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    John
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    John
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    John
    Audiobook (abridged)4 hours

    John

    Written by Cynthia Lennon

    Narrated by Cynthia Lennon

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    The Extraordinary Story of a Man, a Legend and a Marriage

    When she was eighteen years old, a girl named Cynthia Powell met a boy named John Lennon and they fell in love. Their ten-year relationship coincided with the start of the Beatles phenomenon-from Liverpool's dockside clubs to the dizzying worldwide fame that followed. And Cynthia Lennon, John's first wife, was an integral part of the swirl of events that are now an indelible part of the history of rock and roll.

    In John, Cynthia recalls those times with the loving honesty of an insider, offering new and fascinating insights into the life of John Lennon and the early days of the Beatles. And with the perspective only years can provide she also tells the compelling story of her marriage to a man who was to become a music legend, a cultural hero and a defining figure of the twentieth century.

    Cynthia has seldom talked in any detail about her marriage and the painful events that followed John's tragic assassination in 1980. Now she candidly reveals the good and the bad, the loving and the cruel sides of John. She tells of the breakdown of their marriage and the beginning of his relationship with Yoko Ono in more detail than has ever been disclosed before and documents the difficulties estrangement from John-and his subsequent death-brought for herself and their son, Julian.

    In John, Cynthia Lennon has created a vivid portrait of the 1960s, the Beatles and the man she never stopped loving.


    The time has come when I feel ready to tell the truth about John and me, our years together and the years since his death. There is so much that I have never said, so many incidents I have never spoken of and so many feelings I have never expressed: great love on one hand; pain, torment and humiliation on the other. Only I know what really happened between us, why we stayed together, why we parted and the price I have paid for being John's wife.

    I want to tell the real story of the real John-the infuriating, lovable, sometimes cruel, funny, talented and needy man who made such an impact on the world. -From the Introduction


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateSep 27, 2005
    ISBN9780739324332
    Unavailable
    John

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    Reviews for John

    3.5/5

    142 ratings13 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I read this book knowing that I wasn't going to like some of the story of John Lennon, but what I didn't know was that Cynthia was going to come off as an enabler. "Oh, he hit me, but it was only once." "Oh, I suspected there were other women, but if he loved me, that was okay."

