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Philip Norman

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John Lennon: The Life Kindle Edition

by Philip Norman (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

1,863 ratings

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For more than a quarter century, biographer Philip Norman's internationally bestselling Shout! has been unchallenged as the definitive biography of the Beatles. Now, at last, Norman turns his formidable talent to the Beatle for whom being a Beatle was never enough. Drawing on previously untapped sources, and with unprecedented access to all the major characters, Norman presents the comprehensive and most revealing portrait of John Lennon ever published.

This masterly biography takes a fresh and penetrating look at every aspect of Lennon's much-chronicled life, including the songs that have turned him, posthumously, into a near-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—his upbringing by his strict Aunt Mimi; his allegedly wasted school and student days; the evolution of his peerless creative partnership with Paul McCartney; his Beatle-busting love affair with a Japanese performance artist; his forays into painting and literature; his experiments with Transcendental Meditation, primal scream therapy, and drugs. The book's numerous key informants and interviewees include Sir Paul McCartney, Sir George Martin, Sean Lennon—whose moving reminiscence reveals his father as never seen before—and Yoko Ono, who speaks with sometimes shocking candor about the inner workings of her marriage to John.

“[A] haunting, mammoth, terrific piece of work.” -New York Times

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Bookmarks Magazine

Critics generally praised John Lennon: The Life, though they often seemed shocked at how much hate and violence could be found in one of the 20th century's most famous proponents of peace and love. Some were also taken aback by the book's length—over 800 pages for a figure who famously lived only to age 40. But most reviewers concluded that the bulk of this biography was appropriate, not only because Norman is the first author to investigate Lennon in such detail but because his sense for which details are interesting (a well-developed portrayal of the young Lennon's Liverpool) and which are not (Beatles ephemera) keeps the book moving at a steady pace.
Copyright 2008 Bookmarks Publishing LLC

Review

“[A] haunting, mammoth, terrific piece of work.” (New York Times Book Review)

“It’s this level of detail that makes Norman’s 822 pages such compulsive reading.” (Bloomberg News)

“[Norman] sharpens what we know about Lennon at just about every turn…devotees will relish the new information, while casual readers will find a familiar story told more truly than ever before.” (Rolling Stone)

“[Norman’s] definitive biography draws impressively on exclusive and extensive interviews with Yoko Ono and, for the first time on the record, their son Sean…densely detailed, intricately woven and elegantly told, John Lennon: The Life neither condemns nor condones, nor does it consecrate its subject. (USA Today)

“The bad news is that John Lennon: The Life is so rich and enveloping that it demands to be read…it’s a clear-eyed and compassionate study of a man...Grade: A-.” (Entertainment Weekly)

“Powerful and heartfelt.” (Washington Post Book World)

From the Back Cover

For more than a quarter century, Philip Norman's internationally bestselling Shout! has been unchallenged as the definitive biography of the Beatles. Now, at last, 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 comprehensive and most revealing portrait of John Lennon that is ever likely to be published.

This masterly biography takes a fresh and penetrating look at every aspect of Lennon's much-chronicled life, including the songs that have turned him, posthumously, into a near-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—his upbringing by his strict Aunt Mimi; his allegedly wasted school and student days; the evolution of his peerless creative partnership with Paul McCartney; his Beatle-busting love affair with a Japanese performance artist; his forays into painting and literature; his experiments with Transcendental Meditation, primal scream therapy, and drugs. The book's numerous key informants and interviewees include Sir Paul McCartney, Sir George Martin, Sean Lennon—whose moving reminiscence reveals his father as never before—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.

About the Author

Philip Norman is the author of Shout!–The Beatles in Their Generation, and biographies of the Rolling Stones, Elton John, and Buddy Holly. He has also published four novels, two collections of short stories, and a memoir of his seaside childhood, Babycham Night.

