The Favorite Game

In The Favorite Game, Leonard Cohen tells the story of Lawrence Breavman and his journey from precocious adolescence to man-hood. Growing up in Montreal, Breavman spends his days with his friend Krantz. Through their games, their long rides through the night, and their shared perplexity at the world they inhabit, they establish a dialogue that runs for years. During college Breavman is met with sudden literary celebrity, but as an act of penance, he chooses manual labor rather than academia. Drawn equally to the beauty of women and the beauty of language, it is not until he escapes to New York and meets Shell that he finds his definition of love, and himself, changing, and ultimately redefined.

Intensely imagined and beautifully rendered. The Favorite Game is written in the most elegant of prose, a novel as inspired as Leonard Cohen’s poetry and as moving as his songs.