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Yoko: A Biography
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About This Book
An intimate and revelatory biography of Yoko Ono from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Boy.John Lennon once described Yoko Ono as the world's most famous unknown artist. "Everybody knows her name, but no one knows what she does." She has only been important to history insofar as she impacted Lennon. Throughout her life, Yoko has been a caricature, curiosity, and, often, a villain—an inscrutable seductress, manipulating con artist, and caterwauling fraud. The Lennon/Beatles saga is one of the greatest stories ever told, but Yoko's part has been missing—hidden in the Beatles' formidable shadow, further obscured by flagrant misogyny and racism. This definitive biography of Yoko Ono's life will change that. In this book, Yoko Ono takes centerstage. Yoko's life, independent of Lennon, was an amazing journey. Yoko spans from her birth to wealthy parents in pre-war Tokyo, her harrowing experience as a child during the war, her arrival in avant-garde art scene in London, Tokyo, and New York City. It delves into her groundbreaking art, music, feminism, and activism. We see how she coped under the most intense, relentless, and cynical microscope as she was falsely vilified for the most heinous cultural crime breaking up the greatest rock-and-roll band in history. This book was nearly a half century in the making. In 1980, David Sheff met Yoko and John when Sheff conducted an in-depth interview with them just months before John's murder. In the aftermath of the killing, he and Yoko became close as she rebuilt her life, survived threats and betrayals, and went on to create groundbreaking art and music while campaigning for peace and other causes. Drawing from his experiences and interviews with her, her family, closest friends, collaborators, and many others, Sheff shows us Yoko's nine decades—one of the most unlikely and remarkable lives ever lived. Yoko is a harrowing, moving, propulsive, and vastly entertaining biography of a woman whose story has never been accurately told. The book not only rehabilitates Yoko Ono's reputation but elevates it to iconic status.
Reviews
"By explaining Ono's personal history and artistic path, he builds the case that she, not Lennon, was more damaged career-wise by their union ..."
"But Ono's rich life could—and should—fill a book much longer than these 287 pages ..."
"The author is frank about Ono's shortcomings ..."
"Continues this movement of deeper appreciation."
"I am not an Ono-phile who wants to wallow overmuch in this kind of art, but applaud Sheff's book as an important corrective to years of bad P.R."
"A compromised biography that still sheds light on a divisive figure."
"Illuminating and affectionate ..."
"Throughout her life, Yoko Ono has been a target of misogyny and racism."
"Still, we find ourselves forgiving him because we sense like so many of us, Scheff is enthralled with Yoko ..."
"Nor is Yoko a hagiography, though."
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