Customer Reviews

John

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I have been a John Lennon fan since I was about six years old. I have read alot of books about him, and was always fascinated by him. This book by Cynthia is by far my favorite. I admit I have never been one to like Yoko, so I could come off as bias. I always felt really bad about Cynthia but never fully understood what had happened. I cant say for sure what she writes is true, but the pain that was caused at times had me disgusted with John.

In the beginning the book is wonderful. It provides really good mental pictures and shows a John Lennon that we havent seen before. Reading about their college years and younger days was fascinating. To see John more human was refreshing. We see a side of Mimi that has never really been written about. Cynthia seems to still be affected by her. Although Mimi is presented as nasty, rude, and demanding, you still feel she was loved.

Hearing about John during his first years of fame was really great too. It is neat to be able to see sides of him that we havent before. Although always on the edge, he is seen here as a loving man who desperately misses Julian but continues to mess up. The letter shown in here that John writes home is sad, and showed he was very vulnerable.

You begin to feel the tension as John spins more and more out of control. You feel the sadness and you can understand how both of them felt. That is one thing I really enjoy about this book. Althought written from Cynthia's perspective, she strives to explain John's also and understands they were both vastly different in many areas. It showed to me that she still loves John to this day.

The book gets pretty sad to read as John plummets. The chilling way in which he dumps Cynthia is almost hard to read. John goes from wanting to repair the marriage to coldly cutting both Julian and her off completely. It is really hard to read. And this is where I began to feel bad for Cynthia and Julian, and John who seems to be suffering from mental problems in some way. Someone I admire so much could do such cruel things. Cynthia mentions how it was disgusting to see John singing on T.V. about peace but couldn't even show peace to his family and most importantly Julian.

Throughout the book we are given the affect John's behavior had on Julian and this is also hard to read. But, I don't want to spoil the book anymore. But as I have always felt, John seemed to be really getting things together towards the end. He seems more like his old-self and I have read other accounts of this and it is sad considering what happened to him.

All in all, this is a fantastic book. It was a very easy read and offers incredible insight into John's life. A very well written book. I love it!

As anniversaries are celebrated and observed, more information referencing the Beatles are released. However, works by immediate family members or those closest to individual band members may become less. The release is quite fitting in that it coincides with what would have been John's 65th birthday and 25 years since his death. As with any event in history, having the opportunity to read accounts from those who witnessed the events bring us much closer to understanding who the individual was and debunking any myths or rumors that have existed through out the years and laying them to rest. In this case, Cynthia Lennon attempts to show the truth about John Lennon. What makes her biography or memoir so unique is that she examines her relationship with John Lennon from his pre-Beatle days as a college art student in the late 1950s up to her bitter divorce in 1969 as well as the John's post-Beatle years. Her story shows the change and transformation of John Lennon to readers, and the emotions and guilt that she experienced as she went through the process -- the coming to terms with her loss and being at peace with what happened.

JOHN is not a book about the Beatles or their music. Cynthia guides the reader through a chronology of her life with stories about how she met John Lennon and relating events that pertained to her own personal life, her long-time friendship with her girlfriend, Phyllis McKenzie, and her mother, who were always there to support her through trying times. The most interesting aspect of the book is the love-hate relationship between Cynthia and John's Aunt Mimi, and more in-depth information about John's sisters, Julia and Jacqui. In addition, the most heart wrenching part of the book is the one between father and son, which covers Julian's birth up to John's death. Cynthia's correlation with what song or record John was working on or singing about was effective in telling the story as it related to Julian and Cynthia's reality. Cynthia ties loose ends of the John Lennon story, and suggests that drugs and John's longing for a "mother-like" figure may have caused him to forge a life with Yoko Ono.

Overall, JOHN is a compelling and inviting book. The photographs that accompany Cynthia's narrative are enthralling as well. Some have never been published and come directly from Cynthia Lennon's own personal collection, while others may be all too familiar to John Lennon and Beatle fans. JOHN offers readers another perspective of the man who became an iconoclastic figure after his passing, but was merely as human as his fans.

Having read almost every book written about Lennon, (including Cynthia's first one back in the seventies), I recommend this. However, be warned, if you see Lennon as "Martin Luther Lennon" prepare to be disillusioned (or pass on this book).

