Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Gimme Some Truth
It doesn't take a scholar to get the basic facts right and Goldman at least did that. It's clear that Goldman was attempting to create the same furor with Lennon as he did with his Elvis Presley biography. John Lennon was a flawed, complex human being and Goldman presents the flaws with as the emblishment one expects from yellow Journalism. Like most fiction and sensationalistic biographies it makes for fascinating reading.What's most interesting is that the very people that would benefit from Lennon's reputation being smugged are the very people that deny it's accurate. The late Ray Coleman's biography of Lennon rings truer (although it was written with the co-operation of those Lennon knew)and manages to convey many of the flaws that Goldman's book does. Coleman's book also presents the positive side without diving into the mud like Goldman's book. Was John Lennon a saint? Certainly not but he wasn't quite the insecure monster that Goldman presents him as being. It seems there's a bit of truth here but most of it is buried in speculation. A pity as Goldman is a fairly good writer.
Rating:  - By far the best biography ever written of John Lennon
This book has been unfairly maligned ever since it was published. This hostility says a lot more about the childishness of the average rock fan than it does about Goldman's work. Goldman has written a work of the highest and deepest biography. It does not pretend to be a hagiography, nor a work of music criticism. Anyone with a sincere interest in John Lennon's life as he lived it will be riveted by Goldman's revlations. To begin with, he gives us much more of Lennon's childhood than was previously known -- here's John's mother and stepmother and father and half-brothers and -sisters -- and he uses this information to fashion a compelling analysis of John's personality and character, attributes that defined him for the rest of his life. He's also tremendously insightful about Yoko Ono, Brian Epstein, Phil Spector, May Pang, Stu Sutcliffe and Allen Klein, all of whom were key in John's life. Likewise, Goldman opens up the world of the business of the Beatles and makes it interesting. The portrait of John Lennon that emerges after 700 pages is by far the most nuanced, intelligent and, yes, sympathetic portrait that has been, or ever will be written of Lennon. It will only disappoint those who insist that biographies of the great man must paint him as a saint.
Rating:  - ...but, I like Lennon, really, I do!
Okay, here's the thing with this book. A)How do you know that what Goldman says isn't true? You're not the one who did six years of research. B)As much as I admire John Lennon, it was refreshing to read a book that was the opposite extreme of all the sappy, fan-clubby stuff that's written about him, and C)with brutal honesty, it sheds light on the fact that Lennon vacillated between a need for commercial success and a need for artistic integrity in his work, something that all artists go through but no one wants to admit to it, especially about the great artists like John Lennon because it's much easier to slap the label "genius" on them and move on. Yeah, the book is mean, but for the most part, I find the meanness necessary in light of all the other sappy tripe that's been written about him- and maybe it'll pave the way for more middle of the road approaches. The only thing I don't like is, he totally takes these cheap shots at Yoko Ono... yeah, Goldman, like THAT'S really original. I happen to like Yoko Ono.
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