Lennon in America: 1971-1980 Based on the Lost Lennon Diaries [Hardcover]

Geoffrey Giuliano (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 3, 2000

John Lennon is one of the most well known founders of rock 'n' roll. The glamour surrounding the life and death of this superstar has been portrayed in myriad books. But never from his own point of view. Lennon in America goes beyond the guesses, allegations, and suppositions to get to the explosive truth of the matter. Geoffrey Giuliano looks at the man who was perpetually at odds with himself and unravels the mystery of Lennon's private life through interviews with family members and friends, letters, and never before published diaries and tapes from Lennon himself. What the book reveals in chapter after chapter, is a man desperate for help but surrounded by people Lennon perceived to be bent on his continued fall into depression, bulimia, and cultism. The reader finds that Lennon is full of contradiction—devoted husband and adulterer; he is portrayed as a doting dad, but was an absentee father; a macrobiotic health enthusiast who wrestled with alcoholism, heroin addiction, and bulimia; he was a spokesman for world peace, but was unable to control his volcanic temper; a vocal feminist and recalcitrant chauvinist; an innovative and influential rock 'n' roller who renounced music for years. As this book makes abundantly clear, Lennon himself was painfully conscious of his weaknesses, excesses, and failings, of the disparity between the public image and his everyday person. He spent a lifetime struggling to understand himself and to reconcile the conflicts within him, a struggle that ended in New York in 1980 when he was assassinated. Lennon in America offers a revolutionary and all-too-human view of the twentieth century's most legendary rock 'n' roller by the writer most qualified to tell the tale.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In an attempt to build the most "human" Lennon composite--libidinous, possibly bisexual, drug-addled, self-loathing and Yoko-controlled--Giuliano (Glass Onion, Two of Us, etc.) spent 16 years interviewing Beatles insiders, listening to rare audiotapes, amassing Lennon's personal correspondence and examining his much-talked-about unpublished diaries, of which Giuliano obtained a copy in 1983. "Can you imagine," the longtime Beatles biographer gasps in his introduction, "what it feels like to hold in your hand a document you know has the power to change the course of Beatles history completely and forever?" After trumpeting a publishing revolution, he then warns readers that they "will not find in this book the voice of John Lennon as quoted from his diaries." Nor will they find paraphrases, because Lennon's entries "were often incomplete thoughts and snippets--the exact meaning of which is difficult to discern." If Giuliano's own double-talk isn't enough to diminish this work's credibility, his endless, voyeuristic descriptions of Lennon's sexual encounters are. Giuliano believes that Lennon's mother, Julia, who allegedly placed her son's hand on her breast when he was 14 years old, is to blame for his hero's idiosyncrasies. At first Giuliano's intentions to give Lennon admirers "some truth" seem earnest, but in the end it seems that he seeks only to shock. "It's very unhealthy to live through anybody," Lennon said after Elvis's death, but Giuliano keeps trying to worm his way into Lennon's soul in this crude, predictable exhumation. 70 b&w photos not seen by PW. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A bit like Albert Goldman!s The Lives of John Lennon through a soft-focus lens, this book ( based in part on the lost Lennon diaries ) looks at the artist!s life during the 1970s, examining his paranoia and exposing myths about the nature of his character. Giuliano, renowned for his biographical work on the Beatles, is clearly sympathetic toward the smart Beatle and, to paraphrase a song by the subject, simply wants to give us some truth. Beatle fanatics will be fascinated by the minutiae within, including the truth behind political prisoner John Sinclair and the details of Apple!s dissolution. In fact, the book occupies itself with everything from Lennon!s masturbatory habits to his recurring religious awakenings. Non-fans will be put off by this image of Lennon as cad, drug addict, and paranoiac; this often sensationalized account is for voyeurs and fans with deconstructive tendencies and is one of the best, most detailed books available on this subject. [For another revealing account of Lennon, see also Robert Rosen!s Nowhere Man, LJ 5/1/00."Ed.]"Colin Carlson, New Yor.
-"Colin Carlson, New York
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: Cooper Square Press (April 3, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0815410735
• ISBN-13: 978-0815410737
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (73 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,367,724 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars hackwork, May 12, 2000

By 

Lee Hill - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lennon in America: 1971-1980 Based on the Lost Lennon Diaries (Hardcover)

Giuliano has achieved dubious stature as a kind of professional Beatle stalker - a reputation mitigated only by his perverse pride in his hack work. Lennon In America's research is based largely on a copy of stolen diaries and interviews with the same disgruntled friends and former employees that have shown up in other "now-the-truth-is-finally-told" screeds. Given this contradictory and highly unreliable source material, Giuliano nonetheless blunders on with a numbing and boring chronology of Lennon's final years. Like all gossip, there is doubtlessly a kernel of truth to some of Guiliano's charges - the drugs, the infidelity - but where one might actually locate that truth in this mish mash of facts, speculation and countless "a source close to the Lennon's" is anyone's guess. There will always be Beatle fans, who like Trekkies, will lap this stuff up as the real thing, but for those looking for context, insight and rigorous research (footnotes would be nice, Mr. Giuliano), Jon Weiner's two books on Lennon remain the standard. And if you are looking for "warts and all" coverage, Lennon Remembers, ed. Jann Wenner, shows that the man himself was not lacking in self-criticism. I never thought I'd say this, but Giuliano's book makes Albert Goldman's controversial 1988 tome look good. At least, Goldman could craft an interesting sentence.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Real Lost Lennon Years?, April 22, 2000

By 

Chuck Kershenblatt (pitman, new jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lennon in America: 1971-1980 Based on the Lost Lennon Diaries (Hardcover)

Giuliano's research into John Lennon's post-Beatle years is at once compelling and nasty -- not unlike a car accident you both wish you hadn't seen, yet still wonder if you could have had a better view. Lurid, often sloppy (dates are mixed up; Lennon supposedly dreams of Madonna in the late seventies, years before her first album even appeared), yet no Grossmanesque butcher job. Giuliano obviously cares deeply for his subject, but doesn't seem to really know how to balance Lennon's innate contradictions. Photos of Lennon during '75-80 rarely show a less than healthy ex-Beatle; yet Giuliano would have us believe he was a sickly malnourished neurotic heroin addict who kicked babies wives and mistresses in his spare time. Still, an intriguing book. Can't put it down, can't help but wonder about Lennon's last years -- yet at the same time terribly doubtful about this book's supposedly "accurate" resources.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Should we laugh or cry?, July 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Lennon in America: 1971-1980 Based on the Lost Lennon Diaries (Hardcover)

When I saw who the author of this book was, I just couldn't bring myself to buy it...so I sat down in the bookstore and read it. What I find appalling (or perhaps incredibly funny...I'm not sure which), is this author's repeated assumptions about what John thought and felt at practically every moment of his life! I mean, only a psychic could be so cognizant of John's inner thoughts and motivations. The book is so absurd it is shocking that it even got published. I'm sure that many if not most of the events described are true (John himself spoke of many of these events during his last years); but the author's presumptions about Johns thoughts and feelings are preposterous! John himself, who was never one to shrink from self-assessment, couldn't even know himself so well! And as for Yoko, who really cares at this point? John loved her..give it rest. I gave the book one star for at least having some good photographs (they really are John, aren't they? Maybe the author could use his psychic powers to get some photos from John's astral home...).