From The Washington Post

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Glenn Frankel When in 1969 three eminent intellectuals were asked to name the "Man of the Decade," broadcaster Alistair Cooke chose John F. Kennedy and novelist Mary McCarthy chose Ho Chi Minh, but anthropologist Desmond Morris opted for John Lennon. It seemed an eccentric choice at the time, but Lennon's stature as a cultural icon has only soared, especially since his murder by a crazed fan in 1980. There are monuments dedicated to him all over the world, from an airport in his hometown of Liverpool to a "tower of light" in Iceland, a graffiti wall in Prague and a chunk of Central Park named Strawberry Fields. As a writer and sly humorist, he has been compared to Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, James Joyce and Mark Twain, and as an illustrator to James Thurber and Paul Klee. "If he were a painting, I'd hang him in the Metropolitan Museum," said Thomas Hoving, the museum's director. Any biographer who aspires to capture the Beatles' putative leader in all his brilliant and obscene glory has to wrestle with a few basic questions: How did a restless, angry and minimally educated young man from a terminally depressed British seaport rise to lead the foremost pop music group of the 20th century? Was John Lennon truly one of the post-war generation's most creative figures or just a fleeting curiosity? And how can one reconcile the drug-addled, abrasive and gleefully malicious egotist who produced such tripe as "Revolution Number Nine," "Two Virgins" and "The Fly" with the musical genius responsible for "A Day in the Life," "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "Strawberry Fields"? For all the hundreds of Beatle books, there have been few biographies of the band's most intriguing and troubled member. Ray Coleman's Lennon: The Definitive Biography is a conscientious but tame account by a British journalist who knew and admired him, while Albert Goldman's The Lives of John Lennon is a vengeful, self-righteous hatchet job that makes no attempt to separate fact from fiction. Now comes Philip Norman. Twenty-eight years ago he produced Shout!, an exuberant and revelatory account of the Beatles' rise and fall. His new book, weighing in at 851 pages, should be his master work. But while it's often powerful and heartfelt, John Lennon: The Life falls short of resolving the deep questions about Lennon's life, loves and work and sheds little light on his proper place in the post-industrial pantheon. Norman recounts what is by now an achingly familiar story, beginning with Lennon's troubled childhood. He was raised by his starchy Aunt Mimi after his father went off to sea and his mother moved in with another man (she later died in a traffic accident). Then came his discovery of rock-and-roll; his tangled partnership with another motherless autodidact, Paul McCartney; the dizzying, stratospheric rise of the Beatles and the chaotic, heady years of Beatlemania -- the drugs, the extravagance and the ego-tripping of a man who decided during one LSD experience that he was Jesus; the group's slow implosion and the endless recriminations. Norman is particularly adept at fleshing out such overlooked side characters as Aunt Mimi and Lennon's wayward father, Freddie, pinpointing their roles in the shaping -- and misshaping -- of his character and creativity. Norman displays the same gift for brisk, what-happened-next narrative that made Shout! a page turner, but there are times when his prose falters: Aunt Mimi's "exterior brusqueness camouflaged a heart of purest gold." When the Beatles first arrived to conquer America in 1964, "fate once again seemed to be working as their press agent." Returning to the United States in 1971, "John unpacked his bags in a country where the generation gap had turned into a blazing abyss." Break out the fire extinguishers! Norman doesn't skimp on showing us the malicious side of "a fellow who seemed to have been born without brakes," as one of his art school teachers put it. Lennon whacked his first wife, Cynthia, across the face in a jealous rage, poured beer over manager Brian Epstein's head and pummeled Bob Wooler, a Liverpool deejay who championed the band, sending him to the hospital. Yet at times, Norman insists, Lennon could be sweet-natured and supportive. Norman's account is most revealing after the band collapses and Lennon tries to navigate life as an ex-Beatle. The author had the cooperation of Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, and lends a sympathetic ear to her side of the breakup story. As the book makes clear, Ono may have used Lennon to gain fame and fortune, but Lennon used her as a sledgehammer to break up the band he felt was suffocating him. Although her musical gifts were microscopic, he brought her to all of the group's recording sessions, whispered to her constantly in front of the others and insisted that they treat her as their professional peer. "She showed me what it was like to be Elvis Beatle and to be surrounded by sycophants and slaves who were only interested in keeping the situation as it was," Lennon told an interviewer. Still, even Ono suffered his wrath. She says he made her write out a list of everyone she'd ever slept with before they met and regarded every man as "an active and dangerous rival for her affections." Norman notes that "even when he went to the toilet, Yoko went too." And she recalls to Norman her humiliation when Lennon made love to a woman in the coatroom of a party Ono and he attended on the night of Richard Nixon's reelection victory in 1972. The most poignant intimacies come at the end of the book when Lennon's son Sean recalls his father, who was murdered when Sean was 5. "I remember the feel of the stubble on his chin . . . the scar I could see underneath it," he tells Norman. It's Sean, himself a musician, who understands his father's most enduring contribution to pop music: the sense of vulnerability and introspection that lies at the heart of such achingly sad songs as "Help!," "Norwegian Wood," "Girl" and "Julia." "For a man to feel insecure and question himself the way my dad did in songs is a post-modern phenomenon," says Sean. "He invented that."
Copyright 2008, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Before leaving London for the Sweet Toronto Peace Festival in September 1969, John had finally made up his mind to resign from the Beatles. But the whirl of departure had left no time to break it to the other three.

