Rating: 
Summary: Read this, brother; may it serve you well
Review: An astonishingly insightful, personal, and comprehensive interpretation of the Beatles mythos. McKinney successfully analyzes the special bond between the Beatles and their audience, in all of its kaleidoscopic complexity, from Quarry Men days to Apple rooftop and beyond. His organizing metaphors--including circles, holes, meat (!), and others--are strikingly original and on-target. The sections on the Paul-is-dead rumor and the dawn of the bootleg industry were especially fascinating to me. (It turns out that one bootleg song I'd always enjoyed may not even be by the Beatles at all!) Given its stance as a work of musical/historical/cultural criticism, the book is ideal for fans already somewhat familiar with the basic Beatles chronology. So glad the Village Voice Literary Supplement ran a review of this book, alerting me of its existence.
Rating: 
Summary: A major disappointment
Review: As reviewer R. DelParto writes: "McKinney's account appears more like an extended Rolling Stone article meshed in with his personal psyche and his love for the Beatles -- his dream of a period long passed as placed on paper. He doesn't analyze any new material, but rehashes Beatle myths that have been presented time and time again, such as the Paul is dead rumor, the Charles Manson connection, and the notorious Beatles' butcher album cover and how they have had an affect on society during the 1960s." The only difference is that while DelParto somehow sees this as a reason to give the book four stars, for me it is a reason to give it only one. McKinney certainly brings nothing new to the Beatles. Even at those moments where one most expects to catch even a tiny glimmer of critical depth, one glimpses only surfaces all the way down.
Rating:
Summary: Bubble and Read
Review: I loved this book. My favorite Book on The Beatles. It is of high courage to intermingle the stories of the Paul-Is-dead Rumor and the Charles Manson tragedy in the way that Mr. McKinney did. At first it repulsed, and after asking myself why ? i realized that i rejected because it touches the nerve of truth. But the irony is that in mixing The Beatles and Manson in the way that he did, he succeded in separating them. In the U2 movie Rattle and Hum, Bono introduces their version of Helter Skelter by saying: "this is a song Chrales Manson stole from the Beatles, we are stilling it back". If U2 succeded in stilling it back, Mr. McKinney built a wall around it and protected it from future potential stealings. The rest of the book is great too. Congratulations.
Rating:
Summary: Absolute Garbage
Review: I really tried to like this book. I did. I put it down several times in hope of returning to it with a fresh perspective only to find myself disappointed yet again. Since I will be teaching a course on The Beatles and Literary Criticism at Imperial College during the spring 2005 semester, I have been looking for a good critical book on the group to serve as a text. This isn't it. McKinney forces his metaphors (just how many times does he use the word "meat" in chapter three?), provides no discussion on his theoretical orientation (why "Pepper" is such a failure other than its relationship to hippie ideology is lost on me), and his absolute dismissal of George and Ringo shows him as a prejudiced Lennonite (Hey, McKinney, Harrison talked the talk and walked the walk. Ringo is the glue that held the band's performances together in the early years. Listen to the records. Where is objective analysis?).Trust me. This book is written by an author who only wants to make a name for himself by claiming to be a fan but instead uses this tome to advance his literary career by trashing most everything the group did. The analysis is too subjective to be of use. We need a balanced discussion that thoughtfully analyzes their strenghts and weaknesses. This "dream" is only McKinney's. I have no idea whose "history" it is. His lengthy generalizations about the 60s are snide and have little in common with the times besides the usual Vietnam, SDS, Chicago events that one can learn about in any college freshman history course. Where are the thick descriptions? The main problem with this book is that it is cultural criticism run amok. While it is indeed a "different" reading of The Beatles, which has a bit of heuristic value in itself, I found myself doubting McKinney's thesis at every turn. The albums _With the Beatles_, _Beatles for Sale_, and _Help_ are treated only briefly. Unlike the former reviewer states, the book is not a thorough account of the group's career. McKinney mentions only those songs and albums that fit his thesis. Case in point: While he spends pages on the B-side version of "Revolution," Mckinney hardly discusses the A-side "Hey Jude," mentioned only on three pages. "Hey Jude" speaks to "Revolution" intertextually on many levels, especially if we throw Maccas story of origin aside for the case that the song is pro-Jewish. Simply put, McKinney drops the ball in too many other places to warrant a higher rating from me, a listener of the group for three decades now.
Rating:
Summary: Unique, extraoridinary book
Review: I take great exception with the previous review stating this book is "garbage". I also fail to notice where this book is anything short of a loving Valentine to the Beatles. If one reads the book thorougly, all four band members are rendered brightly. McKinney's insights are not only personal - they are unlike anything I've read on the Beatles. His grasp of history - especially useful for those who did not experience the 60's first hand - is wondrous and I learned countles new facts about the band. And I have been a fan for three decades. This book challenges and inspires the reader to look deeper than ever before at the wonder that is the Beatles. From individual songs to albums to myths, this book explores every facet of the Beatles. All in all, a must-read for anyone who loves the Beatles or the time in history they inhabited, represented and changed.
