I did a search on Amazon to see how many titles came up for Beatles books. Result: 1182. For John Lennon: 445 results. So did we really need yet another book?
Cynthia Lennon was born in 1939, the week the war began and lived in Hoylake ("over the water" from where John Lennon lived, in what was seen as a 'posh' area). She lost her father at 17 from cancer, which later would be one of the things that would bring her closer to John who had lost his mother at a similar age (It was also one of the few things he had in common with McCartney). Having won a scholarship to the Junior Art School in Liverpool at the age of 12, it now looked as if the death of her father would put a stop to her ambition to be an artist. Thankfully, her mother insisted that she continue her education. She started at the Liverpool College of Art in 1959 and it was here that she met John Lennon. She soon fell for him, despite
the fact that he seemed a little wild and dangerous, and the two of them started a relationship. Cynthia found out she was pregnant in July 1962 and the pair was married on the 23rd of August 1962. This book is really her story, the story of her life with John, and it is fascinating. She has lived through Beatlemania with him, and as such, she has something to tell that many other biographies couldn't.
I don't pretend to have a vast knowledge of the life of John Lennon and all its meanders, but there was little in this book that was totally new to me. So where does the appeal of the book lie?
Cynthia's prose is easy to read, flows well but is not so literary that it takes away from the story itself. You really get a feel for the atmosphere of those days, from the difficult beginnings through to Beatlemania. Through Cynthia's eyes, you understand what it must have been like to be besieged by fans wherever you went. And you get to see John Lennon the man from a privileged position. Let me quote from the book here:
"A few months earlier, John had been nominated in a television documentary as one of the three men of the sixties, alongside President Kennedy and Chairman Mao. It was an accolade that put him in a category above mere celebrity and meant that virtually no one could see him any more as an ordinary human being."
Cynthia is one of the few people to have known Lennon really well before he was famous (another is Paul McCartney, but I am always wary of his 'revisionist' tendencies). And here, she tells us about him with great simplicity and honesty. There was a danger that this book could have been the bitter recriminations of a spurned ex-wife, but Cynthia is always careful in what she says, and tries very hard to see the other side of the story. John's aunt Mimi and Yoko Ono do not come across as very likeable, but Cynthia had to put up with a lot from those two, at different times in her life. Interestingly, she makes a parallel between their personalities and suggests that John's involvement with Yoko was perhaps due to her controlling ways. He did after all call her mother!
As for John himself, the book can be uncomfortable reading for the die-hard fan. Not so much in the first part (although there is one incident where Cynthia was victim of physical violence from him), but from the time the marriage started to disintegrate. It is very difficult to reconcile the image of the peace ambassador whose songs 'Imagine' and 'Give Peace a Chance' are still celebrated peace anthems, with the meanness and pettiness his ex-wife and son had to suffer. I was reminded of Jean-Jacques Rousseau - the famous French philosopher renowned for his ideas on children's education - who had abandoned his numerous progeny and their mother and left them penniless. But the fact remains, Lennon was "an extraordinary man: talented, flawed, a creative genius who sang movingly about love while often wounding those closest to him".
Cynthia Lennon has often been dismissed to a mere footnote in the great man's story. But in the words of her and John's son in the foreword: "… Mum was his first real love and she was with him for half his adult life, from art college, to the genesis of the Beatles, to their overwhelming worldwide success. […] If there is to be a balanced picture of Dad's life, then Mum's side of the story is long overdue."
If you like biographies, or have an interest in John Lennon, you could do far worse than reading this book.
My copy of this book is a Hodder & Stoughton paperback and is available on Amazon for £6.39. It has 404 pages, of which 11 are a rather comprehensive index. ISBN: 0-340-89512-8
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I have recently read this book and the review is spot on. As said it is an uncomfortable read for fans, but a book written especially for fans of John Lennon. Here you can see the more private side of John and the people around him during the Beatles rise to fame.
jolmartyn 02.09.2006 01:21
Good well thought out review - always interesting, the before we were famous angle!
Jol
Tadders 28.06.2006 17:45
This sounds really intriguing. I imagine Cynthia's account of his life is far more credible than anything Yoko Ono could come up with. I always thought she was ever so slightly insane!
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