Customer Reviews

The Beatles' Shadow: Stuart Sutcliffe & His Lonely Hearts Club

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Well I totally disagree with the previous reviewer. I think it is interesting to know, for instance, about John and Stuart's intimate relationship, and all the historical factual material that is in the book, including photographs. I also think it is vital to know about the uncertainty and bouts of aggression that John had, also in relation to his feelings for Stuart. And the suggested relationship between this and Stu's untimely death is interesting, to say the least.
I'm not a big reader, who is these days, but this is one of the rare books I read in one go. Because of the suspense, the verifiable facts, the background, and the human factor that shimmers through the story between the lines, as it does in good work.

I became interested in Sutcliffe several years ago when some documentary on PBS was aired, around the time Backbeat was in theatres. His art, his looks, immediately captivated me, and I had wanted to learn more about him. There weren't any books, and the only way you could read about him was through Beatles books rather than a stand-alone, and I wasn't interested in that. So, my interest in Sutcliffe's life fell to the backburner. Until recently, when I saw this book was going to be published in paperback.

Written by his sister, it's advertised as a biography, but is clearly a memoir. To me, a biography is researched extensively with quotes from letters, interviews from friends and associates and whatnot. Not rememberances of how cool it was to have a Teddy boy ask you to dance at one of your brother's early gigs in Liverpool.

That's problem number one with the book. Problem number two is apparently Pauline Sutcliffe is a psychotherapist who is smitten with analyzing her brother and John's life based on 40 year old memories, clearly prejudiced by time and death. And to make it worse, she's Freudian. Witness this line she wrote about her brother's relationship (she, as well as other biographers, assume that there was a sexual relationship between John and Stuart):

"The origins of male homosexuality are supposed to be tied up with the relationship between boys and their fathers. Or the failure of that relationship in some way, or the boys picking up some ambivalence in their fathers and all sorts of messages. I am not convinced about such theories, but let's characterize John as a boy looking for a father's love.[...]"

Here's what I knew about Stu before reading this book:
- he gave the Beatles their name and look
- he was a talented artist
- he was friends with John
- he met a blonde German girl
- he died too young

After reading this book, here's what I knew about Stu:
- he was a momma's boy
- he gave the Beatles their name and look
- he was a talented artist
- he was friends with John
- he met a blonde German girl
- he died too young

One day, I hope, a talented biographer will pen an excellent biography about this interesting fellow. Unfortunately this book is nowhere near that goal.

Though centered on Stuart Sutcliffe, I agree with the person several reviews down that this is still more a memoir than biography. Though this "memoir-y-ness" is a weakness at times, Pauline Sutcliffe does manage to create a better picture of her brother's short life than one usually finds in the typical Beatles biographies. She has the advantage of her own experiences, familial knowledge, information from Stuart's art college friends, his letters, and an interview with Paul McCartney.

Pauline delves into Stuart's artistic background, his time at Liverpool Art College, his intense friendship with John Lennon, and how his friendship with Lennon brought him into The Beatles. Building upon information culled from biographies of The Beatles and those close to them, Pauline uses Stuart's numerous letters to illuminate his experiences in Hamburg. She quotes his letters extensively, and they chronicle everything from the rock and roll scene to the mundane to the meeting of his fiance, photographer Astrid Kirchher.

She also writes a great deal about John Lennon and her theories behind his personality--her own psychotherapy background really comes through at these points, some of which make sense, others (including a very outdated psychological theory of homosexuality) not so much.

The second half of the book falls a bit short, and resembles more of a family portrait. Once Stuart returns to Hamburg following The Beatles deportation and leaves the group to focus on his art, Pauline's information gets fuzzy. She vaguely pieces together this part of her brother's life through his and Astrid's letters, doctors' reports, and his rare visits home. Likely the richest source for these details would be Astrid herself, but she is not interviewed, presumably because of her fractured relationship with the Sutcliffe family. Still, other
Hamburg sources--Klaus Voormann, Jurgen Vollmer, or any of Stuart's German art school friends--were left untapped. The focus shifts toward the Sutcliffe family and their worries and reactions to Stuart's declining health.

The story, of course, does not end with Stuart's death: Pauline details the mourning process, her mother's falling-out with Astrid, and the battle for Stuart's art to recieve recognition separate from his Beatles connection.

There is a near-chapter-long tangent in which the later years and deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Sutcliffe are described, and I felt that this was extraneous information that could have easily been left out--it detracted from Stuart's story.

Despite all its memoir-y moments, I did enjoy this book immensely, and it does contain a wealth of new information on Stuart.

Excellent insight into early years when The Beatles were forming. Offers nice understanding of John Lennon's personality and dynamics between Stu, John and others, especially Paul.