On September 20, Klein called a meeting in Apple’s boardroom for the formal signing of the Capitol contract. For the first time in months that John had all his fellow Beatles on hand to hear his news. But initially he held back, confining himself to a generalized complaint about Paul’s dominance of the band since the Magical Mystery Tour album. “I didn’t write any of that except Walrus . . . ” His tone was more hurt than accusatory. “So I didn’t bother, you know, and I thought I don’t really care whether I was on or not, I convinced myself it didn’t matter, and so for a period if you didn’t invite me to be on an album personally, if you three didn’t say, ‘Write some more songs ’cause we like your work,’ I wasn’t going to fight.”

The insecurity and fatalism revealed in this outburst were surprising enough. But John did not stop there. Warming to his theme – though still wounded rather than angry – he accused Paul of always having overshadowed him, not only by writing more songs but also by inveigling the lion’s share of studio time. It was not a row, more like the airing of mutual grievances before a marriage counselor. Surprised, and not a little hurt himself, Paul conceded that he might have “come out stronger” on recent albums, but pointed out that often when they went into the studio, John would have only a couple of songs ready to record. John agreed his inertia had been a factor: “There was no point in turning ’em out – I didn’t have the energy to turn ’em out and get ’em on as well.”

Paul was all for burying hatchets and pressing forward, convinced all would be well if they could free themselves from balance sheets and office politics. “When we get in a studio, even on the worst day, I’m still playing bass, Ringo’s still drumming, we're still there, you know. . . .”

It was the cue for John’s bombshell. “He hadn’t even told me he was going to do it,” Yoko remembers. “John said, ‘You don’t seem to understand, do you? The group is over. I’m leaving’ “

“I started the band, I disbanded it. It’s as simple as that,” John himself would recollect. “I must say I felt guilty at springing it on them at such short notice. After all, I had Yoko; they only had each other.”

According to music-industry wisdom in 1969, not even the Beatles could split up and expect to continue selling records in significant quantity. It was therefore vital that no word of John’s resignation should leak out until the Abbey Road album had realized its full market potential. “Paul and Klein convinced him to keep quiet,” Yoko remembers. “We went off in the car, and he turned to me and said, ‘That’s it with the Beatles. From now on, it’s just you – okay?’ I thought, ‘My God, those three guys were the ones entertaining him for so long. Now I have to be the one to take the load.’ ”

From AudioFile

From his childhood to his untimely death, John Lennon's life was momentous enough to easily support the 1,000 pages Philip Norman devotes to it. Norman, who wrote what many consider to be the definitive account of the Beatles--SHOUT!--delves into every nook and cranny of the musician's life, revealing a sometimes tortured soul who never stopped changing throughout his tragically interrupted life. This abridgment is choppy in places but never less than gripping, partly due to Norman's typically English turns-of-phrase, partly due to narrator Graeme Malcolm's quintessentially British delivery, not to mention his ability to perfectly reproduce Lennon's Liverpool accent. J.S.H. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B001FA0T78
Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins e-books; Reprint edition (October 16, 2008)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 16, 2008
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 6.2 MB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 865 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #191,142 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
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Customers find this biography to be a comprehensive and well-researched account of John Lennon's life, with fascinating details throughout. Moreover, the book provides great insight into the musician's complex personality and the characters who influenced him. Additionally, they appreciate the visual style, describing it as a wonderful look into the artist's life, and consider him a great musician who was well ahead of his time musically. However, the book's length receives mixed reactions, with several customers noting it is very lengthy.