I'm not going to describe the whole book, since there are plenty of those below. I'll just throw out a few tidbits.

Cynthia Lennon, John Lennon and Yoko Ono became a love triangle and then John left Cynthia and their relatively fulfilling marriage for yoko ono.

I don't find John's behavior in this situation mysterious at all--he was an addict/alchoholic who discovered drugs. He begged his then-wife Cynthia to do drugs with him but she declined (described in the book).

Then, in behavior identical to every other alchoholic (this is oh-so typical) he went out and found himself someone who WOULD do drugs with him, the wonderful Yoko Ono. She not only joined him in drugging but introduced him to heroin. (She once referred to their heroin use as "a celebration of of us as artists.")

Sure, Yoko Ono, whatever you say.

Cynthia talks in the book about the massive personality changes Lennon seemed to go through in this period after his discovery of drugs. Well, yes, that's what drug addiction will do for you.

Cynthia actually amplified something my wife (who isn't a beatle fan) pointed out--in the pictures of John with Cynthia everyone is smiling, happy.

In the pictures of John with Yoko everyone is somber, almost frowning. Cynthia said she couldn't get over how HUMORLESS he became, how he suddenly began taking himself oh-so seriously. (This was him taking on the personality of his new drugging buddy, yoko ono, the unsmiling sphinx who apparently never thought about anything but her own tireless bids for media attention).

I also found it ironic that Cynthia Lennon is technically a better artist than either the celebrated John Lennon or the wannabe Ono. (Yoko Ono's idea of art was to hand out little cards that said things like: go sit on a cloud, try not to fall through). Cynthia and John Lennon met as art students and some of her drawings are in the book. They're far beyond Lennon's goofy cartoons. Don't get me wrong, I'm not denying he was a songwriting genius. However, if you know his timeline he was a heck of a lot better songwriter before he discovered drugs than after. Is the guy who wrote that stuff on rubber soul really the same guy that later wrote some of that wacky stuff on his solo albums? (There were flashes of genius still in there, that's certain).

Cynthia is a little bitter. I can't blame her. Lennon didn't really leave her or their son any money. Of course, he didn't plan on dying at forty but still, what a nit-wit thing to do. Finally Ono relented and gave Julian a hundred bucks a week allowance (out of at least twenty million, probably now five times that much). Wow, Yoko, your generosity is er,uh, underwhelming. She probably leaves waiters and waitresses a quarter tip. Of course, it's her money, she earned it...oh, wait, that's right, she didn't, did she? Well, she sort of did--it wasn't easy making up those cards that said things like, "breathe."

Another person who came off very well (for those who have read all these other books, like me) is the more-than-a-little controversial Fred Seaman. Seaman worked for Lennon in the last of his days on earth and had a bond with Lennon's son Julian. Fred spoke affectionately of Julian in his book "The Last Days of John Lennon" and it turns out to be accurate. You can feel Cynthia's gratitude coming out of the book, gratitude to Fred Seaman for taking charge when Julian (then only 16 years old) flew to new york hours after Lennon's murder. It turns out fred was at least as protective of the youngster as he claimed. Cynthia relates that as soon as Julian arrived in NYC Seaman picked him up at the airport and warned him: yoko is not going to give you anything, no time, no attention, no sympathy. She doesn't care about you at all, only about herself and Sean so prepare yourself. (That's a paraphrase not a quote).

Here's an anecdote from the book that should live in infamy: After Julian's arrival in new york after the murder, Yoko took him with her to tell his half-brotherSean (Ono's son by lennon) their father was dead. Julian said several helpful things to Sean. Then a few days later Ono released a press release wherein she described telling Sean about the murder. Not only did she scissor Julian completely out of the scene but she attributed some of the things Julian had said to HERSELF. Then she signed the press release "Yoko and Sean" not "Yoko, sean and julian." (Julian was just as much lennon's son as sean no matter what Ono seems to think). Apparently Seaman's warning to Julian was right-on.

Well, Julian, welcome to the land of giant egos and tiny hearts.

