Customer Reviews

Linda Mccartney

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

To anyone with enough genuine interest in the story of Linda McCartney--if you've read this far down the webpage, you deserve to hear the truth. And not the truth as seen by a stuffy, clueless professional reviewer who can sense an easy-target book to slam a mile away. I have read over 30 books about the rock scene in the 60's and this one told me details I'd never ever heard. I rank it as extremely well-written and the author names names because there are so many great ones to choose from! This book is as much about the beatles and the stones and Warhol's bunch as it is about Linda. You feel like you are PART of the story because Danny Fields certainly was her very good friend. And he can write and involve you in a book you just can't put down...

I have been wanting to read an intimate biography of Linda McCartney for some time now, so I was anxious to read this book. Written by her long-time close friend, Danny Fields, I would have expected a bit more. Even though the book delves deeper into Linda than any book on the Beatles has been able to, it still wasn't quite enough. A lot of what Fields says about her childhood and teen years, before he met her, is conjecture. There is very little detail about that period of her life. Fields knew her best in the mid-sixties when, as a single mother in New York City, Linda entered the then embryonic world of rock photography. There really was no rock press at the time, and Linda got in on the ground floor, and was able to be a part of a scene that very few people could imagine today.

While Fields vacillates from defending Linda to criticizing her, he is more than fair in his assesment, and, at times, a bit overboard in his praise of her. Although I didn't feel I knew Linda much better after reading the book, one point in Linda's favor became very clear. She was a very strong woman, with self-confidence and a deep, abiding love for her husband and children. She weathered storms I cannot imagine most women being able to handle. And, when the slings and arrows were aimed solely at her, instead of wallowing in self-pity, she felt instead a sense of pain for what the embarrassment caused Paul and her children to suffer.

This book doesn't shed a tremendous amount of light on Linda Eastman McCartney, but it is still valuable for the brief glimpse into the woman before Paul.

What a warm, generous and enjoyable book! I found it affectionate, but balanced and credible (the anecdote about how Paul and Linda "paid" New York cabbies was rather revealing). The quotes from Pete Townsend added a lot, too. I had no idea he was so close to the Macs, and his insights were always a delight. Linda comes off as a flesh and blood woman who made a conscious decision to make a difficult relationship work -- and viewed in those terms, her life was a success. I wish more attention had been paid to Linda's relationships with Mary, Stella and James (only Heather is mentioned often). But this is a small quibble with an otherwise moving love story.

Although I found that Mr. Field's writing style was hard to follow at times, I found this book to be exactly what it purposed to be: A beautiful and loving tribute to a woman whom it would have been a pleasure to know....not because she was the wife of "the cute one", but rather because she was real, believed that being a great wife and mother were more important than what people thought of her, knew where her priorities were, and rose above the criticism and the back-biting of jealous groupies and music "reviewers". I would have liked to have read more about her relationship with her children with Paul (many mentions of Heather), but just the fact that Mr. Fields wrote how wonderful they were, polite, and not at all what you would expect from "rock children", told me a lot. Linda did it all and did it with grace, intelligence, love, and charity.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain of Booklist, who takes the author to task for allegedly "not having gathered evidence" about Ms. McCartney. Leaving aside the fact that readers will discover that Danny Fields gathered plenty of "evidence," what more credible and meaningful information could Fields present about the subject of this perceptive biography than what he learned about her during a close personal relationship that spanned more than three tumultuous decades? If you're interested in Linda, read this book.

Band on the Run was made famous by Paul McCartney and Wings, one of the members of the band was Paul's wife Linda. This book is a deep look into her life and what she gave not only to Paul, but the Beatles, Wings and Paul himself.

Fields writes a book that almost brings Linda alive and gave this reader a real sense of the person that the media had only a glimpse of. Fields delves into Linda's relationship with the Beatles and you get to decide of she had anything to do with the break up.

The book has some pictures, I think there should have been a few more, spanning Linda's career and they are all black and white. Again the pictures could have been in color, but this small drawback will not in anyway detract from the excellent read of the book.

The book follows Linda from singer in Wings to animal rights activist and everything in between. Throughout the entire book you are treated to many first time stories from friends and family. One other thing I really liked was the way the author shows Paul's emotions without going to far overboard. Overall and excellent read.

Whilst not all sugar coated ( who amongst us are perfect?) this loyal and loving tribute seeks to accurately quote me ( for once in my life) and paints a myriad hued picture of this complex, Libra, "always seeking balance" woman who managed to ( in no particular order) make wonderful babies, make music, take photographs, make a squillion dollars out of eggplant and remain faithful to her man for the course of her life...hats off to Danny Fields for a heart wrenching view of a much maligned woman.

Although the author was well acquainted with Linda McCartney (although obviously not an intimate), he writes a very loving tribute to a woman who was talented, smart, pretty, and strong. The characterizations of Linda reveal her to be someone well-suited to Paul McCartney and someone who took a lot of abuse from "fans" of Paul for many years before people actually began to consider the strengths and talents of her on their own merit. All in all, a touching tribute written by a good friend that will make a fine addition to any Beatles library, as well as a fine addition to a library of bios of great women of the century!

Someone needs to order Ray Olson of BookList to resign - his review was just a spewel of vitriole against the author of the book, nothing more, nothing less. No doubt he's a bit sulky because Danny's book about Linda makes a few justified slams against critics and reviewers in general. But hey, they had it coming. After all the shallow and erroneous rumors some of those has-beens and wanna-bes created and periodically updated (with more errors) about Linda Eastman McCartney, it's refreshing to see someone finally describe fairly the person that he saw in her.
In fact, that's what I liked about this book. The author was refreshingly honest and intuitively correct in his observations of Linda's behavior and character and also of those who figured so strongly in her life. The book describes antecdotes of Linda from someone who knew her from way back when.
(Yes, that's what the book is about after all - perhaps some reviwers were expecting textbook style chronology?)
I was too young to get caught up in Beatle-mania but I do remember the outrage when Linda married Paul and when she joined Wings and even then I thought the negative clamor about it was just typical media-feeding-on-celebrity frenzy. Well, it's one way to make a buck, right?
I'm sorry Linda had to go through that but she obviously stood her ground well. You can truly sympathize with her and after reading the book, you understand that Paul McCartney fell in love with Linda for all the 'right' reasons.

Basically the book depicts Linda's personal and stalwart struggles with the causes she took up in life, her talents, some of her likes and dislikes; also her attempts to keep hypocrisy out of her life.
I enjoyed reading the book. And I want to thank Danny Fields for writing it.

I loved this book. I thought the author had a great sense of humor and a surprisingly accurate memory for the small details that make a biography so interesting. Because he knew her so well, Danny Fields is really able to share the essence of Linda and what made people so loyal to her. She was so controversial when she first married Paul, and it's refreshing and enjoyable to learn the real story from the ultimate insider. I loved it and found myself picking it up to reread sections.