The Favourite Game

katiewest · Post by **katiewest** » Fri Aug 26, 2005 4:56 pm

Earlier this summer I read The Favourite Game, and I really really loved it.
In my opinion, The Favourite Game far surpasses Beautiful Losers (which I read after The Favourite Game) in terms of style and content. It was after I read about Breavman and his body as poetics, as it were, that I started writing again.
There may be a thread on this, but I didn't see one; so how do you feel about The Favourite Game, and about how it's usually overlooked?

Fljotsdale · Post by **Fljotsdale** » Fri Aug 26, 2005 7:42 pm

I think it's stunning book. Unlike anything else I ever read. Ok, I know it's a novel, but it reads like a bio of young Leonard and his best friend - and I suspect there is a lot of bio in there.

But I'm a 'newbie' fan of Cohen's, so don't have the expertese of long-time fans.

Tchocolatl · Post by **Tchocolatl** » Sat Aug 27, 2005 12:16 am

Fljost, don't cling too much to that 'newbie' thing. Jurica is an '8' and very proud about it. The rest of us are other numbers (for example, I'm big big joker with this all - not serious at all).

katiewest, welcome, and if you click on "Search" (between "FAQ" and "Memberlist" up there) and enter The Favourite Game and click "Search for all terms" you'll find interesting collections of two pence of all sorts.

Fljotsdale · Post by **Fljotsdale** » Sat Aug 27, 2005 2:44 am

I'm not, Tchoco!

Just stating my ignorance.

I've read and enjoyed the book, but not analysed it nor read an anylysis, not seen/read any knowlegable articles on it.

I'll do the search myself.

But tell me - what's this with the numbers? I've been meaning to ask for some time. So - just for starters - what is an 8?

Tchocolatl · Post by **Tchocolatl** » Sat Aug 27, 2005 5:01 pm

OK....

This is an interesting part of an interview found on this site (that worth to be explored when you are questioning yourself about a piece of work or another

). As well as the whole Ring.

"Interviewers: What did you mean when you said that The Favourite Game was a third novel and not a first?

Cohen: I had written a first novel, The Ballet of Lepers, and had written a lot of short Stories and long pieces and I completely overhauled the various versions of The Favourite Game. There is another Favourite Game that exists in the Thomas Fisher Library at the University of Toronto which is radically different from the one I published. I had done at least four versions of The Favourite Game so by the time the final novel came out it wasn't a first novel.

Interviewers: Montreal has played a major role in your novels. Have you deliberately set out to render the life of the city or was the sense of the city just incidentally in the work?

Cohen: I was just talking to a girl -- Gail Scott -- who is writing a book that's trying to give you a sense of the city, like Joyce's Dubliners -- that makes the City come alive. No, I neuer began with an intention to render the life of the city. I began with hunger. An appetite. I neuer believed I had to justify the city because I was in the city and that this city, Montreal, was the "Jerusalem of the North," that this was a holy city. The spirit was somehow invigorated here. It was illuminated. We were here already. I didn't have to invoke it.

Interviewers: So once again, it's just the material at hand.

Cohen: Mostly, that's it. If there is an aesthetic, you go where you go to feel alive."

Sourge : http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/intheirwords.html

Tri-me · Post by **Tri-me** » Sat Aug 27, 2005 6:52 pm

Read the first book of The Favourite Game last night. OH YA it is great and I agree with the commentary, his book reads like watching a film. This is why I love his work he draws pictures with his words.

....: this must be what Hell is like, an eternal Bunny Hop with sore feet, which you can never drop out of

loved this scene, makes me wonder why his novels have never been made into film.

Fljotsdale · Post by **Fljotsdale** » Sat Aug 27, 2005 9:14 pm

That's a great link, Tchoco! I laughed so much! That guy is so laid back!

Tri-me · Post by **Tri-me** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 4:40 am

I left the book for a couple of days because I don't like finishing a good book

. Just finished it. GAUD the last book was depressing, poor Shell

.
I am glad I read it he is a very visual writer. Was the favourite game love? I don't think Breavman knew what love was, don't think he felt he deserved it.
In the introduction, written by R.J. Smith Dalhousie University Nova Scotia, says

"...is strongly autobiographical, and describes the growing alienation of its central characteer, a young poet from Montreal.

