SOURCE: Layton, David. “Irving Layton, Leonard Cohen, and Other Recurring Nightmares.” Saturday Night 111, no. 2 (March 1996): 32-43.

In the following essay, Layton—the son of Irving Layton—discusses his relationship with his father and the Layton family's relationship with poet Leonard Cohen.

There are two observations I need to make about the week I spent in LA: first, it rained every day I was there, and second, it was the Tibetan New Year. Neither event was related to the other, except that together they conspired to prevent me from achieving the purpose of my visit—interviewing my godfather, the poet/songwriter Leonard Cohen. I had some notion of doing an article on the performer’s capacity for personal relationships, and I think Leonard knew I also wanted him to talk about my father, though I’d written him only that I wanted him to talk about himself.

“He is...