In My Life: Encounters With the Beatles

by Robert Cording (Editor), Shelli Jankowski-Smith (Editor), E.J. Miller Laino (Editor)

Brings together fiction, recollections, and poetry in which the Beatles and their songs play a pivotal role, showing how the Beatles have affected us all through their music and humor. Contributors include Timothy Leary, Tom Wolfe, Allen Ginsberg, and many less-known authors. No index. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

294 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1998

Reviews

[RK Byers · Rating 5 out of 5]

the writers in this collection are REALLY a talented group. and shockingly, in many cases, the fiction is even better than the essays and poems.

[Sparrow .]

It’s like a garden party where one third of the people are friends*, 1/3 are strangers, and a third are people you’ve seen at the farmers market, drifting vaguely towards a table of lettuce. Some are famous. Tom Wolfe is a much better writer than I remembered. Timothy Leary is simultaneously insane, repetitive and wise.

Bad short stories are very painful to read!

My favorite part: women reminiscing about screaming during Beatlemania. (I didn’t realize that they were all very specifically fantasizing about going on dates with one band member – never more than one!)

Opening at random:

She had been in his apartment often enough before they were married, God knows. She had seen his books and records. She knew his tastes.

“I thought you gave all that up,” Cynthia said. “I thought you’d changed.”

[From “The Girl Who Sang with the Beatles” by Robert Hemenway.]

*The last piece in the book is by my friend, the poet Francine Witte.

[Jojo · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this was a collection of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry relating to the Beatles. I sort of thought from the title that everything in it was going to be people's personal accounts/non-fiction so was somewhat disappointed. I admit that I did skip quite a few of the fictionalized pieces. It was an alright collection but yeah, wish it was more true to the title to be honest.
Grade: C+

[Sheila · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting collection of Beatle memories.