Breavman was a tortured soul, if this is autobiographical I hope Leonard Cohen has found peace.
When I go to Montreal I am going to look up some of the places in the book.

linda_lakeside · Post by **linda_lakeside** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 6:23 am

Jurica is an '8' and very proud about it. The rest of us are other numbers (for example, I'm big big joker with this all - not serious at all).

Jurica's quite right to be proud. Yes, you're a big joker.

Linda.

linda_lakeside · Post by **linda_lakeside** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 6:29 am

Yes, great link. Just a reminder of how much is in the main site. Tons of stuff. I like that Layton quote that Leonard's mind was "unblemished by a single idea". Ha!

Linda.

Tri-me · Post by **Tri-me** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 8:30 am

THE FAVOURITE GAME
A film by Bernar Hébert, Canada 2003
Based on the novel by Leonard Cohen
Cast: J.R. Bourne, Michèle-Barbara Pelletier,
Cary Lawrence, Daniel Brochu, Sabine Karsenti
The movie will be released on DVD on July 15, 2003

Lazy me not looking through the main site. Now how do I get my mitts on a copy of this? First, has anyone seen it?

Ripley's movie review
When I read that this was based on a Leonard Cohen novel, I was afraid that it would be too deep for the mood I was in. As it turned out, the movie was just pretentious. The narration was ok but the dialogue was unnnatural, the acting was mediocre, and Bourne spent most of the movie looking smug. On the plus side, it was well-made, there was plenty of nudity, even of the full frontal male kind, (Gaud bless Canadian filmmakers)and it featured lots of Cohen's music. As great as that music is, it wasn't enough

"Somehow, director-screenwriter Bernar Hebert manages to keep you hooked into the story, even though Leo is not a sympathetic character."

You have to like critics who don't bother to get the main character's name right.

I would like to hear/read interviews he did on this book. It was very intense, as one would expect from him. I am wondering at 2:27AM the rain and intense humidity is keeping me up, everthing is damp. If there is a parallel between his relationship with his mother and his inability to have trust in relationships with women? I mean Lawrence Breavman, not Leonard Cohen.

linda_lakeside · Post by **linda_lakeside** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 9:09 am

2:30 in the morning is the only time we really get to wonder these things, isn't it? You don't want an answer, because you want to wonder about it some more. I have no answer for you, so I best leave.

Linda.

tomsakic · Post by **tomsakic** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 11:06 am

We talked about the movie somewhere around here. I didn't like it. Breavman's character seems so full of himself you expect he'llexplode every moment. He has such irritating face full of his poetry and beauty. He leaves all women because of his poetry. He walks around without the shirt, showing his body. It's all so immoderate and wrong. That's not Breavman and that's not Leonard, although someone meanful would read it like that. But it's nice watch, the movie is good, typical piece of small art movie for festivals and DVDs.

Tri-me · Post by **Tri-me** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 4:24 pm

Thanks Tom for the info on the movie. It is always a risk to see a book turned into film, the director wants to create a visual tapestry and appeal to as many people as possible. I will keep my eyes open for the film, but I won't rush out to buy it. Thanks Katie for starting the thread. I am reading all my books slowly. Like to multi-task so it is hard to sit and read and do nothing else.
Goddess of the Lake Linda you are such a tease, must be why the men love you so much. I can't complain about the weather, what has happened in the US is a tragedy. Man it has been raining for three days, not BC rain, rain, rain. I am like a cow how I react to the weather poor Leonardcohenbutinface he just wanted me to go to sleep.
Nuff about moi. Hope all the members of the forum are safe and warm enjoying three square a day.

Tchocolatl · Post by **Tchocolatl** » Fri Sep 02, 2005 2:12 am

More comments on the movie :

viewtopic.php?t=610&highlight=favorite+favourite+game

http://jam.canoe.ca/Movies/Reviews/F/Fa ... 52892.html

Whatever. As this sort of movie is out of ordinary paths, is all in subtlety (let say the word : is just symbol after another) some comments about the movie of not so subtle persons are so very funny.

Anyway, I would like some day to see a movie based on the novel as it is, each chapter being render as it is shown in the book.

As I said, it was not one of the greatest moment of cinema for me, as I had to work too much. I could just have relaxed and look at the beautiful pictures, but I would have missed what many people missed while doing this.

Yes Ln

don't you think also?