Title	The Favourite Game
Year published	1963
Publisher	Secker And Warburg Ltd., London
Pages	about 250
Notes
Summary	Cohen's first novel is a heavily autobiographical "portrait of the artist as a young man" growing up in Montreal.  Much of the novel is very sympathetic to the protagonist, Breavman, presenting his perceptions of the world in virtuoso passages of romantic writing; yet there is also a strong element of irony, which stands back from Breavman and offers a severe judgment on the limitations of his human relations (especially to women). In the end, the indulgence wins out over the irony, but it's a close call.

Summary written for The Leonard Cohen Files
by professor Stephen Scobie, copyright © 1997.

Title photo: Cover of the first American edition.