A Day in the Life by Robert Greenfield
July 29th, 2009Title: A Day in the Life
Author: Robert Greenfield
Publisher: Da Capo Press (2009)
I saw the title of this book and I was immediately intrigued. “A Day in the Life” is a very famous Beatles song…and as you know, I love the Beatles! Then I saw that the book takes place in the 60′s. Alright – It is definitely going to be about the Beatles…even if only secondarily! Wrong. It’s not about the Beatles. In fact, there is far more mention of the Rolling Stones than the Beatles…which is extremely disappointing (I do not like the Stones). Also, this book made me angry…and also curious about the 1960′s. Was this behavior common?!?
A Day in the Life: One Family, the Beautiful People, & the End of the Sixties by Robert Greenfield is a biography of a semi famous British family. The girl (Susan Coriat) came from an apparently important British family and therefore had all of the fame, money, and problems that go along with that. The boy (Tommy Webber) was a good looking, smooth talking man…when they met up and got married everything seemed right. Of course that wouldn’t make a very interesting book. Instead they had two children…got divorced…and went their seperate ways (mostly). That is sad enough as it is. But that’s not what made me angry.
You see, Tommy Webber, in between a number of failed careers decided to go the route of drug smuggler. And often took his children with him. Not only that, be he once even taped the cocaine to their bodies to get through airport security. This is despicable. He spent some time hanging out with the Rolling Stones (which, I imagine, is how Greenfield came to write this book. He has written a number of first hand accounts of the Rolling Stones). I hated him more as the book moved along. Sharon Coriat was a total loon who took so many drugs that she literally went crazy and had to be put in a mental hospital. As you can see…there is nothing redeeming about them. They were terrible parents and apparently terrible people.
This may not be accurate but I had the feeling that Greenfield was trying to portray them in a sympathetic light. I assume he spent some time with Tommy while they were with the Stones, so maybe that explains it. But I would have felt much better about this book had Greenfield said, “These were terrible people with no regard for anyone but themselves. They tried as hard as they could to totally ruin their kids’ lives, and killed themselves in the process.” That would have felt much more honest.
That said…the writing was pretty good — and I imagine he has some pretty good Rolling Stones stories. I just wish he would have used a Stones song in the title instead. As with the Stones music…I wouldn’t expect the book to be very good then!
Rating: 2 out of 5
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