Cynthia Lennon shares John's story from her side
FLINT JOURNAL REVIEW
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THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Sunday, April 02, 2006 By Rose Mary Reiz
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| JOHN Cynthia lennon Crown, $25.95, 32 Review by Rose Mary Reiz |
Like the woman who helps put her young husband through college only to be abandoned once he's become a success, Cynthia Lennon was there for husband John when he was a struggling musician trying to get his 1950s Liverpool band, the Quarrymen, noticed.
Then John and three friends formed a little group called the Beatles.
For the next 10 years - from "Love Me Do" to LSD, from Ed Sullivan to the Maharishi - Cynthia Lennon was there. And then she was gone, consigned, in her own words, "to a brief walk-on part in John's life."
"John," a memoir about her years with the legendary Lennon, is Cynthia's attempt at setting the record straight.
"Only I know," she writes in the introduction, "what really happened between us, why we stayed together, why we parted, and the price I paid for having been John's wife."
The price
was steep. Lennon was creative, complex and sometimes cruel, a brilliant, generous but needy man who preached world peace while often failing at the domestic variety.
Cynthia became besotted with Lennon when both attended the same Liverpool art school in the 1950s.
John was witty, aggressive and rebellious; Cynthia was timid and eager to please.
He, damaged by the early loss of his parents, alternately adored and abused those he loved. She, like the good co-dependent she was, withstood his tantrums, determined to love him out of his bad behavior.
Cynthia's story is not new, but her vantage point is fascinating. In straight-forward, unaffected prose, she shows readers what it was like to be, first, John Lennon's secret girlfriend (Beatles manager Brian Epstein wanted Cynthia hidden, out of fear fans wouldn't like one of the Fab Four being "taken"), and
later, his wife and the mother of their son, Julian.
Many of her early memories are sweet recountings of John's bewilderment at Beatlemania. In one scene, she describes the end of the flight as the Beatles arrive for the first time in America.
"'We can always turn around and go home again if no one likes us,' John joked, but any ideas about going home again were rapidly forgotten when we looked out the windows of the plane as it taxied to a halt. 'Oh my God, look at that!' John spoke for us all, as our jaws dropped at the side of over ten thousand teenagers singing, 'We love you, Beatles, oh yes, we do.'"
The world loved the Beatles, and Cynthia loved John. And still does. She writes with compassion about his troubled upbringing, and his confusion in dealing with a level of fame that made normal life all but impossible.
Cynthia still admires John's
humor, talent and generosity toward fans, speculating the latter may have contributed to his 1980 assassination by a crazed admirer he had spoken with earlier in the day.
She defends her him against some of his critics, but doesn't shy from describing the humiliating pain of watching him pursue drugs as a strange artist named Yoko Ono pursued him.
Most heartbreaking was John's neglect of son Julian, a confused little boy who mostly had to learn about his father's whereabouts from newspaper clippings.
At one point, Cynthia describes 6-year-old Julian's confusion while watching a television broadcast of his father and Yoko lying in bed during their famous "bed-in" for peace.
"'What's Dad doing in bed on the telly?' he asked.
'Telling everyone it's very important to have peace,' I answered through gritted teeth.'"
Cynthia Lennon is to be commended for "John." It is a satisfying read that avoids the pitfalls of most tell-alls and tributes.
Some have criticized the book for being as much about Cynthia as it is about John. True enough - and even more interesting as a result.
***
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