So there you have it. Lennon was one-half the greatest song-writing team to emerge from rock music. He was funny, artistic, but often a disappointing human being. I still agree with the writer who descried him as "The arrogant swine with a heart of gold." That was Lennon's contradiction. I wish he was still around to keep us all on our toes. The Beatles were magic. If you lived through that era like me, you remember how magical it was. However, you can know too much about these people.

Once Lennon sent Fred seaman to a Beatle fan club event to buy memorabalia. As he was leaving Lennon called after him, "Tell them to remember, the music is the main thing!"

He'd probably tell us exactly the same thing.

I've been a fan of the Beatles since the first night that they were on Ed Sullivan in 1964. I could not be more in the Beatles camp without needing medication.

Actually some people think I do need medication over my Beatles fixation, but never mind. The reason I say this is so that you'll know whose "side" I'm on.

The most recent histories of the World's Greatest Band (this one and "The Beatles: The Biography" by Bob Spitz) are more reliable as general retellings than most of the previous dreck we've gotten, with the possible exception of Phillip Norman's, excellent "Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation." In fact, most of the previous general histories we've got on the Beatles have been garbage--being either authorized fan-club/tennie-bopper raves, or idiot kiss-and-tell scandal tomes (like "The Love You Make: An Insider's Story of the Beatles" which paints the Beatles as victims and jerks simultaneously).

In fact, even "Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles" by the very odd Geoff Emerick (who, despite having been in on the most important of the Beatles recording sessions seems to have entirely missed the point) is pretty good.

So we've got an excellent crop of fairly recent Beatles books out now. So what? Well, I think that for those of you who want to understand the Beatles story on a gut level, this is one of the must-have volumes.

Cynthia Lennon is honest in this volume on the level that her famous ex-husband always claimed to be, and generally wasn't. The feeling I get as I read this volume is that, for an autobiography, the book is unusually truthful. I suspect we're getting about 75% of the truth, and 99% of the truth as Cynthia saw it (understanding the distinction in those two points is critical in reading autobiography). Her portrait of John is unflinching and to the point when she speaks of the events she witnesses. It is also solid from the standpoint that a lot of the action that occurred in and around the Beatles circle happened just off of Cynthia's radar, and she tells us plainly when she was off stage. It is interesting that she seems honestly bemused by so many of the events that occurred in her own life.

The portrait of the "Cynthia Era" Lennon that emerges is the one we always suspected was the truth: that John was a funny, warm, intelligent person--usually. We also see the Post-Yoko John, and the bizarre head changes that Ono put John through.

Cynthia suggests that the changes in Lennon's temperament were symptoms of drug abuse, and I'm certain that was a contributing factor, but she either doesn't see or leaves us to read between the lines about the influence that Ono had over Lennon. I suspect that she's being kind; the combination of Ono's machinations, and Lennon's emotional and intellectual vulnerability were a frightening force, and changed John completely. In fact, the immediate post-Ono Lennon seems more like a cult adherent than a drug casualty, and that was, the way it seemed to fans like me at the time.

Lennon switched from the affable (if temperamental) head Beatle to a surly, smug, unsmiling but silly media manipulator who was more than delighted to exchange creative credentials for media attention. As Cynthia points out, "He never smiled and he took himself so seriously."

Best of all, Cynthia asks the ultimate question about Lennon, 'How could he be so interested in world peace, and so uninterested in making peace with his own son?"

Cynthia also seems aware that McCartney, who has received bad press in the last few years for having the bad taste to remain (Quelle Horreur!) popular and mainstream, is a talent in his own right, and half of the Beatles songwriting legacy. Cynthia is also aware that the Beatles were a band, an organism of four men, not John Lennon and three other guys. It was nice to hear someone say this; the other Beatles have gotten short shrift since Lennon's death.

Of course, a central part of the "Lennon Problem" is carefully discussed here; Lennon wanted a divorce from his wife. In the early 21st century that situation is considered sad, but with the current 50% divorce rate it might also seem unremarkable. In the late 1960's it was scandalous, and the way Lennon dealt with his ex-wife and child we even worse.

