Over the years, I've read books about John Lennon written by people like his sister, best friend, onetime business manager and one guy who seemed intent on portraying him as a terrible excuse for a human being.
It's been a while, but I'm reading about Beatle John again, this time the words of his first wife, Cynthia Powell (listed on the book jacket as Cynthia Lennon).
Simply titled "John," the book tells John's story from Cynthia's point of view from the time the couple met as teen art students, through her husband's sudden fame, to the collapse of their marriage at the hands of a very strange Japanese woman.
Through Cyn's narrative, we see the Lennons as somewhat of a normal young couple, one in which the husband travels frequently. John is a decent husband and father when he's able to be, at least for a while. We get flashes of the phenomenon that was Beatlemania, but mostly the author sticks to domestic scenarios, a side of John that's rarely been portrayed.
She blames their marital problems for the most part on John's drug use, and she professes to have known little about his extramarital activities, right up until the time she caught him and Yoko Ono sitting around the Lennon's house in bathrobes after Cyn returned from a vacation.
Think about it, ladies: You're in your early 20s and your husband becomes one of the most popular men in the world. By association, you become one of the "beautiful people," though at heart you're still a small-town girl. You watch as your husband becomes distant, hoping he'll turn it around and everything will go back to the way it used to be. Then he leaves you for a woman who hardly seems like the dream of any man, cutting you out of his life in the process.
That's one rough experience, but Cynthia Powell seems to have let most bygones be bygones. She waited four decades to add yet another chapter to the oft-told story of John Lennon, and it's worth reading for its unique viewpoint.
It's been a while, but I'm reading about Beatle John again, this time the words of his first wife, Cynthia Powell (listed on the book jacket as Cynthia Lennon).
Simply titled "John," the book tells John's story from Cynthia's point of view from the time the couple met as teen art students, through her husband's sudden fame, to the collapse of their marriage at the hands of a very strange Japanese woman.
Through Cyn's narrative, we see the Lennons as somewhat of a normal young couple, one in which the husband travels frequently. John is a decent husband and father when he's able to be, at least for a while. We get flashes of the phenomenon that was Beatlemania, but mostly the author sticks to domestic scenarios, a side of John that's rarely been portrayed.
She blames their marital problems for the most part on John's drug use, and she professes to have known little about his extramarital activities, right up until the time she caught him and Yoko Ono sitting around the Lennon's house in bathrobes after Cyn returned from a vacation.
Think about it, ladies: You're in your early 20s and your husband becomes one of the most popular men in the world. By association, you become one of the "beautiful people," though at heart you're still a small-town girl. You watch as your husband becomes distant, hoping he'll turn it around and everything will go back to the way it used to be. Then he leaves you for a woman who hardly seems like the dream of any man, cutting you out of his life in the process.
That's one rough experience, but Cynthia Powell seems to have let most bygones be bygones. She waited four decades to add yet another chapter to the oft-told story of John Lennon, and it's worth reading for its unique viewpoint.
1 Comments:
I met Cynthia in 1989 when she was operating a restaurant near Charing Cross Road in London. Very nice and, it would seem, still a little shy even after all these years.
I read "John" last fall (and reviewed it for Beatlefan magazine, the best source of Beatles news and commentary out there, plug plug) and the book is most interesting when it details the years after her split with John, and the cavalier treatment she and son Julian received from both John and Yoko. Much of this was not included in her first memoir, 1978's "A Twist of Lennon," because (one presumes), John was still alive at the time and Julian was only 15, and it's my impression that Cynthia wanted Julian to have a smooth relationship with his dad.
Otherwise, much of the book is repetitive and contains too many oft-told tales and plentiful factual errors.
Two of the best Lennon tell-alls are "The Last Days of John Lennon" by circa 1979-80 assistant Fred Seaman and "Loving John," by May Pang, his companion during the 1973-75 "Lost Weekend."
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