Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(35)

 

 

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.

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.

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...).

I'm always a little skeptical of celeb bios which paint portraits of their subjects as being so totally dysfunctional that you can barely comprehend how they manage to get through a day in the real world. Giuliano's bio of John Lennon is on the thin, sharp edge of this territory, giving us a Lennon so sex, drug and Yoko-addled that he's lost virtually all of his creativity. What we're seeing is almost a walking corpse. It's almost a relief when Chapman kills him. Thats a terrible way to feel about anyone, much less someone who was a kind of hero. There's part of me that resents bios like this.

Giuliano, who is seen in photos being terribly chummy with Yoko and Sean, nevertheless trashes her as an artist and a human being with such apparent glee that the word "hypocrite" came screaming to mind. If you had bad feelings about Yoko, this book will only confirm them. If you had no bad feelings about Giuliano when you started reading, you might just have them by the time you finish.

Did I enjoy this book? No. But I did finish reading it, a tribute to Giuliano's easy style, and the prurient nature of the human mind. It's hard to look away from a train wreck.

Geoffrey Giuliano is a sycophant,the same type of toady that hung around John, Yoko & Sean & for which he has so much disdain. He has ingratiated himself to Yoko & Sean with pictures of them together in his book. I'll bet those pictures were taken before Yoko read this book. This is vicious book & not from one who admired or loved them. It is a book by a creature that stabs his dead victim once again in the back & twists the knife. John can't defend himself & everybody hates Yoko anyway. So there you are. He has a book to sell. Lennon had many demons. So does Giuliano. He has gone to the Beatles well too many times.

Without mincing words, I will say, that as every Beatle scholar already knows, Geoffrey Giuliano cannot see past his own sanctimonious self. And in Giuliano fashion I don't mean that as an ad hominem attack, but as a service for "the truth." His latest book is a shining example of his teenage-level thinking - - the disillusioned student betrayed by his hero. Of course, he argues just the opposite - - that he is only uncovering "the myth" to find "the real man" beneath. Don't believe it! The real tone of this book is anger and viciousness that Lennon WASN'T THE MYTH! - he's mad that Lennon was a real person! The problem with Giuliano's thinking is that he BELIEVED the myth ( he even says so in his "author" comment on this very site.) And it's only when one BELIEVES the myth that the inevitable backlash and disillusionment sets in. For him to point out that Lennon was a real human being is an incredibly obvious, ridiculous statement. So the question comes down to this - - who is it that is going on this journey of "discovery?" And the answer is Giuliano himself - - wrestling with such an obvious idea that it's embarrassing to watch him try to elevate his own personal fan-related realtionship toward Lennon into a "spiritual expose." This book has less to do with Lennon than it does with Giuliano - - and his loss of a hero. And that's the dishonesty of it - - that Giuliano thinks he is speaking objectively for everyone - - that his view of Lennon is everyone's view of Lennon. Not even close.

Giuliano is a well-known Beatles fanatic who decided to write an extended poison pen bio. He claims to have tapes or copies of John Lennon's diaries, but can't explain why his interpretation of the diaries seem VERY different than other people who really have seen them, and he claims that his copy of the diaries were given to him by someone who probably didn't have them. This book is poorly written, seems rushed to press in time to beat _Anthology_ and doesn't offer anything more than a bunch of unsuspported and ridiculous assumptions. Giuliano, for his part, claims to be telling the truth because he "sits on a throne" and because "people worship" him, as he said in an interview in a Buffalo NY newspaper. So why would he lie? I dunno, because the combination of money, arrogance and nuttiness is a difficult combination to live honestly by maybe.

This book is pure tripe. Particularly offensive is the outrageous suggestion that Stuart Sutcliffe an early Beatles band member and John's best friend died from Lennon kicking him in the head, and allegedly also had a sexual relationship with Lennon.

Ok, we all know Lennon was flawed and insecure and paranoid and who wouldn't be having been abandoned by both parents as a child, and then as an adult having achieved fame wondering if people were interested in him because they genuinely liked him or wanted to exploit his fame and wealth.

But this guy really goes beyond the pale by trotting out every half truth and rumor, and presenting it as the truth. If you are a Lennon fan and really want to read this book, just pop into your local bookstore and browse through it, you will get the general flavor. Do not reward this guy for pandering to the lowest common denominator.

I think all anyone needs to know about Geoffrey Guilliano is that this man faked his own death to avoid being chased after all the money he owed.
And he did it by taking advantage of the 9/11 tragedy where he had messages sent to dubious sources to say he'd been in one of the Twin Towers that day.After which his body was one of many never discovered thus saving any positive sighting of it and an obituary.
At first he got a heap of sympathy messages on a Beatles website
until he was rumbled
Its Reassessment Time here.
His Harrison book bears the blurb "Guilliano knows more about my life than I do"
Which is doubtful as Harrison threatened to sue him!
So he no doubt added that himself
1 Star is because you can't award lower

After reading this book, I just have to say that the author really did a pathetic job of researching and attribution. How bad? Well, bad enough that the entire credibility of this book comes into question. Example: He speaks of Lennon's sour relationship with his father, particularly after an incident at the Magical Mystery Tour Premeire Party, where his father showed up drunk dressed as a garbage man in 1968. Then he goes on to say this incident was forgiven by John in 1964. This is one of the many inconsistencies. Mr. Giuliano, just how many favorite cats did John Lennon have -- my last count was about 7 until I gave up. Let's not even mention the reference to John's obsession with Madonna, who's first album came out in 1982, 2 full years after Lennon's death. Considering source material was the alleged Diaries of John Lennon, which of course are not reproduced in this work, one would hope to have gotten an insight into Lennon's last years. Instead, it is filled with innuendo, the predictable Yoko-bashing, and useless bits of information. Save your money on this one. For fans of John Lennon, best to just remember the artist as you like, not how Giuliano or Goldman or Seaman or Mintz or the slew of other sycophants who continue to feed on the corpse of this man.