You won't learn a lot about how the Beatles music was made here, Cynthia wasn't allowed in that part of her husband's life (no big deal there, how many of you reading this take your spouse to work?), but you will learn a lot about who John Lennon was, and how he mutated into the media-hungry self-righteous maniac he became in the 1970's. Best of all, Cynthia still loves John, and despite the degree that he wronged her, she leaves us room to do so as well.

By the time the Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964, I was madly in love with them and their music. Paul McCartney was the love of my 13-year-old life, so it never bothered me that John Lennon was married and had a child. To my friends who were ardent Lennon fans, this fact was unacceptable. There were times I wondered how John's wife, Cyn, felt about all of this. After reading her memoir, entitled John, that question has been answered -- along with many others.

First and foremost, the reader should pick up this book expecting to read about love, happiness, frustration, pain, hurt, anger, tears, and conflict -- all of the things you would find in any relationship that is put under a non-stop eye of media scrutiny. No matter what you've read about the Beatles over the past 43 years, this story is different because it's told by someone who wasn't in the machine that made the Beatles a success. We've all read stories about John, Paul, George, and Ringo as told by everyone from their roadies to their contemporaries. Now we get to hear from the woman John married first and who was an unsuspecting participant on the ride of insanity known as Beatlemania.

When I began this book I was looking forward to hearing Cynthia's side of the story. I knew there would be some bitterness against Yoko, some anger towards John, comments on the use of drugs, cashing in on her marriage to him, and perhaps some self analysis in the process. She is only human and the journey of writing this book had to be a painful one for her, even all these years later. Yes, all of that is in her book. She is honest in her narrative and admits there have been times she's cashed in on the Lennon name to support herself and Julian. Anyone who's been a single parent with a child to support can understand that.

Now, let's move on to the positive aspects of this book. Cynthia weaves a wonderful picture of the Liverpool that was in the late 1950s/early 1960s. From her first meeting of John at Liverpool Art College through the early days of their romance, she shows us all the colors of John's character. She spends time discussing his early life with his family ... the father who deserted him, the mother who died tragically, life with his Aunt Mimi and Uncle George, his half-sisters, and his other aunts and uncles and cousins. Through these descriptions, you get a feel for the loving family he had around him. You also begin to see how John built walls around himself to keep out the pain created by certain events in his childhood. His acerbic wit, jealousy, temper and creative genius all stemmed from his insecurities.

Some of the funniest bits of the book are when she describes the early stages of their romance. She talks about some of the letters John sent to her from Hamburg, Germany and how some were so risque she had to hide them so her mother wouldn't see them. I enjoyed how she shared John's romantic side, such as the card he made her for their first Christmas together, or the things he wrote on the envelopes of his letters, such as "Please Mr. Postman, don't be slow, I'm in love with Cyn so go, man, go." She also quotes bits of his letters to give us a picture of the John she knew and with whom she fell in love.

Cynthia portrays herself as a rather shy girl, full of insecurities, that carried over into her adult life. She is blunt about saying she wanted a "normal" life with John. Obviously, they never had a chance to be normal. Several times, Cyn mentions that LSD and drugs were a big contributor to the break up of their marriage. I will let you draw your own conclusions on that. Her description of finding out that John and Yoko were a couple is heart-wrenching. I could feel her pain in her words.

Probably the most important aspect of this book is the glimpse of Julian's childhood. He was always sheltered from the press as much as possible, so it was interesting to get her perspective on how his life was affected by it all. She is fiercely proud and protective of her son. Julian writes the foreward for this book, and likewise he is fiercely proud of and loyal to his mum. Cyn's descriptions of how John's death affected both she and Julian are sad, touching, and painfully honest.

John was everything I expected and then some. For any Beatles fan, it's worth the read.

Longtime Lennon fans are probably wondering what Cynthia Lennon's new book has to say that wasn't in her previous book, A Twist of Lennon.

John retraces much of the territory covered in her previous work, such as meeting John at Liverpool Art College, the blossoming of their romance, and the onslaught of Beatlemania. However, as revealed in the excerpts and preliminary reviews published in the British papers, Cynthia talks more candidly about John's complex relationships with his Aunt Mimi, and his older son, Julian.

