Philip Norman turns his formidable talent to the Beatle for whom belonging to the world's most beloved pop group was never enough. Drawing on previously untapped sources, and with unprecedented access to all the major characters, here is the definitive portrait of John Lennon.

This masterly biography takes a fresh and penetrating look at Lennon's much-chronicled life, including the songs that have turned him, posthumously, into almost a secular saint. In three years of research, Norman has turned up an extraordinary amount of new information about even the best-known episodes of Lennon folklore. The book's numerous key informants and interviewees include Sir Paul McCartney, Sir George Martin, and Yoko Ono, who speaks with sometimes shocking candor about the inner workings of her marriage to John.

Honest and unflinching, as John himself would wish, Norman gives us the whole man in all his endless contradictions—tough and cynical, hilariously funny but also naive, vulnerable and insecure—and reveals how the mother who gave him away as a toddler haunted his mind and his music for the rest of his days.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Even handed account
Comment: This is the first Lennon bio I've read (unless you want to count Shout!, but that included those 3 other guys...). Norman did a good job showing the good and bad. The man was no saint, but are any of us? Sorry, Yoko, but Norman was not "mean to John". If anything, for the first time ever, I actaully felt sympathy for Yoko, and that takes some doing.
I learned a lot about John's realtionships with his mother and especially his father. Eye opening stuff.
And yet, and yet! I felt there was something missing from this boigraphy. I can't put my finger on it, hence the four stars. Overall, this is a solid biography I know I'll re-read some years down the road... and that's not something I do a lot.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Yoko, we love you
Comment: Generally a good book with a lot of stuff from the "Beatles" also by Norman. Paul just disappears (he is even gone from one of the group photos). I don't think he needed to be elbowed out of the way so vigorously. Actually, it makes Norman seem a little insecure about John's place in the sun.

Yoko gets a pass. Here, the woman who pursued John like a heat seeking missile, destroyed him, and destroyed the Beatles is treated with ... deference. Unbelievable; on Yoko's word alone (contradicted by EVERYONE) Norman asserts that she never pursued John; didn't sit for hours in the bushes outside his home and didn't even know who the Beatles were when she first met John. Come on. Nevertheless, you come away feeling that Yoko is seriously creepy; her hold on John was really something -- "Body Snatcher"ish.

Not nearly enough Photos. This was just odd. Time after time Norman describes a photo in great detail that is not in the book. All told there are maybe 10 photos is one little section. I have never seen a modern biography with so few. No clue why but it is frustrating.

Over all well researched but a long way from objective and the good stuff is basically a retread of the author;s prior --and better-- book on the Beatles.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great subject, bad writer
Comment: I don't know enough about Lennon to judge the accuracy of this book, but I have to comment on the stupendously bad writing. If people played drinking games with books, for this one, I'd suggest drinking at every gratuitous reference to the Penny Lane roundabout. Equally annoying are the frequent clumsy attempts at foreshadowing: every mention of violence, guns, death, or the Dakota becomes an ominous sign pointing to Lennon's murder. Norman is also given to exaggerating Lennon's importance to the point of absurdity. The anti-war protesters of the 1960s act "as if in step with John's peace campaign," and Woodstock is "a giant response to the crusade [Lennon] and Yoko had launched from bed." "Give Peace a Chance" is comparable to the greatest lines written by Shakespeare. "Happy Christmas (War is Over)" has become "as much a part of the Yuletide ritual as turkey or mistletoe." Other examples of bad writing abound. Norman refers to events as ironic but apparently doesn't fully understand what the word means. He describes George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" as "an anthem crossing all religious boundaries, from 'Hare Krishna' to 'Hallelujah,'" when in fact it simply uses both of those phrases. Sometimes I found myself laughing at Norman's writing. Other times, I was so irritated I almost quit reading altogether. I hope a better writer will pursue this subject soon.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: O No Lennon
Comment: I've read just about everything written about the Man ~ John Lennon
And after raking my eyes through this "awful" book I find myself compelled to
write and post my first review on Amazon...
This book is Pathetic - Don't bother getting it, even at discount.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Mimi's Memories
Comment: When will someone write something substantial about John Lennon, or for that matter, Paul McCartney?
This is just a book of collected stories and gossip, some I didn't know, some I did. As a Beatle-fan, I'll read anything, and obviously, the editors know it. This book is poorly written and is full of errors, both small and large, so reader take warning.
If you want a couple of days of brain candy, go ahead. If you want to read a meaningful in-depth bio that is up to date as well as devoid of rumor, then wait awhile. I'm sure there will be another Lennon book in the future. Hopefully better.

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