Goodnight! A Novel, which was interesting though not halfway as good as Fantastic Stories).

A few random remarks: I can't remember whether Milan Kundera derived his "graphomania" concept from the story with this name in Fantastic Stories. At one point I knew the answer to this question (I was reading Kundera like mad).

Second, his self. v. authorial persona of Goodnight! A Novel certainly prefigures Phillip Roth's metafictional novels (not to mention Kundera's), not to mention The Breast.

So have you noticed that I have not told you anything about this story collection? Oops. I have totally forgotten what this book is about. I really need to reread . But rest assured that at the age of 21 I found it brilliant and inspiring, and you will too.

But rereading...and rediscovery, ahh, that is the pleasure.

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Manya's Dream: A Story of Marie Curie
Frieda Wishinsky
Manufacturer: Maple Tree Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1894379543

Book Description

A story of remarkable determination and ingenuity.

"We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained."
-- Marie Curie

Manya's Dream introduces young readers to the fascinating story of Marie Curie's (born Manya Sklodowska) life and to her exceptional achievements in the realm of science -- including winning not one, but two Nobel Prizes.

As told by a mother to her young daughter, Marie's remarkable story unfolds: from her difficult years living in Poland under oppressive rule to her amazing scientific accomplishments in France, even in the face of incredible professional and personal challenges as a woman and an immigrant.

Young readers will empathize with Curie's shyness and fear; they will also celebrate her perseverance. Her determination is an inspiration to readers of any age.

A chronology of events in Curie's life and a summary of her achievements follow the story, giving young readers insightful context. The introductory page Who Was Marie Curie? gives a clear understanding of the impact of Marie Curie's revolutionary work and ideas, which changed the world we live in.

MANYA'S STORY A Jewish Family's Ordeal in Revolutionary Russia

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MANYA'S STORY A Jewish Family's Ordeal in Revolutionary Russia
Bettyanne Forward by Nora Levin Gray
Manufacturer: Lerner Publ. Co.,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000J0L1S6

MANYA'S STORY THE HARROWING ACCOUNT OF A JEWISH FAMILY'S ORDEAL IN REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA

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MANYA'S STORY THE HARROWING ACCOUNT OF A JEWISH FAMILY'S ORDEAL IN REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA
Bettyanne Gray
Manufacturer: Lerner Publications Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JWFLEO

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Tiger's Story
Harriet Blackford
Manufacturer: Boxer Books Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Until We Meet Again: A True Story of Love and War, Separation and Reunion

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Words can not explain how wonderful this book was!
this book was SOOOO good!!
In Paperback!
Unusally Interesting
Best book ever read!

Until We Meet Again: A True Story of Love and War, Separation and Reunion
Michael Korenblit , and Kathleen Janger
Manufacturer: Putnam Pub Group (T)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0399127763

Customer Reviews:

Words can not explain how wonderful this book was!.......2003-11-19

Until We Meet Again

I like to read very much and have read many, many books! Until We Meet Again has got to be one of my favorite books I've ever read! I must admit that at the beginning it was very confusing because there are two large families in the book and they keep switching to both of them and at first they are hard to keep track of and you forget who is in each family. But once you get into the story, you really begin to know the characters. I think that is one of the main reasons I liked this book so much, you care for the characters Meyer and Manya so much that you want to keep reading just so you can make sure that they are safe and nothing happens to them. The book was great and really made me understand the Holocaust more! The book was realistic and true without being gruesome and heart wrenching the whole way through, giving you breaks in between to wipe away the tears. Even though it was a very sad story, it's sort of neat to know that it's true and their son wrote it. Some parts made me laugh or cry while others just left me speechless. I really grew to love Manya and I hoped that she would be okay. And Meyer was one of the bravest people I know! What he did for his family and Manya was un-thinkable not to mention his 3 close calls to death! Reading this book really made me think about what these people went through. Hiding in haystacks, little ones not being able to talk or play. Always scared that you would be discovered by the Nazis. Being separated from your family not knowing if you'd ever see them again, not even being able to say good-bye. And things we take for granted like food, clothes, warm beds, and even our hair, reading this made me treasure life more! I would highly recommend this book to anyone! That's why I gave it 5 stars

this book was SOOOO good!!.......2003-02-12

OH MY GOSH...this book was soooo good. i started off reading it from language arts, cuz we had to pick a book about the holocoust, but i couldnt put it down when i started it. i was blown away by the detail and something true, like this, could hold my attention. i found my self at the end of the book wishing there was a sequel!!

In Paperback!.......2002-06-26

I've had the opportunity to read the book, and meet Michael Korenblit! A great man, a great story. His respect diversity organization based out of Oklahoma City sells the book from a different publisher. The Respect Diversity Foundation webpage is the place to check into this or get in touch with the author.

Unusally Interesting.......2001-09-11

wow is all i can say for this book. i'm not much of a reader but this book i couldn't put down. it's a very descriptive book but doesn't lose you halfway through it. i highly recommend it to anybody (teenagers especially). trust me, the books starts great and ends great!

Best book ever read!.......2001-08-20

I loved this book so much that during breakfest, I almost missed the school bus because I couldn't put it down! This in my opinion is one of the greatest books of all time. It touched me in amazing ways. I would definetly reccomend this book to children and adults.

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