She relates how Mimi got custody of John--repeated calls to Social Services, complaining about Julia's cohabitation, eventually resulted in John living at Mendips and being raised by authoritarian Mimi. After bringing John into her home, Mimi was relentless in her criticism of him and ripped his self-confidence to shreds. Mimi's kindly husband, George Smith, gave John much of the love and affection he craved. Uncle George's untimely death left John without a loving father figure. That loss compounded the feelings of abandonment that permeated his life and later caused John to place emotional distance between himself and his loved ones.

John could be volatile and cruel to his loved ones, and occasions on which he is brutal to Julian are painful to read. In one instance, during a playful time at John and Yoko's home, Julian giggles. John screams: "I can't stand the way you f******g laugh! Never let me hear your f*****g horrible laugh again!" Cynthia says that to this day Julian rarely laughs.

Cynthia suspects that Yoko wielded an immense amount of control over John and was the reason why he was out of contact with Julian for years at a time. While John was with May Pang, he had Julian visit him more frequently. The contact ceased once again when he returned to Yoko.

While Cynthia claims to have forgiven John for any misery he caused her, her anger on behalf of Julian comes through loud and clear. She lets it be known that Julian was neglected by his father after the marriage dissolved. Pointing out that the man so famous for anthemic songs of love and peace could not bring himself to enjoy those same conditions with his own son, Cynthia is neither condemning nor cruel in her assessment. Those who were hoping for a no holds barred attack on John will be sorely disappointed.

Cynthia does, however, find fault with Yoko's treatment of Julian in the aftermath of John's death. He helped Yoko break the news to Sean, and comforted his younger brother. In Yoko's famous statement to the press, she says that she told Sean that the man who shot John will have to go to court. Sean asks if it's a tennis court or a basketball court. Cynthia says that was a conversation that actually took place between Julian and Sean, and she feels that Julian, as John's older son, should have been included in the statement.

And yes, there is the issue of Julian's inheritance. A trust fund was set up upon John and Cynthia's divorce; when Sean was born, rather than set up a separate fund, the fund was split between the two boys. When John died, his estate was left to Yoko, Julian, Sean, and Kyoko, with Yoko as trustee. Her trusteeship effectively blocks Julian from accessing the estate.

This is not a book that analyzes John's music, or his place in the pop music pantheon. It is Cynthia's story of "the real John-the infuriating, lovable, sometimes cruel, funny, talented and needy man who made such an impact on the world." There are no new revelations for ardent Lennon fans familiar with his life before Yoko Ono. The more casual fan will probably find much new information, especially Cynthia's recollections of life in Liverpool before and during Beatlemania. Those stories are touching, but they also include the veil of secrecy under which she lived, at Brian Epstein's insistence, as he believed that a married Beatle with a child was an impediment to the group's success.

In the end, we are left with an honest depiction of the emotional, personal, financial, and psychic turmoil of living with, and loving, an immensely talented, complex, yet troubled man.

Although I've read more books about The Beatles (and John in particular) than I could count offhand, I learned a lot from "John". There was only one big surprise for me here, though, and that was the fact that Cynthia Lennon ever felt "dismissed as the impressionable young girl" in the history of rock's greatest band. She should know best, of course, but most Beatlephiles I know - myself included - consider her a hero. My image of "Cyn" has always entailed putting up with John's chauvinism, jealousy and extreme insecurity, keeping Aunt Mimi company while the boys were in Germany, waiting by the radio for hours to scribble down the words to the latest Chuck Berry song so they could sing it in concert, and ultimately ending up with nothing in return but bittersweet memories while John's demise made Yoko one of the richest women in history.

And apparently, most of that was pretty close to the truth. But, much to her credit, she sounds a lot less bitter about it all than she has a right to be. In any case, any fans who ever did give her short shrift have no excuse to do so anymore. I'd also say a lot of people owe Paul McCartney an apology for criticizing his perceived "insensitivity" to his best friend, who could be amazingly insensitive in his own right.

If you're a longtime fan like me, chances are you'll already know most of what she has to say about the early days of The Beatles. But there are a few tidbits I hadn't heard before, notably about the origin of Ringo's stage name (which apparently had nothing to do with Western movies after all). You also might be surprised at what she has to say about Brian Epstein's feelings for John - remember, the accepted version of the story came mostly from people who weren't there. And in the "everyone suspected as much" department, it turns out that Aunt Mimi really was just as miserable to live with as you'd probably guessed.

