John

by Cynthia Lennon

Book Overview

The Extraordinary Story of a Man, a Legend and a Marriage When she was eighteen years old, a girl named Cynthia Powell met a boy named John Lennon and they fell in love. Their ten-year relationship coincided with the start of the Beatles phenomenon-from Liverpool's dockside clubs to the dizzying worldwide fame that followed. And Cynthia Lennon, John's first wife, was an integral part of the swirl of events that are now an indelible part of the history...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 030733855X
• ISBN13: 9780307338556
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Length: 306 Pages
• Weight: 1.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A very moving book

I read this book in a day and a half. Very emotional and honest book where Cynthia Lennon spills her heart out. Poor Julian is the one who seems to have suffered the most. I highly recommend this book.

Helps to have a balanced understanding of John Lennon

I really appreciate this book and Cynthia's perspective. Much of what I've seen in reference to John Lennon over the years tends to paint him in a near saintly role which I've always suspected was far from the truth. Cynthia helps create a more well-rounded picture of Lennon exposing some of his nastier side while still holding him in love and respect.

Cynthia, The Truth, and John

I've been a fan of the Beatles since the first night that they were on Ed Sullivan in 1964. I could not be more in the Beatles camp without needing medication. Actually some people think I do need medication over my Beatles fixation, but never mind. The reason I say this is so that you'll know whose "side" I'm on. The most recent histories of the World's Greatest Band (this one and "The Beatles: The Biography" by Bob Spitz) are more reliable as general retellings than most of the previous dreck we've gotten, with the possible exception of Phillip Norman's, excellent "Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation." In fact, most of the previous general histories we've got on the Beatles have been garbage--being either authorized fan-club/tennie-bopper raves, or idiot kiss-and-tell scandal tomes (like "The Love You Make: An Insider's Story of the Beatles" which paints the Beatles as victims and jerks simultaneously). In fact, even "Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles" by the very odd Geoff Emerick (who, despite having been in on the most important of the Beatles recording sessions seems to have entirely missed the point) is pretty good. So we've got an excellent crop of fairly recent Beatles books out now. So what? Well, I think that for those of you who want to understand the Beatles story on a gut level, this is one of the must-have volumes. Cynthia Lennon is honest in this volume on the level that her famous ex-husband always claimed to be, and generally wasn't. The feeling I get as I read this volume is that, for an autobiography, the book is unusually truthful. I suspect we're getting about 75% of the truth, and 99% of the truth as Cynthia saw it (understanding the distinction in those two points is critical in reading autobiography). Her portrait of John is unflinching and to the point when she speaks of the events she witnesses. It is also solid from the standpoint that a lot of the action that occurred in and around the Beatles circle happened just off of Cynthia's radar, and she tells us plainly when she was off stage. It is interesting that she seems honestly bemused by so many of the events that occurred in her own life. The portrait of the "Cynthia Era" Lennon that emerges is the one we always suspected was the truth: that John was a funny, warm, intelligent person--usually. We also see the Post-Yoko John, and the bizarre head changes that Ono put John through. Cynthia suggests that the changes in Lennon's temperament were symptoms of drug abuse, and I'm certain that was a contributing factor, but she either doesn't see or leaves us to read between the lines about the influence that Ono had over Lennon. I suspect that she's being kind; the combination of Ono's machinations, and Lennon's emotional and intellectual vulnerability were a frightening force, and changed John completely. In fact, the immediate post-Ono Lennon seems more like a cult adherent than a drug casualty, and that was, the way it see

In Her Own Write .... Cyn's Life with John Lennon

By the time the Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964, I was madly in love with them and their music. Paul McCartney was the love of my 13-year-old life, so it never bothered me that John Lennon was married and had a child. To my friends who were ardent Lennon fans, this fact was unacceptable. There were times I wondered how John's wife, Cyn, felt about all of this. After reading her memoir, entitled John, that question has been answered -- along with many others. First and foremost, the reader should pick up this book expecting to read about love, happiness, frustration, pain, hurt, anger, tears, and conflict -- all of the things you would find in any relationship that is put under a non-stop eye of media scrutiny. No matter what you've read about the Beatles over the past 43 years, this story is different because it's told by someone who wasn't in the machine that made the Beatles a success. We've all read stories about John, Paul, George, and Ringo as told by everyone from their roadies to their contemporaries. Now we get to hear from the woman John married first and who was an unsuspecting participant on the ride of insanity known as Beatlemania. When I began this book I was looking forward to hearing Cynthia's side of the story. I knew there would be some bitterness against Yoko, some anger towards John, comments on the use of drugs, cashing in on her marriage to him, and perhaps some self analysis in the process. She is only human and the journey of writing this book had to be a painful one for her, even all these years later. Yes, all of that is in her book. She is honest in her narrative and admits there have been times she's cashed in on the Lennon name to support herself and Julian. Anyone who's been a single parent with a child to support can understand that. Now, let's move on to the positive aspects of this book. Cynthia weaves a wonderful picture of the Liverpool that was in the late 1950s/early 1960s. From her first meeting of John at Liverpool Art College through the early days of their romance, she shows us all the colors of John's character. She spends time discussing his early life with his family ... the father who deserted him, the mother who died tragically, life with his Aunt Mimi and Uncle George, his half-sisters, and his other aunts and uncles and cousins. Through these descriptions, you get a feel for the loving family he had around him. You also begin to see how John built walls around himself to keep out the pain created by certain events in his childhood. His acerbic wit, jealousy, temper and creative genius all stemmed from his insecurities. Some of the funniest bits of the book are when she describes the early stages of their romance. She talks about some of the letters John sent to her from Hamburg, Germany and how some were so risque she had to hide them so her mother wouldn't see them. I enjoyed how she shared John's romantic side, such as the card he made her for th

