how many stars should i give this book?

yes, it was riveting...but i was also a second-semester 8th grader interested not only in the Beatles but also in 8th grade shit like drugs and eating disorders. ( )

I'll have to start out by saying that I like the Beatles - but I don't love them. As a result, I was able to read this book without wanting to hurl it at the wall every other page or so. Albert Goodman 'exposes' every rash, every wart, every bad habit. He portrays Lennon as a lucky, sexually conflicted, modestly talented drug addict with big mommy issues. Maybe - maybe not. Despite the many references cited, the interviews conducted, the sources quoted, I still wouldn't know for sure. For me, the best part of the book was the in depth discussion of how the music industry works - who are the players, who makes the decisions, who makes the money - interesting stuff.

I guess Albert Goodman is to John Lennon as Kitty Kelly is to Oprah. With friends like that.... ( )

Albert Goldman muestra una visión de uno de los artistas más conocidos en toda la historia, una persona que se llegó a considerar incluso más importante que Jesucristo. Es un juzgamiento desde todo lo que hizo a lo largo de su vida hasta el momento de su asesinato. ( )

What a load of crap. So much of the boloney in this book has been vehemently and conclusively proven to be fabricated. ( )

If I had to choose my all-time favorite book -- biography or otherwise -- this would probably be it. Certainly, the fact that it's about a Beatle automatically moves it toward the front of the line. But why choose this particular book -- which I've re-read more times than I can count -- when there are so many other Beatle bios out there? Simple: this one's terrible.

No, really. This is a train wreck. Goldman has a major axe to grind, and over the course of 700-plus pages, he grinds his axe to iron powder. Lennon comes across as a mainly lucky, mostly untalented, naive bisexual musician with serious mother issues. It's Character Assassination to the Extreme -- of Lennon, Yoko Ono, and almost everyone but Paul McCartney -- and you'll find yourself marveling at the body count Goldman leaves behind. Every page contains one cynical, sneering appraisal of Lennon and his work after another, with Goldman trashing Lennon's motivations and so often rooting for him to fail that it begs the question of "Why in the world would you devote 700 pages and seven years of your life to a subject you obviously can't stand??"

I don't know the answer, but I'm glad Goldman did it anyway -- because this one is so gawdawful that it's terrific. ( )