SKYWRITING BY WORD OF MOUTH

by John Lennon ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 9, 1986

Just possibly this could catch on and land a fair-sized audience, but it seems more likely a heavy bet for the remainder tables. Yoko Ono tells us that Lennon wrote Skywriting ""at a time when the world was wondering whatever had happened to him. Why wasn't he writing songs anymore? Well, this was what he was doing. He would write one page and ask me to read it back to him, and we'd laugh. It was a fun time. John was very happy with Skywriting and proud to share it with me."" Anyone who has read Lennon's earlier In His Own Write or A Spaniard in the Works will know what to expect. If anything, Skywriting is even more surreal and pun-bubbling, daft as a poet under a spoon moon. ""The Ballad of John and Yoko,"" the opening piece, is in the King's English and worth reading for John's feelings about having left his first wife and married Yoko, divorced from the Beatles and gone on a peace tour for a honeymoon. Then comes a long Joycean babble whose only spine seems to be a rich stick of cannabis: ""Words are flowing out like endless rainbow mixed grilling baron von oil field marshall tucker bank wagonner rear end zone what you reap van winkle of an eyelid of grass blowers convention centre forward march hair raising the flag of truce is stranger than friction of a second helping."" And there is no letup. Bits of flotsam plot rise for a sentence or two and then fade under the ""who dunnit pundit's"" fiddling ""whilst rome wasn't built in a dayglo painting. . ."" A sunshine-grinning bummer, or the joy of tedium.

Pub Date: Oct. 9, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1986

Categories: FICTION