Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now is a straightforward biography chronicling McCartney’s childhood through the formation of The Beatles and their bitter end. The book is the closest thing we will probably get to an autobiography from McCartney himself and much of the material is based on interviews alongside with access to his archives. It certainly helps when you get to write a book about one of the famous men in the 20th century.
The book itself is well-written and covers all of the major events of McCartney’s life up to that point (1997) and his POV on the events. There are a number of interesting insights from McCartney on a variety of topics as both the author and McCartney attempt to go beyond the stereotypes established about the individual group members due to promotional material and the movies.
My main problem with the book is that it doesn’t offer necessarily anything new that hasn’t been completely covered and just ultimately seems like another book among the litany of ones about The Beatles. The book itself was published in 1997, so while it can’t be blamed for coming off as a giant Wikipedia article at times, that sometimes become an issue. This is mostly due to the book’s nature when discussing the individual songs in the band for each album and their background. My other main problem with the book is the focus on Lennon, leaving very little to discuss what Paul’s relationship was with Harrison or Ringo or even what he thought of them outside of fighting at the end. This may or may not have been due to the fact all three were still alive at the time or because of the author’s interest in writing about Lennon, I am left unsure.
Overall, fans of The Beatles and Paul McCartney will definitely find themselves enjoying this book. If you’re looking for Paul’s side of things, this is probably the book to read. Although you may find yourself skipping some pages with the inclusion of (least in my opinion) unnecessary information.
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