What really stands out, no matter how well-read you are about Lennon, is just how cruel he could be with those who were closest to him. You've probably read that elsewhere, but you didn't read it from anyone who bore the brunt of it to the extent that Cynthia Lennon did. But - and this is a sign that her love for him was far truer than he deserved - she nonetheless recalls even the hard times with real affection for the man so many worshipped and so few knew. Even in recounting how he dumped her and five-year-old Julian cold and tried to cheat her out of any divorce settlement, she makes a sincere effort to understand why he acted as he did. Naturally, Yoko gets a lot of probably well deserved criticism for her manipulative and jealous actions over the years (I am now convinced the fact that she just published a book to compete with this one is no coincidence). But she also sees John's broken family and stern upbringing as a big part of the problem.

I also enjoyed reading about her life after the divorce, which has almost never been touched on in other books about The Beatles except in that inevitable last-chapter paragraph about what Pete Best and Neil Aspinall are up to these days. (You'll be happy to know there's nothing of the sort here, by the way.) It is, of course, frustrating to hear about John's well-documented efforts to make peace with his friends and his past immediately before he was murdered, but here as everywhere, she presents it all with care and understanding. Best of all, it sounds like the years since then have mostly been good ones for Cynthia, at last.

Oh, and if you needed another reason to hate Yoko, there are dozens of them here. You'll never believe what she said to Cynthia on the day after John's death. Ouch.

Before John Lennon cheated on his first wife Cynthia and left her and their son Julian, they had what seems to have been a generally loving marriage. This book demythologizes John, and his first marriage.

"John" by Cynthia Lennon is the story about who they were before they met, about Cynthia's marriage to the famous Beatle, how John ran off with Yoko, and how she managed after his rejection to resolve things amicably. We see John the person, and not as much of John the musician.

History knows most of what happened during John's short life. Few details have been left uncovered. Most of what is known about the former Cynthia Powell is in the shadow of John Lennon. What she does here is shine the light on the John Lennon she knew, revealing John's own shadows and dark side.

The bulk of the book is candid.

She remarks how John, the world peacemaker, said, "Give peace a chance," as he lay in bed with Yoko. Young son Julian watched at home, asking his mother why his father was with another woman. John, she asserts, was very good to his fans, even at the height of the Beatles' popularity.

There are plenty of Beatle stories here, retold from the vantage of an active participant. Some of it is familiar territory to any fan of the Fab Four. Because of the Beatles' well-documented history, the context is easy to follow. From John's first time hitting on Cynthia while she was still engaged to someone else, to her description of how she processed John's death and George's deadly cancer, and what happened to all those who were part of the John Lennon story.

"John" is not in the least sentimental. John's drug use is mentioned matter-of-factly. The slow realization that John was methodically cheating on her with Yoko is covered, as is his casual admission that he had otherwise been frequently unfaithful with many other women.

This is not a John Lennon the seer love fest. Somehow, though, despite John's selfish arrogance during their marriage and later rejection, she seems to have loved him throughout.

How much of this is true? After all, wasn't she the one he left? Isn't she bitter that John did not love her as much as he once claimed? Doesn't that anger filter her choice of stories and wording? Cynthia herself ran through three husbands before settling on her fourth and current spouse. She was not then, is not now naive, and surely understands the ramifications of "John" on John Lennon lore.

I fully recommend "John" by Cynthia Lennon. It may not be the whole, unadulterated truth, but it should help hardcore fans sort through the mass of rumor, hogwash and facts residing about Lennon in popular culture.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

Let me preface my review by saying that I'm a middle aged man who came of age in the sixties. And, in common with millions of people around the world, I loved The Beatles, their music and their impact on the culture, which is even felt to this day. Specifically, though, I was a huge fan and admirer of John Lennon. I liked Paul, George and Ringo, but it was Lennon and his music / points of view that I was most drawn to and along with Bob Dylan, he was the musical figure I admired most.

