Here is a sympathetic biography of Yoko Ono, the misunderstood multi-media artist, musician, song writer, and peace activist. She was perhaps best known for being married to Beatles John Lennon until his murder in 1980. Author David Sheff, a long-time friend of the couple, derived much of the material from his extensive interviews with them over a period. Easy to read, this book is meant for those who would like to better understand Yoko.
In the “Introduction: Ocean Child,” Sheff notes how wrongly Yoko has been characterized by the media as “a caricature, a curiosity, or even a villain—an inscrutable seductress, a manipulating con artist, and a caterwauling fraud who hypnotized Lennon and broke up the greatest band in history.”
Yet Yoko was already an avant-garde artist long before she met Lennon. On her own, she created multimedia exhibits and pioneered performance arts that pushed conventional boundaries. Audience participation proved to be a common theme in her oeuvre, one example being, Cut Piece. It unfolds as follows: Yoko kneels silently on a stage, a pair of scissors in front of her. Members of the audience are invited to approach her and cut away pieces of her clothing. Although ambiguous in its meaning, one thing remains certain. The viewer is as much a part of the art as the performer is.
Author Sheff provides us with little-known facts about Yoko’s family background. She was born into one of Japan’s wealthiest families, which didn’t prove to be an advantage, as she was denied emotional warmth by her mother. Yet Yoko remained resilient, doggedly pursuing her art, even though it was largely unnoticed. Any recognition would come much later in life.
After she met Lennon, he’d make the following statement. “’Yoko was ‘the girl with kaleidoscopic eyes’ he’d longed for, and he credited her with saving him when he was ‘the nowhere man.’”
Along with Lennon, Yoko became a peace activist and campaigned for human rights. She also collaborated with him in inspiring lyrics such as the one for the internationally famous, “Imagine.”
“I feel in the big picture,” Yoko once said, “the fact that John and I met was to do this song.”
Sheff has been accused of being “one-sided.” Still, it must be said that he succeeds in giving the reader a deeper understanding of Yoko both as a person and as an artist, the passions and struggles that shaped her, the contributions she’s made to society.
Bharti Kirchner is the author of nine novels and four cookbooks, her latest being: “Murder at Jaipur: A Maya Mallick Mystery.”
