This is a well written biography of John Lennon which explained much that I half understood from newspaper and magazine articles about the man. Mr Swenson is obviously a big fan of John Lennon and, I do not see any problem with that as long as, like here, it is well documented. Unlike so many biographies of modern celebrities, this book takes us from childhood to, sadly, grave. Early events are given equal presidents to those of more famous times

Anyone acquainted with Lennon's story will know that he had many left field ideas, it is interesting to see how far he was ahead of the pack. Many of the views that he expressed would have (and did) sound wacky and far fetched then but, now we can see that he was often correct in his ideas as to where society was headed: when John was off kilter, however, the author is willing to be critical of his eponymous hero.

Swenson also takes time to examine Mark Chapman's (Lennon's killer) motivation and state of mind. His attempts to be fair, lead to the only section of the book which did not ring true to either his beliefs or, reality: sometimes life is just so odd that there is no justifying it. Despite this minor complaint, this is a well researched, well written book which I would recommend to anybody interested in Lennon, the Beatles or simply the story of a man ahead of his time. ( )