However, having said this, I can now make a distinction between the "pop star" and the man and in many ways, I'm sad to say that the latter was not a terribly admirable character.

Clearly, John Lennon was an incredibly complex individual whose behaviour and outlook on life was largely shaped by his early years, which sadly included the early death of his mother and having the misfortune of having a father who really didn't seem to care about him. These types of life-altering events can't help but have an impact on who he or we are later in life.

There was nothing in this book that came as a huge surprise to me, however, I was "saddened" by Cynthia's first hand account of John's indifference to his own son.

I don't care how "tough" your formative years were - we all have our crosses to bear - there's absolutely no excuse to treat your son the way John treated Julian.

And while I can "understand" or justify John's lack of contact with his son during the years when the Beatles were riding the crest of the greatest wave in the history of pop music (alot of young men put their careers ahead of everything else), I certainly can't understand his complete indifference to Julian in the years following the breakup of the band or his inability to provide more for his son financially in his will.

Good lord, here's a man whose estate was worth hundreds of millions of dollars in the mid to late seventies and his own son (and ex-wife) are skimping to make ends meet..???!!!

Despite my admiration for John, I was NEVER a fan of Yoko Ono - in fact, I'll go so far as to say that I think she was probably the WORST possible person to come into his life.

It's true that I wasn't personally privy to their relationship, however, I've read enough first hand accounts from friends and family who knew John long before he became a famous Beatle and I can't recall a single instance where anybody had something positive to say about Yoko Ono. In fact, everybody implies that after meetting Yoko, the "old" John - the gregarious, funny, witty guy - just disappeared. And Cynthia echos this common refrain.

As far as I'm concerned, the day she cast her spell over John was the day she hit the lottery. And Cynthia says nothing in this book that dispels my feelings about Yoko Ono. In fact, she essentially depicts Yoko as a controlling, manipulative and possessive woman who must have seen John's numerous insecurities very early in the game and played on them. Today, of course, this "avant garde" woman whose idea of art is a half eaten apple on a pedestal is perhaps one of the richest women in the United States.

I felt sorry for Cynthia in this book and felt she deserved better. She certainly didn't deserve to treated as shabbily as she was by John. Julian seems to have grown up to become a very likeable and well-adjusted man and much of the credit has to go to Cynthia. In view of the incredibly shabby treatment that he endured from both John and Yoko, it would be understandable if he grew up to be as "nutty" as John did.

I can still listen to "A Day In The Life" or "I Am The Walrus" or countless other John Lennon songs and fully appreciate and admire the musical genius behind these songs.

But as a human being - a husband and a father - John Lennon was not even close to genius.

This is the best and saddest book written about John to date. One thing I've seen few people mention, however, is how this book is equally the story of Julian, and their story is extremely painful. Some people criticize this book as a rehash of Cynthia's first book, "A Twist of Lennon," but that criticism is unfair. Obviously much of this book will repeat the former because the narrative of this book is dependent on certain events and places detailed in the first book. But the events themselves are where the similarity ends. This book offers vast amounts of new information. The revelations she offers about Mimi, for instance, require a complete revision of the Beatles story as most people imagine it, and sadly--all of the revelations in this book are depressing and sad--not for the better. This book also confirms what Tony Bramwell and Pete Shotton revealed in their books: Yoko Ono is an evil woman, and I use the term "evil" in the literal sense. One might suggest that for Cynthia to portray Yoko in a negative way is predictable, vindictive, and small, but this book is convincing precisely because the tone and telling of the story are just the opposite. Considering all that was maliciously and intentionally done to Cynthia, she has every right to be mean-spirited, but she comes across as just the opposite: she relates the events as they happened without any attempt to persuade the reader towards some predetermined conclusion or opinion (one gets the impression she's too exhausted to care about what anyone thinks anymore, something that's equally sad). I never thought anyone paid the cost of the Beatles' greatness more than Pete Best, but I think Cynthia's story might rival it, something she drops like a bomb with the last sentence of the book. The most heartbreaking achievement of this book, however, is the way in which Cynthia conveys just how happy the two of them were before John became "John Lennon." If Yoko had not connived her way into John's life and his money, I have no doubt he would still be alive today.