I read John by Cynthia, which I got at the local library & thought it was great, taking you inside the relationship she had with Lennon.  He was a jerk the way he treated her & Julian sometimes & it's sad that some fans have been trying to turn him into an angel since his death.  I would recommend this book to any Beatles fan, but I never read her first one.

David Jensen Meets Cynthia Lennon

Listen to John Lennon's ex wife talk about life with the former Beatle, how fame changed their lives and why John remains such a much-loved figure.

"On whether being married to John caused a problem to the Beatles' image, getting to know John at art college and his early ambition to make it as a musician, John's cruel streak and how meeting Yoko Ono brought it out and the significance of the number nine.

"...During the marriage there was none of that cruelty, probably, mainly because (The Beatles) were away most of the time, you know, they were working, they were successful...that insecurity and that panic and that aggression always came out during our relationship before we got married. After we were married it was perfect.

"I mean, truly, it was a really, really good relationship....but when he went completely off the rails in terms of another relationship, which is Yoko, then I think the cruel streak came back again, because he was defending what he had done - he'd chosen Yoko; he'd abandoned his wife and child - he wasn't popular at that time - then the aggression came out again."

On her and John's wedding day, being married to John for 6 years, taking LSD and how John embraced the drug, on the truth behind the meaning of 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds', 'Hey Jude' and her relationship with son Julian Lennon.

"(On her wedding day) It was pouring down with rain, Paul (McCartney) and George (Harrison) arrived in black suits, John was in his black suit, Brian (Epstein) was in his pinstripe suit...and then (John) was whisked off to a concert that night and I moved into Brian's flat which he gave us very kindly for the time we needed it

"...Although it was a very, very serious time and although it had happened so quickly, you know, with me being pregnant, it was more of a joke - truly. The memory of that is great - I wouldn't have had a white wedding for anything. I'd much rather have memories of that."
  
On her stable marriage, why John couldn't be a good father, raising Julian, whether Yoko Ono broke up her marriage, realising it was the end of the marriage and life after the split.

"...I was totally cut off but thankfully I had a family who were very strong. I had a lot of friends outside the Beatles situation and they all supported me in many ways...I had one conversation with John in America when I took Julian there after 4 years to see him see him again. That was quite nice, that was very tranquil...we did have a very nice conversation which at least broke the ice so I did speak to him before he died."

On what made John Lennon special, his murder and her new husband.

"I think he was a genius - a genius in his creativity, a genius in his wit, a genius in so many different things but a flawed genius in many other ways so there's half of him is flawed and the other half is the exact opposite...he touched everybody's hearts..."

from here: http://www.capitalgold.com/article.asp?id=152205

I also enjoyed the honesty of John. I highly recommend it for a mature view of the Lennons' family relationships.

Thanks for the article!

I read John by Cynthia 2 times!!
I found it very moving & did feel sorry for Julian at times.
Highly recommended book. good on Cyn!!

It was really hard to reconcile those those excerpts with the feelings I had about John. I always knew he was flawed, as we all are, but the way he treated Julian and Cynthia was so wrong. I tend to believe Cynthia about all this, because in honesty it does seem believable. But wow, it's harder to admire someone after hearing that about them.

Quoted from Bobber

Video interview with Cynthia here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavcon.....;nol_storyid=4285152

Sometime soon after 15 or 16 min, Cynthia mentions something about "John's sisters" .... I didn't know he had any sisters ?????!

Stepsisters. And some more. Interesting information and ditto links here: http://dmbeatles.com/forums/b-lennon/m-1096902059/

I'm for anything that will deconstruct the Lennon Myth, though I don't think we'll know the complete truth until Yoko has left us.
Wait to see what comes crawling out of the woodwork then.

Quoted from alexis

But wow, it's harder to admire someone after hearing that about them.

I agree. People are not uniformly admirable; everyone has flaws and shortcomings. John surely gave his first family, certainly his oldest son, less attention and money than they deserved. (Compare his divorce settlement with Cynthia to Ringo's for Maureen--and Ringo was the poorest Beatle.) In cases like this I just try to apply extra compassion, for everyone involved. Life is full of challenges, and we don't always meet them with the grace or wisdom we would wish. Unfortunately, people under the public eye are just as prone to making mistakes as the rest of us. It doesn't take away what's good about them, but perhaps their example could help us choose more wisely in our own lives.

It does seem sometimes that eventually all heroes fall and all villians are repatriated.
And then we realize that all humans, when you scratch away the surface, are wriggling messes of insecurity and self doubt.
I think it's nice to know that the rest of the world (even your heroes) are just as screwed up as you (ie me ) are.
Makes it all much easier to bear (bare?)

Wayyyyyyyyyyy off topic but I read a bio about Ghengis Khan recently. He was a rascist mass murdering tyrant of epic proportions  but the author was saying "hey you've got to understand where this guy was coming from. And look at his aschievements.blah blah blah." sort of thing. And I thought they'll be writing books like this about Hitler in a few hundred years.

Quoted from Kevin

I'm for anything that will deconstruct the Lennon Myth, though I don't think we'll know the complete truth until Yoko has left us.
Wait to see what comes crawling out of the woodwork then.

Anyone read May Pang's book about the 'lost weekend'?

I have, ages ago. Was there a part of it you specifically had in mind?

Quoted from harihead

I have, ages ago. Was there a part of it you specifically had in mind?

Not really. I just saw Imagine on telly and saw her name on the credits, and remembered that she published a book some years ago.

I just read this. My brief thoughts:
Cynth recounts half a dozen times John lost his temper (at her or Julian and Sean) and one count of violence. It doesn't make him a monster - just a typical dad of his times (my own dad was from Toxteth).
Cynth comes across as very compliant - her inability to stand up to John, even when confronted with his infidelity, is quite remarkable. Her (and no doubt Julians inherited) inability to deal with issues and subsequent meekness does, to me, make John seem worse than maybe he really was. John could be a thoughtless, selfcentred  arsehole, but he was a product of his times. His rise to sainthood probably makes his fall from race seem even more extreme.
On the man himself - during Beatlemania, when he was being told what to do, what to say, how to behave all was well. When that stopped he fell into a blackhole. Perhaps he was so drawn to Yoko because again he was being told what to do, what to say, how to behave.......
And now, I don't think boredom was at the root of Johns post-touring dropout. He just wasn't fit for purpose. Paul was the man with the ideas (Sgt Pepper, MMT, Let it Be) and increasingly the tunes. With no one to tell him what to do he did nothing. He was a great rock and roller, but lacked the vision of Brian and Paul.