"The Best Story." - Mark Lewisohn

I've been re-reading essays from David Foster Wallace. Two different collections. "Consider the Lobster," and "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again." So good. I was doing this re-reading because I have been waiting for a new book, and I didn't order it right away, I had it on my wish list, and then, I finally ordered it, and while I waited, well, in the meantime, desperate for something to read, I gladly revisited the amazing and enlightening world of DFW.

There was one essay that I left for last, "Up Simba - Seven Days on the Trail of the Anti-Candidate." It's about John McCain and the Presidential campaign in 2000. I really dreaded reading it. I finally relented, got a few pages in, learned a couple interesting things, but then my new book arrived!

I have been saved by the Postal Service! Really I'd rather get a root canal, or a lobotomy, than have to read about the American Political scene in 2000.

The new book is "Tune In," by Mark Lewisohn. It's a major tome. The first volume (803 pages, minus the notes), of a three volume history of the Beatles. Really. Even if you think more than enough ink and video and ears and eyeballs have been devoted to the Beatles, it didn't take much to win me over. I was hooked by the first sentence of the book.

"Every once in awhile, life conjures up a genuine ultimate."

This is our Pop Culture origin story. And Lewisohn tackles it as history. No one has really taken his approach before, probably because it was way too daunting. But Lewisohn is uniquely the man for the job.  As Lewisohn tells us, the Beatles' story really is "the best story." I'm a few pages in, he is so right.