Leslie, a British journalist and author, has a deep affection for, and a penetrating understanding of, these complex characters and their unprecedented friendship ... It is stunning to follow Leslie’s insights into how far and fast John and Paul traveled, how profound their preternatural alliance was, and how epic their heroic journey.
Leslie’s comprehensive assembly of lyrics, memos and actions of the two men strays into gossip sometimes in his effort to define their relationship. The book labors to find where the Lennon-McCartney relationship fell in the spectrum of best buds to bromance.
[This book] celebrates the convoluted, beautiful and tragic nature of a songwriting partnership that still reverberates across the universe ... Mr. Leslie is bracingly forensic in his reading of both the early days of the Lennon-McCartney partnership and the road to its dissolution.
Let it be the new gold standard in Beatles studies ... The author’s brilliant account of Lennon and McCartney’s songwriting relationship challenges myths, finds new meanings in their music, and even throws up a few surprises ... A book that offers not only a lesson in listening (again) but an enthralling narrative of friendship, creative genius and loss ... Leslie scores highest in his penetrating analysis of the differences that drove their creative alchemy.
Empathetic and carefully sourced ... John & Paul is an elegantly written and original telling of the Beatles’ story, which is as enthralling and astonishing as their music. There are fresh insights for the most seasoned Fab Four fan ... Leslie is an expert listener.
Leslie’s prose is neat and stylish, and he seems to know his stuff ... The problem, in the end, is that this book is neither one thing nor the other. Roughly half of it is basic Beatle history, featuring no original research or startling new insight, and the eye slides down these pages like a squirrel on a greasy pole. The rest is more interesting, but still we’re on familiar ground – most of these interpersonal issues have been covered previously ... John & Paul is too loose and discursive to function as biography, and too concerned with narrative to go as deep as it could ... John & Paul is a good book, nonetheless: thoughtful, articulate, occasionally rewarding. It’s just horribly frustrating, because you know there’s so much more (and sometimes less) to be said, and when it works, it works so well that the whole thing feels like a missed opportunity.
Leslie examines with deep specificity the relationship between these two men and how they changed each other and the people around them ... He shows a new and more compelling image of the Lennon-McCartney relationship ... His fascinating book will be a hit among music fans and students of popular culture at public and academic libraries.
Fans will love this fresh, insightful approach to the band ... Thoroughly delightful ... Leslie meticulously works through the canon, with the bio unfolding. He’s excellent at delving just deeply enough into how the music and words created songs.