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190 customers mention "Readability"168 positive22 negative

Customers find the book engaging and entertaining to read, with one customer noting that it holds interest throughout.

"...His great fortune, to be sure, was his collaboration with Paul McCartney and George Martin, both of whom harnessed his intensity and rage into the..." Read more

"...I didn't much like it. While it was readable and imprinted the band's basic career arc into my head, I balked at Norrman's snide tone and his..." Read more

"This is a fantastic book. A biography about John Lennon from the day of his birth to the sad day of his death...." Read more

"A must read for music fans, Phillip Norman has complied a work that in my view can be considered definitive...." Read more

165 customers mention "Detail"152 positive13 negative

Customers appreciate the book's detailed portrayal of John Lennon's life, with one customer noting how it begins with his grandparents and provides a thorough examination through the years.

"...Norman's biography is exquisitely detailed, though as other reviewers have noted, it does not have a professional bibliography aside from citations..." Read more

"...he goes deep with them - especially Yoko Ono, who provides invaluable insight into her husband, and whose own complex story is respectfully related..." Read more

"This is a fantastic book. A biography about John Lennon from the day of his birth to the sad day of his death...." Read more

"This is one great biography. Seriously. For one thing, it is very well-written...." Read more

91 customers mention "Information quality"83 positive8 negative

Customers find the book informative and well-researched, praising its wealth of detail.

"...relies on a small number of sources, but to his credit, he goes deep with them - especially Yoko Ono, who provides invaluable insight into her..." Read more

"...The book does provide fascinating and previously unknown details about the life of one of the most beloved and prolific artists of our time who was..." Read more

"..."The Life" is decently paced, interesting, follows chronology but appears to have limited resources..." Read more

"...He provides lots of details and facts. My criticism is that you need to take everything with a grain of salt...." Read more

48 customers mention "Story quality"43 positive5 negative

Customers find the book's story engaging and interesting from the start, providing great insight into John Lennon's life, with one customer noting how it delves into all the backstories.

"...Sadly, in the service of telling a zippy and engaging tale, Norman leaves out many of the details - as well as a bibliography and even footnotes -..." Read more

"...A very straightforward and carefully compiled biography that is both respectful and comprehensive...." Read more

"...chapter, apparently distilled from an interview with John's son, was surprising and very moving." Read more

"Plenty of detail on John's life. I am a long time Beatles fan, but still learned a lot. There is a lot of information...." Read more

29 customers mention "Visual style"29 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the visual style of the book, describing it as beautiful and artistically presented, with one customer noting how it reveals John Lennon's sweet side.

"...It was that indomitable artistic spirit that eventually led him to escape a tumultuous p" Read more

"...are myths that are cleanly debunked, his good-natured, sweet side is on full display and yet his treatment of first wife Cynthia and son Julian are..." Read more

"...The fact that John had been an aspiring artist, real artist artist with turtleneck and a broad reading list and crazy friends, before his..." Read more

"...of this complicated man, and told it in a straightforward, unapologetic fashion...." Read more

28 customers mention "Personality"25 positive3 negative

Customers appreciate the book's portrayal of John Lennon as a real human being, with one customer describing it as an outstanding read of a complex personality.

"...Norman makes clear that John Lennon was one of the most fascinating public figures of the twentieth century...." Read more

"...This detailing highlights Lennon’s personality, even though based on his broken home and based on the childish appeal of early Beatles pop songs,..." Read more

"...there isn't too much there, Alfred comes across as a good natured, affable man who tries to do the right thing but ends up getting all the blame...." Read more

"...about John's youth, how the Beatles came about, and insight into characters that influenced (and exploited) them...." Read more

18 customers mention "Talent"18 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate John Lennon's talent as a musician, with one customer noting he was well ahead of his time musically and another highlighting his creative role in the band.

"...unknown details about the life of one of the most beloved and prolific artists of our time who was tragically and abruptly taken from us just when..." Read more

"...to author some of the most endearing, inspiring, tender, and meaningful songs of his time...." Read more

"...Such a great musician but did not seem to need all the attention...." Read more

"...The book also made me very sad for the loss of this great talent and helped me develop a deep respect for Yoko...." Read more

25 customers mention "Length"10 positive15 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the book's length, with some finding it very lengthy and big, while others consider it too long on meaningless detail.

