John Lennon: The Life [Paperback]

There seems to be renewed interest in John Lennon at the moment. Two exhibitions have recently opened: one in New York organised by his widow Yoko Ono and one in Liverpool curated by his first wife Cynthia and son Julian; Cynthia also published a second memoir, John, in 2005; three not uncontroversial films have been made on his killing (Chapter 27, The Murder of John Lennon and The Killing of John Lennon) and a biopic of his early years is in the pipeline (directed by Sam Taylor-Wood). The relatively recent deaths of George Harrison (2001), long-term roadie Neil Aspinall (2008) and erstwhile Beatles lawyer Allen Klein (2009) have surely also brought Lennon back into the headlines. Reflecting this interest and also expressing it is Philip Norman's 800+-page biography John Lennon: The Life, which has arrived in good time for the 30th anniversary of Lennon's death next year.

So many books have been written on John Lennon (even rockstars have named children after him). Why should we keep on reading them? And the answer is, first and foremost, because he was a fascinating songwriter and singer. He also undoubtedly had a complex personality, seemingly ricocheting between headline-making arrogance and painful self-doubt, aggression and tenderness, tomfoolery and pleas for peace, neglect of his first son followed by becoming a doting househusband for the second, and seamlessly switching from marriage to a quintessentially conservative Liverpudlian wife in suburban England to a Japanese-American performance artist seven years his senior in downtown New York. In his 40 years of life, his relationship to politics likewise swung from candid disinterest ("It's selfish, but I don't care too much about humanity," he proclaimed in 1963) to peace activism and feminism as reflected in such tracks as 'Woman', 'Give Peace a Chance' and 'Happy Xmas (War is Over)'. Many of his songs - with and without Paul McCartney - irrevocably changed the cultural landscape and continue to enrich it.

On the positive side, Norman painstakingly evokes John's early years, his sense of identity torn between a playful, half-present mother, a father absent at sea, and the blunt, efficient protection provided by Aunt Mimi. We get a palpable sense of Lennon's vulnerability and anger as a terrible litany of unexpected tragedies is recounted: the sudden death of Uncle George from a liver haemorrhage in 1955, his mother being killed by a speeding off-duty policeman in 1958 when he was 17, the brain haemorrhage that killed his friend and bandmate Stuart Sutcliffe in 1962, and the drug overdose that deprived the world famous Beatles of their troubled manager, Brian Epstein, in 1967. Epstein's death unsettled and destabilised the Beatles juggernaut that had been running so successfully, efficiently and groundbreakingly up to that point. For Lennon, this - rather than the entrance of Yoko Ono in his life - marked the beginning of the demise of the supergroup.

To his credit, Norman doesn't shy away from illuminating Lennon's more unattractive traits and behaviour. Where Norman is weaker, though, is on the Dakota years. In contrast to the earlier attention to detail, the writing in these sections feels rushed and Norman seems to gloss over important changes that take place. How, for instance, can Lennon's sudden esotericism be understood (which is apparently so strong that he and Yoko let astrological readings determine the flight route they shall take from Japan back to New York)? How was Lennon able to care for his second-born (Sean) so lovingly whilst continuing to neglect his first-born (Julian)? What was it about Yoko Ono that so fascinated him and made him so open to her impact (on his music, his relationships, his politics and worldview) after a first marriage in which he seemed determined to ignore the wishes and needs of his wife? The developments in Lennon's character are passed over as if they were simply a matter of course, and this is a key flaw in Norman's book: he fails to provide a sustained analysis of the inner life of his subject. In the portrayal of his second marriage, he also - I feel - is too deferential to Yoko Ono's account of events (who initially had positive feelings about the book, thinking otherwise shortly before its publication). Also, his treatment of Julian Lennon is poor - for chapters he ignores mention of Lennon's neglect of him, only to compare Julian's music negatively to Sean's, stating that the former became a "Lennon clone" in the 1990s. The sense of foreboding that he presses upon the reader, where even the slightest reference to guns or death is apparently a dark foreshadowing of what is to come, can also be irritating and gives Lennon's assassination an unfortunate sense of inevitability which it shouldn't have.

In spite of the research and its length, this probably isn't the definitive biography on Lennon, and it certainly won't be the last word, but it has brought us much closer to an account of his life that in its sensitivity, sustained analysis and evenhandedness truly does it justice.

Shakespeare would have had a field day with the life of John Lennon: the abandoned, insecure boy whose meteoric rise to superstardom was as dramatic as any in music history and who having reached the pinnacle of adulation immediately began to question why he had been singled out for such treatment and indeed if he wanted to live such a public life, spending the rest of his days trying every possible experience to try to understand his situation.Phiip Norman offers us his personal vision of this extraordinary man and one doesn't need to be a Beatles expert to see a bias towards John and away from Paul plus a strong dependence on Yoko Ono for much personal detail which for some will probably be great obstacles to enjoying this book, but to me these issues were unimportant.This book offered me a chance to learn in detail of the early life of Lennon which sheds much light on the later man, his development as a musician from five pound a night local group player to Beatle and beyond. Norman is a storyteller with a fluent, readable style and as he has a compelling story to tell, the 800 pages race by and leave you with still further questions which you would like answered. It is true that Norman is not particularly insightful either at explaining how the great Beatles numbers were composed or why John and Paul fell out so bitterly in the late 1960's, but where he is really sucessful is at making you take a fresh interest in the songs and also to look at John's life in the context of his times. Lennon was clearly a sinner with many flaws balanced by great songwriting talent and redeeming qualities, but whatever your judgement on the man it is hard not to be moved by his murder and the senseless lost of human potential that went with it. I suspect devoted Beatles fans will have very mixed feelings about this volume, but I would strongly recommend this book to people who (like me) normally have no interest in rock or showbiz biographies but acknowledge the importance of Lennon and Macartney to twentieth century music and want to learn something of the man beyond the hits. Lennon like the rest of us was not quite sure what was going on and if his explorations for meaning and peace in life were more public, extreme and coloured by drugs and money, they are searches which most of us make in one form or another at some time thus giving this biography much of its power.

I'm not working just now and like one of the other reviewers I read it in three days. I really enjoyed it. I was 12 when Love Me Do came out and my sister and I bought all their albums on the day of release for several years.

I was also around in London in the late sixties so enjoyed reading the detail about that period.

There are several things about this book which really impressed me however. One is the carefully built up and three dimensional portrait of Lennon's childhood, particularly the portraits of his parents and aunt Mimi. They really come alive for me. So does the picture of Lennon as a 'Just William' character. Clearly for almost his whole life he was a relentless rebel, a continual thorn in the flesh to anyone in authority. I found the stuff about his interest in art and writing really interesting too, going back to his art school days and earlier.

The stuff on Hamburg is great too - that was a hard school, and made them as a band. There is of course a lot of detail on all the Beatles and the changing personnel and friendships. Many readers may be more familiar with this than I as I had never read a book about the Beatles before, but it is really good to get the lowdown on Stu Sutcliffe for example.

The nature of the Lennon McCartney relationship, the friendship with Jagger all add to the mix.

I was less interested in the Yoko Ono years as her work doesn't interest me but the book does bring out how Lennon's personality found his life in New York a new vehicle to express himself in a more explicitly radical way.

The section on the breakup with the Beatles seems to have as much to do with Paul's relationship with Linda as with John's with Yoko but armed with this support they both adopted different financial gurus and that was what really did it.

The is a comprehensive and disciplined book. It doesn't answer every question but for me really brought those years back.