The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 24 January 2002
by Ray Coleman
After his tragic and insane murder in New York in December 1980, John Lennon became a modern legend, an icon of his time, and his death a symbol of the cultural changes coming in the 80s. He was an extraordinary man caught up in outrageous times aboard the unprecedented Beatles bandwagon. This thorough retelling of his life is a sympathetic look at the man and the events and places that formed him. He had a troubled youth and upbringing that was likely the cause of his abrasive and confrontational nature. Ray Coleman, who knew Lennon for upwards of 18 years, reveals the sensitive peace-loving man beneath the legend and the stereotype. We watch John grow from his days in a Liverpool art school, his early years with the Beatles in Hamburg, his marriage to Cynthia and on into the 1970s with Yoko Ono and his sons Sean who he doted over, and Julian who he saw only rarely.
Coleman provides a complete overview of the man's life, but there are passages of doubt. The story begins to lack a little depth. This could be the author's deference to other books that more or less successfully told those particular stories, but as a friend of Lennon and his family, Coleman also seems to be smoothing out some of the controversy that surrounded Lennon at certain times. One could sense that Lennon was a difficult man. He was positively cruel to Cynthia during their divorce. His distance from Julian and his relationship with Paul McCartney are stories that seem incomplete here. Coleman shows how much John felt ambivalent or scornful of McCartney's work, but lets Paul's own generous and conciliatory words tell just one side of the story. Paul insists he and John were friends, but it doesn't seem that John felt the same way. The remaining Beatles, Ringo and George, are mere background characters here, though John was apparently closer to them than to Paul. Then there are the mysteries of his "lost weekend" with May Pang, hardly spoken about here, and Yoko's own estranged daughter Kyoko.
So, this book is a massive (700 pages) retelling of John's life. There are also three excellent chapters that touch upon John's music, some of which seems somewhat over-interpreted. Coleman calls this "the definitive biography", but it can be seen that much of the tale would have to be gleaned from other sources. There is much more to learn about the Beatles, about Yoko, and about other sides of John Lennon. Nevertheless, this does serve as a sympathetic, snappily written, biography of a legend.
See also: [The Dakota Winters by Tom Barbash]