"...The book is a very long read which at various times provided so much detail that it seemed tedious...." Read more

"...This is a BIG book, 882 pages I think, over 24 hours on my Kindle. But I read it in less than a week and was sorry to see it end...." Read more

"...’s relevant from what’s tangential, amd that makes his book at least 300 pages too long, plus not always focused...." Read more

"...The book is extensive, interesting and detailed. It is very fair, showing Lennon's amazing attributes and faults...." Read more

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Thomas J. Burns
No One Deserves a Greater "What If?"
Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2010
Verified Purchase

It may be the music, it may be the age, but no performers captivated the world quite like the Beatles through the 1960's. Not surprisingly, the library of literature about the quartet and its extended family is immense [Cynthia Lennon, John's first wife, has published two autobiographies herself], and the canon of Beatle writing ranges from the brilliant to the awful. This reader was floored by Bob Spitz's "The Beatles" in 2006 and equally taken with our work at hand, Philip Norman's "John Lennon." Norman's 1980 work "Shout" has been considered the authoritative work on the group, and though I personally give that nod to Spitz, it is intriguing to see Norman's new treatment of John Lennon.

Norman's biography is exquisitely detailed, though as other reviewers have noted, it does not have a professional bibliography aside from citations in the text itself. The author depends heavily upon both recorded interviews and conversation with living witnesses, of whom a fair number [Paul McCartney, George Martin, and Yoko Ono, among others] still survive. Norman keeps his text lively despite the fact that some of these living sources are recalling events of forty years or more distance, and certainly in retrospect.

Most readers, I assume, know something of the outline of John Lennon's life. Norman strives to introduce the man to present and future generations in his time, as well as to tie together the continuing loose ends of the Lennon saga. Norman thus treats extensively of Lennon's natural parents, neither of whom has fared well in the transmission of the Beatles tradition. In particular, Norman seems to make special effort at a rehabilitation of Lennon's father, Alfred or "Freddy," with the son holding serve at the time of his murder. Norman appears to find something of Lennon's reckless behavior and chronic anger in "abandonment issues," but nothing in this work changed my mind that Lennon's primary adult difficulty was substance abuse [poly-substance abuse, to be more correct, and this work strengthened my conviction.] Yoko Ono, for all her own baggage, at least recognized this fact and tried to move him in the direction of better living.

By his young adult years Lennon was writing and singing to his own pathology. His great fortune, to be sure, was his collaboration with Paul McCartney and George Martin, both of whom harnessed his intensity and rage into the energized and harmonized product we celebrate today. Norman's treatment of Martin is expansive: the Beatles' producer has come down to us over time as the buttoned down man of classical music who swallowed hard and tackled this most unusual studio challenge. Norman loosens the conductor's tie; Martin is depicted here as unflappable through thick and thin, carrying on his work enthusiastically even with Yoko Ono propped up on a bed beside him like Madame Lafarge. Martin came to enjoy the innovation of the successive Beatles' albums and threw himself into the fledgling science of sound technology and special effect, sometimes at the danger of his own job.

It is regrettable that after 1966 Lennon never quite connected with McCartney and Martin on a vision for the future. By late 1965 the Beatles were in general agreement that their touring days were over and that they would henceforth work as a studio band, to the beat of their six month album deadlines for recording giant EMI. McCartney, with Martin's support, began to rethink the concept of long-play albums. Even though Beatles' albums generally carried an artistic/thematic trademark, McCartney saw the traditional LP as a grab bag of a dozen independent songs of varying style and quality. His thinking took him into the realm of the unified album, something along the lines of what would later emerge as "Tommy" and its cohorts in the 1970's.

Lennon, however, entered a phase of significant breakdown, even by his standards. He would meet his obligation of the six month album, though his contributions were erratic and egocentric. The rest of his time was devoted to significant drug use and other offbeat personal pursuit with fellow substance abusers Bob Dylan and later Harry Nilsson. Coming up for air from times to time, he immersed himself in the trendy and opportunistic world of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who at least planted seeds for a more humanitarian, if not a more reality based, John Lennon.

