David Sheff

3.5 stars. Yoko Ono was unfairly maligned for breaking up the Beatles (her name is so infamous that Taylor Swift was accused of "Yoko Ono-ing" boyfriend Travis Kelce's NFL team). This long-overdue biography does much more than set the record straight about what Ono didn't do; it acknowledges the importance of what she accomplished. Namely, she was a visionary feminist and a pioneer of the avant-garde conceptual art movement. In many ways, John Lennon "broke up" her career to a greater extent show more than she disrupted his. Her work was often mocked by mainstream critics, but Sheff makes a strong case for the genius behind her unique vocalizations and enigmatic art displays.

Ono endured a horrific childhood of neglect, war, and alienation. The incident that sticks with me most is from WWII, when her mother took Yoko's younger siblings into a bomb shelter, leaving her alone in their Tokyo house as the city went up in flames. Knowing this background casts her relationship with Lennon in a stronger light. Two deeply lonely, insecure people finally found in each other someone who understood their pain and offered the love they lacked. Makes me even more furious at the misogynistic haters.

Sheff doesn't shy away from Ono's flaws and idiosyncrasies, and as a journalist who has interviewed her numerous times he is hardly objective. He admits that up front, though, and then proceeds to craft a fascinating portrait of a unique individual. show less

A devastatingly sad and intimate memoir about the pain of drug addiction and its effects on the addict's family and friends. Told from the father's perspective, the reader is drawn into the maelstrom of fear, guilt, anxiety and perpetual paranoia that is the life of the parent of an addict. How does one learn to relinquish control, responsibility, and stand aside as a beloved child destroys himself? A book of transcendent pain, love and hope.

Gotta say, I was pleasantly surprised by this biography. I was interested in reading it, but I didn't think I'd enjoy it—or find as much insight—as I did.

Did I think Sheff may have glossed over some things? Certainly. Anyone who's been a close friend for almost fifty years likely can't help but do that.

But do I agree with Sheff that Yoko isn't quite the dragon lady and Beatles buster and screaming banshee she's almost always been portrayed as? Completely agree. While her music has never show more been my cup of tea, she's absolutely been ahead of her time with what she produced over the years, and the same can be said for all of her artwork.

She was influential on John—like it or not—and I think she opened first his eyes, and then the world's, to different views that, while they may not always have been pleasant, they were true.

This book is illuminating. Recommended. show less

Ultimately, Sean said, “It’s one of my mom’s most powerful talents: that she had this ability to overcome difficulty with positive thinking. She really wanted to teach the world to do that. She taught my dad to do that.” from Yoko by David Sheff

She took the trauma of her life–the distant parents, the war with its starvation and bombing of Tokyo, the sexual abuse, the social ostracism, misogyny and racism, the drug addiction, the loss of a child stolen by her ex, the murder of her show more soul mate, the betrayal by trusted confidences–and turned it into visionary art, and an anthem that transformed the world.

I was not a “Beatlemaniac” but remembered the gossip surrounding Yoko Ono, the famous photographs. When offered this biography, I was drawn to learn about Yoko. The woman I encountered in these pages is a remarkable survivor of unimaginable tragedy since childhood. She took that pain into her art, exposing her vulnerability.

David Sheff was a trusted family friend to Yoko and John Lennon, and his biography is sympathetic while revealing troubling insights.

“As usual, there’s a great woman behind every idiot” John Lennon, quoted in Yoko by David Sheff

Yoko’s art and music is described in depth. Shocking or dismissed at the time, her art became formative to later musicians and artists.

John Lennon was depressed and unhappy when he met Yoko at one of her art exhibits. He became deeply dependent on Yoko. It took years and a separation for their marriage to settle into a mutually supportive and happy one, then John was murdered. Not only did she have to deal with that loss, she received death threats for her and Sean. And people she trusted stole money and memorabilia from her. She found solace in tarot cards and psychics.

It was heartbreaking to read.

But she was a survivor.

Yoko committed to keep John’s legacy and music alive. She performed new music with Sean and was now recognized as a pioneer in conceptual art. She reconnected with her daughter from her first marriage.

“I’m not really that optimistic. I am trying to make us survive. And in the course of survival, we don’t have the luxury to be negative. That’s a luxury we can’t afford.” Yoko Ono quoted in Yoko by David Sheff

Yoko’s contribution to Imagine was finally recognized. The message “had always been central to Yoko’s life and work–the basis of her conceptual art and thinking, and indeed, her survival,” Sheff writes;”Yoko imagines a better world–and she worked to create one.”

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley. show less