I Met the Walrus

I went into this thinking it was a book about the Beatles, and that's not really true - it's more a book about Jerry Levitan that discusses the role the Beatles played in his life, and how one experience can become the defining moment of a person's childhood. True to that, the book's presented as a multi-media scrapbook, with the text being supplemented by photos from the time and a DVD, as well as some funky drawings and font choices. It's a very well put together book.

The main body of the book is taken up with young Jerry's interview with John Lennon, and how as a fourteen-year-old he managed to bluff his way into Lennon's hotel room to conduct the interview. That's an amazing story in itself, before you even worry about the content of the interview, which is pure Lennon - it's naive yet jaded, hopeful and energetic yet tinged with the sadness of realism.

Also enjoyable, for me at least, was the fact that the entire thing's set in Toronto - hearing Jerry recount taking the TTC to Sam's to buy records, and things like that, give it a personal touch that I felt made it easier to connect to.

One quibble I had, though? The title. Everybody knows the walrus was Paul.