However, his new relationship with Yoko Ono in 1967 came to dominate Lennon's musical and personal affairs in ways that have drawn the wrath of many Beatles' fans. Their relationship was a battle for control tempered by pathological need. By the late 1960's, with Lennon generally absent, the other three Beatles were cultivating individual success: Harrison became a splendid performer/composer in his own right, and the affable Starr found himself in the movies, among other ventures.

Manager Brian Epstein, whatever his faults, might not have been fully appreciated by the Beatles until his sudden death in 1967. Lennon, at least, realized this if dimly; advice from his new guru Ono resulted in Apple Corporation, a TARP, if you will, for struggling musicians, an operation rife with abuse and misplaced do-gooder-ism that significantly drained Beatle cash flow and proved to be a of limited success. Despite Apple's demise, Lennon was still considerably wealthy when the Beatles dissolved in 1970.

Norman divides the final decade of Lennon's life as half "lost-weekend" and half "house husband." With the birth of his son Sean in 1975 Lennon found a new focus for his compulsive energies--child raising. Norman includes a post script, a curious interview with the late Lennon's son. [Julian evidently declined participation, a statement in itself.] After an idyllic description of his impressions, Sean remarks casually that he required emergency room treatment to his ears after an episode of his father's screaming at him about table manners. It occurred to me that young Sean had captured his father very well, like the hundreds of adults [and Julian] who passed through his life: nothing the man did would surprise anyone

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Ben Marlin
A clear picture, but missing details
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2016
Verified Purchase
Fifteen years ago, in the nascent stages of my Beatles super-fandom, I read Philip Norman's band biography Shout!. I didn't much like it. While it was readable and imprinted the band's basic career arc into my head, I balked at Norrman's snide tone and his questionable musical judgment, which seemed biased against every Beatle who wasn't John Lennon. Even worse, while Norman got the facts right, he provided almost no sense of who John, Paul, George, and Ringo were as people. Shout! was the story of four caricatures, some music they made, and lots of business dealings.

All of this is to say that I approached Norman's biography of John Lennon with skepticism. Looking back, some of it was warranted. Norman can still be judgmental, with nary a good word to say about George Harrison; and he retains some odd opinions about pop culture. To his credit, he's changed his view of Paul McCartney, no longer holding it against him that he isn't John Lennon.

Despite Norman's shortcomings and quirks, I finished the book impressed with his improvement as a biographer. And whatever the book's flaws, I devoured it with the same eager enthusiasm that I normally reserve for detective novels and television shows. I still disagree with some of his music criticism, but at least he's realized in the last 30 years that "Can't Buy Me Love" is a good song. Maybe in another decade or two, he'll even come around to the merits of George Harrison.

Sadly, in the service of telling a zippy and engaging tale, Norman leaves out many of the details - as well as a bibliography and even footnotes - that might have marked a major work of scholarship. Consequently, we're often left with a gauzy view of John's adventures, jumping from Greatest Hit to Greatest Hit, lucky that John happened to have 800 pages' worth of them.

This is particularly maddening when Norman gives short shrift to some of the more significant figures in John's life. In particular, we learn almost nothing about John's first wife Cynthia and his son Julian. Yes, John was a neglectful husband and father; but as Cynthia's excellent autobiography illustrated, there's a story to tell about that side of John's life. May Pang is similarly dispensed with, as are Pete Shotton and the myriad assistants who shared John's life at the Dakota.

Sometimes the lack of detail even frustrates Norman's narrative. It's never made fully clear why Yoko sent John on his early-seventies "lost weekend"; or what caused him to settle down so definitively in the last five years of his life. Things just happen, quite entertainingly, and then other things happen, and on and on.

Norman relies on a small number of sources, but to his credit, he goes deep with them - especially Yoko Ono, who provides invaluable insight into her husband, and whose own complex story is respectfully related. One of Norman's most interesting finds is a teenage girl who struck up a correspondence with John's Aunt Mimi, whose letters provide a unique perspective on our hero.

Still, it's hard not to wonder what a biographer with the commitment of Mark Lewisohn might do with John's story - especially given that Lewisohn's magisterial Tune In managed to be both dense and compulsively readable. The details of John Lennon's life matter, and one day they will hopefully fill heavier books than this one.

