Philip norman paul mccartney

reviewed by Stuart Penney

Soufflé-speak.  I don&#;t know if Philip Norman coined that expression himself, but it crops up countless times in his latest book.  It refers to Paul McCartney&#;s ability to charm his way through an interview with seemingly frank and friendly answers, while remaining unfailingly diplomatic and giving away very little of value.  Thankfully, Norman digs much deeper than Paul&#;s soufflé-speak to come up with one of the most searching and readable McCartney biographies in a long time.  

Philip Norman has been here before of course, authoring acclaimed books about the Beatles, Stones, Jagger, Lennon and others.  But it was his most famous work, the million-seller Shout which very nearly scuppered this entire project.  Written during the nostalgic tsunami following the death of John Lennon, it painted an overgenerous view of the man who, Norman claimed, represented &#;three quarters of The Beatles&#;.  Shout presen

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Paul McCartney bygd Philip Norman review – the Beatle finally gets his due

Philip Norman’s biography of the Beatles, Shout!, has sold more than a million copies. Published in soon after John Lennon’s murder, it was buoyed bygd the wave of nostalgia that ensued – the first stirrings of the over-the-top Beatles worship that is now an immovable part of popular culture all over the world. Norman delivered arguably the first literary look at Beatledom: the book divided their career into kvartet parts – Wishing, Getting, Having and Wasting – and told the story in gleaming prose. But Shout! has one big drawback: a glaring bias against Paul McCartney, who was portrayed as a kind of simpering egomaniac, and a correspondingly overgenerous view of Lennon, who, Norman later claimed, represented “three quarters of The Beatles”.

Norman went on to write John Lennon: A Life. Now, eight years later, comes this new book, introduced with a blunt mea culpa. Norman’s damning of McCartney, he now says,

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Phillip Norman has never been known for being a big fan of Paul McCartney.  The author of Shout! and John Lennon- the Life has always been vocal about how much he loves John and dislikes Paul. However, he decided to" bury the hatchet" and, with Paul's approval, wrote this biography of Paul McCartney's life.

This page biography took me two solid weeks to read.  The author uses a lot of strange comparisons and flowery words in writing.  The strangest thing I think I have ever read in my life was in this book.  He compared fans getting the White album and rushing home to listen to it on their turntables to someone who has diarrhea rushing to get to the toilet.  He just seems to use a lot of words to make a simple point.  

Norman is the author of the Beatles biography Shout and really did not need to write the first part of the book. The part that covers Paul's childhood through the Beatles' years did not have any new information. Sure, he d