Being John Lennon: A Restless Life

I feel like I finally know John Lennon. At least as much as that is possible. Having read 150+ books on the subject, this is the book that brought it all together, for me at least. While Connolly touches on the same parts of John’s life as other writers, the fact that he is a journalist and someone who really knew John makes it different. Yes there are similarities to other accounts but there has to be. I’m just glad I pushed through it because I truly finally feel that I understand his character better than I ever did before. I still wish some sort of psychoanalyst would examine what’s out there and write a book on Lennon, but Ray Connolly nailed it better than anyone else because this isn’t just a recitation of the usual. He had known John for many years and had conversations with him at various points which allowed him to have the insight to take it one step further in the understanding of what John was about and how he got there. Interestingly, we also get a fair perusal of Yoko’s role in John’s life, the good and the bad. My personal opinion is that I realize now is that John needed Yoko more than he simply loved her. He knew he needed to be taken care of, that he was basically too fragile to be a complete person and she held all the cards.

This is a boilerplate biography of Lennon, ok to read if you never read one but no new insights whatsoever. Same old photographs, same old anecdotes.

A well-written, balanced, insightful, and clear-eyed view proving that there is still something new and interesting to learn about the Beatles, despite everything that's already been written. Connolly has an insider's view but never loses his objectivity. As with his "Being Elvis," you feel like you're reading about a real human being. Along with understanding the people, the personalities, and times, Connolly has a great feel for the music (although I disagree with his characterization of Ticket To Ride as "a miserable piece"!). Great read.

the best book of john lennon i ever wrote. tore norvald osen. norway. i,m a huge lennon fan.

I will admit to being a Beatlemaniac, and Lennon is a musical hero. That said, there is not much in this book that is new to me. There is more detail and insight.

Ray Connolly knew John Lennon very well. Lennon often contacted him with snippets of information from time to time , including the biggest scoop of all-that he was leaving The Beatles. This book is a fascinating read about John Lennon's complex life and times.It contains a lot of information I'd not read about previously and helped me understand him a lot better. For Beatle fans , and especially John Lennon fans , it's a "must". Highly recommended.

I have not finished the book yet, but the level of detail and thoughtful observation make this an outstanding biography. I have yearned for such a book for many decades. This one is deeply satisfying and I hope that others that are focused on the rest of this iconic band will emerge with the same depth of information and insight.

I enjoyed the narrative approach of Ray Connelly. Instead of a detail by detail account of John's life, he organizes his chAptera into different themes, describing a certain periodsituations in John's life.It helps that Connelly knew John, and had interviewed him several times.

This, surely, must be the last word on the life of John Lennon and the extraordinary period which he embodied and led. Ray Connolly knew Lennon well and writes about his wayward talents, his comic genius, his cruelties and his grotesque vanities with admirable clear-eyed detachment. No more vivid picture has been painted of the Liverpool and the Britain of the 1940s and 1950s out of which that contradictory and frequently infuriating character was formed and then emerged to captivate the world.

An exhaustive treatise on the life of Lennon, written by someone known and even trusted by the man himself. Much insider inforation and a sympathetic account of the Beatles' progress.without the hagiography. John would have liked this book.

Read an extract from this biography in the Daily Fail and downloaded it to my tablet. Great read, but although it is full of stories it is lacking in the truth. Maybe Ray Connolly didn't want to go into the Paul is Dead 'conspiracy' or that Chapman was a MKUltra mind controlled patsy. Either way it is worth a read to fans of the late great John Lennon.

Wonderfully written and insightful a must for Beatles fans

I struggled with this book when I first bought it but that was almost certainly down to me rather than the writer. Connolly had asserted many things about Lennon including that he was generous but the more I read the less appeal he had with little sign of this famed generosity. Far from it. I found him an unlikable person. So it was with trepidation I returned to it after a considerable break. This time I raced through it and found it a gripping read. My assertion that Lennon was hard to like wasn’t changed, let’s just say he was a very huge personality and deeply complex with a troubled childhood and several very close acquaintances (not least his mother) die on him but managed a frosty, almost dismissive appearance at times. He could be cold (particularly towards his first wife Cynthia - brace yourself for that) towards people he’d known for years as well as hugely trusting of people he hardly knew at all. Connolly is particularly insightful about his relationship with Yoko and her treatment of him. My belief before I read the book was that Lennon saw her has a replacement mother figure and that theory is given weight by the author. If your opinion of Lennon is as something of an idealist and god then this book may not be for you... it pulls no punches and is all the better for it. Highly recommended.