      While there are many sides to this story, the book only confirmed my feelings that Yoko Ono is a creep. I will always feel sorry for Julian Lennon, who seems to have lost the most in this story.
    • 3/5
      "In theory, the disclosures of Lennon's loyal partner from 1958 to 1968 cannot fail to be valuable. On the page, the potential withers. " "Like most memoirs, John is being marketed as a story told "for the first time", but Beatles scholarship is a thoroughly strip-mined quarry and the scope for fresh discoveries is meagre." Michel Faber, The Guardian, Saturday 8 October 2005I haven't read any other books on him, and although "John" is poorly written I felt I was getting a pretty clear picture. Cynthia's writing is also not clever enough to disguise her own preoccupations, character faults and dodgy bits of gloss - which just made it a bit more real.
    • 4/5
      I was only in 5th grade when the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan but by 6th grade, I was crazy about them. When they came to Portland, OR, my mom would not let me go see them perform because the tickets cost too much money. ($6.00) Since I grew up during Beatlemania, this book brought back my own memories and filled in many questions about John and the group. The book has an introduction by Julian, John's son by Cynthia, which adds credibility to Cynthia's rendition of their relationship. I always had a dislike for John's bitter attitude and sarcastic unkind tone about people and life. This book explains how he became the man he was. This is a must read for us " '60's" kids who loved the Beatles and anyone else who is interested in the history of contemporary music. You also get a clear picture of who Yoko Ono really was and is. The narrator is easy to listen although she wasn't as enjoyable as other narrators I've heard. Well worth the time.
    • 4/5
      I am often reluctant to read memoirs from ex-lovers or ex-spouses of someone quite famous. Sadly, in many cases, it is a desperate cry for fame and “look at me, I know someone famous, you don't” attitude. So I read John by John Lennon's first wife with a weary eye. Little of the information was new to me. I had read much about the Beatles during my History of Rock n' Roll college course many years before (and yes, the class was as awesome as it sounds) but it was interesting to read it from Cynthia's point of view. I believe while she was somewhat harsh with the assessment of some people, it showed her emotions and that even years later she feels the hurt. She does not bash John but is honest in their time together (or so we assume she is being honest, John is not around to dispute it) – life was not perfect with the man before, during, or after their marriage. And I have a feeling that she is less innocent than she leads on in the book. If you're looking for just facts about John Lennon and the other Beatles, perhaps this book is not for you. But this a good book written with dignity from the first, and often forgotten, first wife giving a view of Lennon rarely seen in the public eye.
    • 3/5
      "In theory, the disclosures of Lennon's loyal partner from 1958 to 1968 cannot fail to be valuable. On the page, the potential withers. " "Like most memoirs, John is being marketed as a story told "for the first time", but Beatles scholarship is a thoroughly strip-mined quarry and the scope for fresh discoveries is meagre." Michel Faber, The Guardian, Saturday 8 October 2005I haven't read any other books on him, and although "John" is poorly written I felt I was getting a pretty clear picture. Cynthia's writing is also not clever enough to disguise her own preoccupations, character faults and dodgy bits of gloss - which just made it a bit more real.
    • 4/5
      Let’s get the sad, disgusting part out of the way first. John Lennon was, like so many who went before him and those who will surely follow, simply a hypocrite. The 20th century’s secular deity whose mantra was “All you need is Love” abandoned his own son, Julian - his six year old son. Scoot down Jim Baker, and make room for one more. Now that the ugliness is out of the way, let’s move on. John, Cynthia Lennon’s account of her relationship and marriage to John Lennon, was a quick and easy read. The forward is by Julian which seems to lend it some credibility straight away. Also the fact that it was written 25 years after John’s death, allowing much of the hype to melt away, adds strength to the idea that Cynthia simply wants her side of the story to be heard. I would imagine that had money been the primary motive, putting her story in print in the early 1980’s would have been much more lucrative. I’ve read a great number of books about the Beatles or its individual members over the years, and despite her seat in the eye of the storm, I don’t think Cynthia adds anything truly new to the record. However, I think her voice offers flesh and blood and feeling to those who, like herself, woke up one morning to find their seat next to John had taken center stage in the eye of the hurricane that was Beatle mania. Even John’s aunt Mimi, often a very unlikeable woman, gains some sympathy in the crushing fame that followed in the wake of the lads from Liverpool. Of course the most tragic figure in the tale is John and Cynthia’s son, Julian. Only six when his parents divorced, and still very young when his father was murdered, the tragedy is compounded by the fact that not only did a boy lose his father, John turned into the man he hated above all others, his own father. John’s slow but unstoppable drifting into his own father’s footsteps is at times harder to grasp than Julian’s pain at the repeated loss of his father. Cynthia does a few things in the book that I really like. The vast majority of the book deals with the good times she and John shared, and the love they had for one another. She makes this quite real. While there is nothing flattering about Yoko in Cynthia’s account, she does not make Yoko the devil. At times she makes John’s relationship with Yoko seem almost like a byproduct of his drug use rather than love. While that may be too dismissive of the love John and Yoko clearly felt, Cynthia lays the responsibility for this tragedy squarely at the feet of its author – John. Life rarely gives us “happy ever after”, and I take comfort that Cynthia allows us “at least we ended up OK”. In my mind this in line with another spiritual maxim sung about by the fab four “and in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make”.
    • 4/5
      A book about John Lennon by an author uniquely qualified to give her opinion: his first wife, Cynthia. Not an unbiased view of John (and who would expect it to be), but very interesting information, particularly about the early days of the Beatles and the beginnings of Beatlemania.
    • 2/5
      I didn't like this book at all and it wasn't because I was afraid she'd malign John Lennon. I wanted her to tell more!
    • 3/5
      a complete pity party, yes. but still a great look on Lennon's life from the perspective of someone who was there from the beginning of the Beatles and on. only for the Lennon obsessed.
    • 5/5
      I wasn't sure I wanted to read this book as I am a great admirer of John Lennon and didn't really want my 'idol' to be reduced in my esteem. This book did not do this. It is a compelling read which gave the impression of a flawed but sensitive man who was influenced by a scheming woman to act out of character. John Lennon was and still is a man to be admired. Not so Yoko Ono - I knew she was strange but this book opened my eyes to what a cruel, unsympathetic, manipulating woman she was.
    • 5/5
      It must say,this book wasn't quite what I expected. I admire Cynthia for writing this book. I don't think there are many people in the world that would have the courage to say bad things about John Lennon. Granted, I don't think the book was written to bring him or his legacy down. She had every right to write and say the things she did. I do believe she is often a forgotten member of the Beatles making, especially in the early days. At times I felt sad for her. The things she had to put up with being the wife of such a famous man. It didn't really change my perception of John, but there were things that I found that were just cruel on his part. Maybe it's part of the fame, I don't know. She lead a very interesting life. I found it unsettling though, the last line in book was something to the effect that if she would have known what as teenager, falling for John Lennon would entail, she would have turned and run the other way. It just seems like she really regrets what has happened in her life. That made me sad.One person of who my perception changed was Yoko. I had no idea that she perused him as much as she did. She was an evil woman in my opinion. To Cynthia and especially to Julian. Even to this day. I realize that this book was written from the perspective of a scorned ex-wife, but still I tend to believe most of what is said. I am not sure how Yoko can justify the way she treated (or even treats) John's first son. It's horrible. Anyhow, this book was good. It was a great change of pace and I enjoyed a new perspective on the Beatles history which has always fascinated me.
    • 3/5
      A good read, nothing really is revealed that wasn't revealed before in other books. John could be a real jerk, but he could be quite loving. Some minor goofs in time lines and such, but nothing really wrong. A good read if you are a Beatles fan, more importantly a John Lennon fan.
    • 4/5
      I have been a fan of the Beatles since I was about seven years old. Having been brought up in Liverpool we saw the fabs as local heroes. The myth has never really gone away. This book brings us down earth. We all knew that John had a `wife' but she was kept in the background during the height of Beatlemania, as was his son Julian. This is her story which gives a moving insight into the life of the wife who was left behind. Some critics have complained that she focussed too much on the mundane. About her life at home and holidays in Majorca. For me this made the book all the more moving. There is such a contrast between her ordinary life and his meteoric rise to superstardom. What is saddest is that they clearly loved each other. But it was something that was eventually crushed by fame, fortune, LSD; Yoko Ono ... There is understandable anger - both towards Aunt Mini and Yoko of course. `She eventually got her man; my man.' But you cannot help but feel sorry for her. The book is surprisingly well written. I finished it in two evenings. It only gets Four Stars because of one glaring factual error where she claims that John wrote All My Loving for her whilst he was away on tour. Most people would accept that this was one of Paul's best early songs! So much has been written about the Beatles that the stories have become too familiar. But this is a new insight into their story and the destructive potential of `celebrity'.