Rating: 
Summary: This book gives the grown up version of John Lennon...
Review: ...And not the fairy tale moptop version, which makes it the best book written on Lennon. The best book written on the Beatles is the now out of print: "The Love You Make - An Insiders Story of the Beatles" by Peter Brown. Brown was Brian Epstein's business manager, right hand man, and confidant. Many of the facts reported as fiction by Albert Goldman's critics are corroborated in Brown's book. Seperating the myth from reality about John Lennon should not make anyone less of a Beatles or a John Lennon fan. Anyone who grew up with a more than casual interest in Lennon knew that he was given to violent episodes and that his mantras: "all we're tryin' to do is get us some peace"; "all you need is love"; et al; was Lennon's bit on staying relevant with the counter culture of the 60's. Goldman's revealing of Lennon's inner demons does not diminish his genius. It rather brings him down to the level of human understanding.
Rating: 
Summary: Tough but Honest Look at John Lennon
Review: I can understand the anger some of the reviewers have toward this book; I am like them in the sense that I grew up buying and listening to the Beatles' records. So, in a sense, I am disappointed in reading about and finding out just how complex, and yes, how tortured a man John Lennon was. Is the book bias? Of course! Does that necessarily mean the book is bad? No! From a sheer reading perspective, the book reads very well. I think it is about time some author had the guts to take on Yoko Ono, and show her in the full light and all of her shallowness. I am only puzzled as to why the author Goldman did not spend more time addressing John Lennon's songs when he was a member of the Beatles. For example, to really show how lazy Lennon had gotten during the making of 'Sgt. Peppers,' Lennon sat around at home and rarely came to the recording studio. Yet even then, as a mark of the man's ability to produce good songs, Lennon was 'inspired' to write the album's "Good Morning" from a television cereal commercial, and "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite" from (word-for-word) an advertisement. Yet Goldman fails to even mention this, giving virtually all of the album's credit, except for "A Day In The Life" to Paul. It would have been a better book had Goldman spent more time on Lennon's song writing, and less time on Lennon's personal failings.
Rating:
Summary: The Lives of John Lennon
Review: The content of this book is explosive!!! The author conveys
information about Lennon and the Beatles which is not well
known and extremely scandalous! I would like to ask him how
he OBTAINED all of this information on Lennon. What is
particularly well-presented in the book are the psychological relationships that Lennon had with others in his circle. At times, the book is a "shock to the senses". Most of the books on the Beatles tend to be superficial and sugar-coated, lacking realism. That is definitely NOT the case, here. Outside of the highly-controversial content, this book is extremely well-written. I will be looking to see if he writes a follow-on in the future. I will be the first in line.
Rating: 
Summary: The Li(v)es of Goldman
Review: I've read this book twice. Once when it came out and once again recently. Both times I thought little of it. It is better suited in a tabloid than a bookstore. Truly, it is the rumors and gossip that are treated as fact in this book that ruins it. The bisexual stuff, I mean, he can't possibly know if any of that is true and yet he seems to have no problem with dispensing it. He looks at Lennon very negatively- the cup is always half empty and I'll give you a perfect example. The story about the creation of "I Want to Hold your Hand." John and Paul were writing this and they were trying to find the chord that would give structure to the song. They were running through ideas and Paul hits a chord. John said he stopped and shouted "That's it! Do that again!" Thus the song was on it's way to being what it is. Now, in other books, John is praised for recognizing this chord and is given credit for doing so. Goldman, however, in his referencing the song, all he says about it is Paul was responsible for finding the chord that made "I want to Hold Your Hand." That's it. He doesn't really tell the story, he leaves it at that, leaving the reader to assume Paul did it all by himself. And that's what this whole book is. A bunch of half-stories. It's garbage.
Rating: 
Summary: Rubbish
Review: First of all, I'm no huge fan of Lennon. I think he probably wasn't the nicest man. Paul McCartney has made this point several times, saying that he wasn't some sort of holy saint but that since he's died he's become Martin Luthor Lennon (that's an exact quote, btw).
Having said that, the angle this book takes disqualifies it from being considered any kind of credible biography. Goldman repeats various rumours as gospel truth, despite the fact that many of these events are disputed. There are too many to list, but two examples are Lennon peeing on nuns in Germany and the whole story about John and Yoko getting Paul busted in 1980. He also gives two different versions of Lennon's supposed gay encounter with Brian Epstien, describing the more racy of the two as 'what really happened'. How was he able to know which of the two stories (if either) were true given that he was not there?
I almost gave this two stars just because it is kind of entertaining in it's mud-slinging and because I hate Yoko Ono even without reading this book, but I just couldn't. The fact that he describes the Beatles as no more than 'excelent thieves' is just silly. Like almost all artitsts, they built on what people before them had done, but they created things that were very new and different. Any idiot can see that. Oddly enough, one person who comes out of this book fairly well is Paul McCartney. I'm sure if Goldman turned his sights on him, he'd try and drag him down, but here he comes across fairly well.
Rating:
Summary: very readable
Review: the cover of my book had a quote from TIME stating that the book was 'compulsively readable'. i thought so as well. an excellent insight into lennon's very private life. i cannot imaginge how goldman got this much inside info on john lennon but its a really good read.
Rating:
Summary: Good 'Pulp' Fiction
Review: I remember buying this back in August 1988 after reading a two part article in People magazine. It was advertised as the definitive Lennon biography. Within 50 pages, I found myself angry while reading it in spite of it being a page turner. If you want to believe that Lennon was responsible for the death of a sailor in a street fight and the death of Stuart Sutcliffe, this book is for you. If you want to believe that Yoko was instrumentally responsible for Paul's 1980 marijuana bust in Japan, buy it. Albert Goldman had a habit of writing about celeb's who were no longer alive to defend themselves. Lennon was no exception. My advice is to not take this book seriously. It's the "National Inquirer" version of his life and not entirely accurate.
Rating:
Summary: awful....just awful
Review: Has any author ever felt more contempt for his subjects? It seems unlikely. You can almost hear Goldman hissing and sneering in the background as you read these pages. John and Yoko are presented as two really loathsome characters, and I guess I was supposed to come away from this reading experience despising the two of them, but I actually feel a lot of sympathy. Nobody deserves this kind of character assassination.
Rating:
Summary: Hated it.
Review: I am far from thinking that John was a saint. But every person I have met that has read this book has the same opinion. It is a character assasination. His entire book is like a tabloid- it's a page turner, and it's sordid and shocking- but you really gotta wonder how much is really true.
I would not recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Gimme Some Truth
Review: 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.
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