John Lennon history continued

As anniversaries are celebrated and observed, more information referencing the Beatles are released. However, works by immediate family members or those closest to individual band members may become less. The release is quite fitting in that it coincides with what would have been John's 65th birthday and 25 years since his death. As with any event in history, having the opportunity to read accounts from those who witnessed the events bring us much closer to understanding who the individual was and debunking any myths or rumors that have existed through out the years and laying them to rest. In this case, Cynthia Lennon attempts to show the truth about John Lennon. What makes her biography or memoir so unique is that she examines her relationship with John Lennon from his pre-Beatle days as a college art student in the late 1950s up to her bitter divorce in 1969 as well as the John's post-Beatle years. Her story shows the change and transformation of John Lennon to readers, and the emotions and guilt that she experienced as she went through the process -- the coming to terms with her loss and being at peace with what happened. JOHN is not a book about the Beatles or their music. Cynthia guides the reader through a chronology of her life with stories about how she met John Lennon and relating events that pertained to her own personal life, her long-time friendship with her girlfriend, Phyllis McKenzie, and her mother, who were always there to support her through trying times. The most interesting aspect of the book is the love-hate relationship between Cynthia and John's Aunt Mimi, and more in-depth information about John's sisters, Julia and Jacqui. In addition, the most heart wrenching part of the book is the one between father and son, which covers Julian's birth up to John's death. Cynthia's correlation with what song or record John was working on or singing about was effective in telling the story as it related to Julian and Cynthia's reality. Cynthia ties loose ends of the John Lennon story, and suggests that drugs and John's longing for a "mother-like" figure may have caused him to forge a life with Yoko Ono. Overall, JOHN is a compelling and inviting book. The photographs that accompany Cynthia's narrative are enthralling as well. Some have never been published and come directly from Cynthia Lennon's own personal collection, while others may be all too familiar to John Lennon and Beatle fans. JOHN offers readers another perspective of the man who became an iconoclastic figure after his passing, but was merely as human as his fans.

Arrogant Swine With a Heart of Gold

Having read almost every book written about Lennon, (including Cynthia's first one back in the seventies), I recommend this. However, be warned, if you see Lennon as "Martin Luther Lennon" prepare to be disillusioned (or pass on this book). I'm not going to describe the whole book, since there are plenty of those below. I'll just throw out a few tidbits. Cynthia Lennon, John Lennon and Yoko Ono became a love triangle and then John left Cynthia and their relatively fulfilling marriage for yoko ono. I don't find John's behavior in this situation mysterious at all--he was an addict/alchoholic who discovered drugs. He begged his then-wife Cynthia to do drugs with him but she declined (described in the book). Then, in behavior identical to every other alchoholic (this is oh-so typical) he went out and found himself someone who WOULD do drugs with him, the wonderful Yoko Ono. She not only joined him in drugging but introduced him to heroin. (She once referred to their heroin use as "a celebration of of us as artists.") Sure, Yoko Ono, whatever you say. Cynthia talks in the book about the massive personality changes Lennon seemed to go through in this period after his discovery of drugs. Well, yes, that's what drug addiction will do for you. Cynthia actually amplified something my wife (who isn't a beatle fan) pointed out--in the pictures of John with Cynthia everyone is smiling, happy. In the pictures of John with Yoko everyone is somber, almost frowning. Cynthia said she couldn't get over how HUMORLESS he became, how he suddenly began taking himself oh-so seriously. (This was him taking on the personality of his new drugging buddy, yoko ono, the unsmiling sphinx who apparently never thought about anything but her own tireless bids for media attention). I also found it ironic that Cynthia Lennon is technically a better artist than either the celebrated John Lennon or the wannabe Ono. (Yoko Ono's idea of art was to hand out little cards that said things like: go sit on a cloud, try not to fall through). Cynthia and John Lennon met as art students and some of her drawings are in the book. They're far beyond Lennon's goofy cartoons. Don't get me wrong, I'm not denying he was a songwriting genius. However, if you know his timeline he was a heck of a lot better songwriter before he discovered drugs than after. Is the guy who wrote that stuff on rubber soul really the same guy that later wrote some of that wacky stuff on his solo albums? (There were flashes of genius still in there, that's certain). Cynthia is a little bitter. I can't blame her. Lennon didn't really leave her or their son any money. Of course, he didn't plan on dying at forty but still, what a nit-wit thing to do. Finally Ono relented and gave Julian a hundred bucks a week allowance (out of at least twenty million, probably now five times that much). Wow, Yoko, your generosity is er,uh, underwhelming. She proba