At the same time, Norman managed to paint as vivid a picture of John Lennon as I've ever come across. The star of Norman's story shines brightly from beginning to end, thanks to stories from his friends, his own quotes, and the author's own deft insights into what made him tick.

We see John at his charming best, and at his violent, destructive worst. We see a deadbeat father whose music made millions happy, and a fickle political activist whose whose enthusiasm inspired countless good works. We see a controlling, all-consuming narcissist who brought introspection and lacerating honesty to popular music, and whose piercing takes on himself led so many people to better understand themselves.

Norman shows us an angry young man who, at one point or another, viciously and needlessly alienated everybody who loved him; and a magnetic personality whose charm and energy drew them all back, again and again. Perhaps most importantly, Norman makes clear that John Lennon was one of the most fascinating public figures of the twentieth century. Impressively, he does this by stepping back and letting John's life speak for itself, with a minimum of editorializing.

When John was cut down, Yoko, Sean, Julian, and John's fellow Beatles lost an irreplaceable figure in their lives; and, perhaps most frustratingly, John himself lost the peaceful, happy, and stable future he'd spent his last few years fighting to build. But it was always John's gift to reach further and move as many people as he could; and most of us have indeed been affected by his life and music. Norman's evocative book makes it clearer than ever how much we all lost that night in 1980.

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Mark Willhoite
excellent
Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2025
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This is a fantastic book. A biography about John Lennon from the day of his birth to the sad day of his death. The Beatles are my all-time favorite musicians.

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Randy M Lloyd
A must read for music fans
Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2015
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A must read for music fans, Phillip Norman has complied a work that in my view can be considered definitive. The book is a very long read which at various times provided so much detail that it seemed tedious. The book does provide fascinating and previously unknown details about the life of one of the most beloved and prolific artists of our time who was tragically and abruptly taken from us just when he was starting to find some measure of true happiness in his life. Somehow, as a music fan, when you have followed the career of a favored musician from the faraway perspective of your own life, you can’t help adopting popular myths. This is especially the case when many of those myths are perpetuated for reasons of privacy or business. Apparently Yoko Ono provided invaluable input to the author, and even reviewed the manuscript, but did not want the book to be called an “authorized” biography choosing to remain in the shadows. Then later on refusing to endorse it because she thought it was “mean to John”. Like the author, I beg to differ. I would characterize the book as candid and unequivocal, but guileless. A very straightforward and carefully compiled biography that is both respectful and comprehensive. All aspects of John’s life are explored for what they teach us about the real person behind the myths and how his life turned out. John was a complex man who was possessed of an irrepressible talent. It was that indomitable artistic spirit that eventually led him to escape a tumultuous p

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BRAVEHEART
excellent
Reviewed in France on February 17, 2018
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un merveille - même pour quelqu'un qui pensais de connaître l'histoire de la vie de Lennon - je ne connaissais pas - les details sont surprenants et il est très bien écrit

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Nika Mercury
Great thing
Reviewed in Germany on May 11, 2024
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This book seems in my opinion like a great and true book about johns life it tell everything perfect anf all the story’s and everything, it’s just sweet sad and also funny in some way. Perfect book for perfect Lennon fans!

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Franz Kafka-Schäfer-Insekt
Fantastic biography
Reviewed in Spain on January 19, 2025
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John Lennon was a great composer and a decent musician, but he was quite a difficult person. This book helped me understand his complex character. This biography is very well documented and written. I highly recommend it to any serious Beatles fans.

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Mrs E Trist
Disappointed
Reviewed in Australia on June 25, 2024
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Quick and easy to buy but received Book and it's fairly weathered. Not in new condition at all. Disappointing

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J. GERARDO GOMEZ RIOS
Excelente !!!!
Reviewed in Mexico on June 26, 2022
Verified Purchase
Me llegó en perfectas condiciones y a tiempo.
Es una magnífica biografía de John Lennon, la recomiendo ampliamente.

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5.0 out of 5 stars No One Deserves a Greater "What If?"

4.0 out of 5 stars A clear picture, but missing details

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5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for music fans

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5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente !!!!

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No One Deserves a Greater "What If?"

A clear picture, but missing details

excellent

A must read for music fans

excellent

Great thing

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Excelente !!!!