John Lennon: All I Want Is the Truth

If you're looking for a coffeetable book about the most troubled of the Beatles and his life, "All I Want Is The Truth" will serve admirably. If you're a Beatles scholar or hardcore fan looking for revelations or new material about Lennon's life and art, however, look elsewhere.

By now, so many books have been written about John Lennon -- whom even Paul fanatics would have to recognize as the most interesting member of the Beatles -- that publishing another one skirts redundancy. However, Elizabeth Partridge, whose previous works include 2003's excellent This Land Was Made for You and Me: The Life and Songs of Woody Guthrie, can hardly be faulted for that; her subject is simply too ubiquitous to withstand deep probing a quarter-century after his death. As a coffeetable book, however, John Lennon: All I Want Is The Truth is gorgeous, filled with tons of beautiful archived B&W photos that bring John back to vivid life while revealing his essential humanity.

Partridge's writing also does that, to an extent -- in outlining Lennon's troubled boyhood, dangerous adolescence, overwhelming stardom, and eventual disenchantment, she focuses on him as the sum of his psychological damage. For one of rock's most tortured superstars, it's a legitimate approach. What you won't find here is revelation, however, because Partridge comes to no real conclusions, even if her exhaustive research and compilation does reveal a few interesting if ultimately inscrutable quirks (bet you never knew John was weirded out by the physically handicapped). That makes this book perfect for brand-new Lennon fans, adequate for the casual observer, and largely useless to the hardcore Lennonphile. But as a physical testament to the legend, it's an aesthetically pleasing monument.