Rating:
Summary: Unique, extraoridinary book
Review: I take great exception with the previous review stating this book is "garbage". I also fail to notice where this book is anything short of a loving Valentine to the Beatles. If one reads the book thorougly, all four band members are rendered brightly. McKinney's insights are not only personal - they are unlike anything I've read on the Beatles. His grasp of history - especially useful for those who did not experience the 60's first hand - is wondrous and I learned countles new facts about the band. And I have been a fan for three decades. This book challenges and inspires the reader to look deeper than ever before at the wonder that is the Beatles. From individual songs to albums to myths, this book explores every facet of the Beatles. All in all, a must-read for anyone who loves the Beatles or the time in history they inhabited, represented and changed.
Rating:
Summary: Ignore "Absolute Garbage"
Review: I've read dozens and dozens of books on the Beatles, and this one is certainly the best. While the second half of the book loses its way--the author does warn the reader of a new direction--and certainly the book suffers from some "cultural criticism run amok", The Beatles have never received such an intellectual love letter. Shawn H. accuses the author of writing the book only to make a name for himself, when in his own review he casually mentions that he'll be teaching a course on the Beatles, committing the very crime of which he accuses the author. Magic Circles is the most thoughtful and intelligent analysis of the Beatles and interpretation of their story I've yet to read. Hopefully this book is the first of many other similar analyses. This book correctly recognizes that the Beatles exist outside the scope of normal history and other legends; they are biblical in stature.
Rating:
Summary: Ignore "Absolute Garbage"
Review: I've read dozens and dozens of books on the Beatles, and this one is certainly the best. While the second half of the book loses its way--the author does warn the reader of a new direction--and certainly the book suffers from some "cultural criticism run amok", The Beatles have never received such an intellectual love letter. Shawn H. accuses the author of writing the book only to make a name for himself, when in his own review he casually mentions that he'll be teaching a course on the Beatles, committing the very crime of which he accuses the author. Magic Circles is the most thoughtful and intelligent analysis of the Beatles and interpretation of their story I've yet to read. Hopefully this book is the first of many other similar analyses. This book correctly recognizes that the Beatles exist outside the scope of normal history and other legends; they are biblical in stature.
Rating: 
Summary: A Profound Work of the Imagination
Review: That this is, as I wrote in the title line of this review, "a profound work of the imagination" is the source of both this book's strengths and weaknesses. On one hand, this is an engaging, intimate, intelligent, provocative, and thoroughly idiosyncratic work. On the other hand, it is too subjectively and socio-politically overdetermined to be, as Luc Sante claims, the "book to read on the Beatles."
In reality, of course, there is no ONE BOOK to read on the Beatles, just as their is no ONE BOOK to read on Franz Schubert or the Vietnam War. In truth, only "God" could have written the ONE BOOK on the Beatles, and though Devin McKinney certainly isn't God, he surely is smarter than your average bear.
One book McKinney's reminds me of is Henry Miller's slim volume on Rimbaud, which is just as much about the author as it is about the subject -- the important exception being, of course, that Miller's book is a failure, while McKinney's succeeds admirably well on its own terms.
Perhaps a litmus test for a prospective reader uncertain whether or not he might like this study, is this [p.244]: ". . . this unfathomable montage, one of the Beatles' greatest achievements. . . "
The "unfathomable montage" McKinney's referring to? "Revolution 9."
Left unsaid, of course, from McKinney's analysis of this piece (as much, perhaps too much, is left unsaid in his book) is that Revolution 9 has very little to do with the Beatles. It certainly isn't a Beatles song, and really shouldn't be on one of their albums.
Then again, if you can live comfortably with such a perversely sublime (or is it sublimely perverse?) contrarian sensibility, then by all means check out this book, because in the final analysis it's worth a truckload of the typical hagiographical fare served up by other writers on this daunting subject.
Rating: 
Summary: I Am He As John Is Me, but I don't think we're all together
Review: The title, the front and back cover, the inner and outer dust jacket flaps, they grabbed me. References to sociology, psychology, sexuality, and even physics. This book will undoubtedly assist me to ascertain just why The Beatles seem to matter so much...Was it just the time that I grew up in, or are they a musical force which will transcend not only generations, but centuries, milleniums? Written by someone from a younger generation, I'll be able to get a more "objective" analysis! I had high hopes. They were dashed. Mr. McKinney gets credit for adventuring into heady places. Places more interesting than, "Mr. Epstein liked the sound and looks of the boys and..." But these places full of potential were not realized, as Mr. McKinney's pretty words meandered like a restless wind inside a letter box. One stumbles onto nuggets and kernels. Provacative pieces of the puzzle. Mr. McKinney illustrates how The Beatles reflect society and influence it. (Yes, but how, why, and ultimately, why do we care?) Mr. McKinney draws upon Freud & portrays The Beatles as a manifestation of the audiences' wishes & desires, as well as pushing their audience to wish & desire. (So did Frank Capra & Lenny Bruce and, for some, John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever.) I continued to eagerly pour through each chapter's poetic imagery of toilet associations, on holes in the universe a la Einstein & Socrates, up to and including the comparing and contrasting of John Lennon & Charles Manson... I still continued to hold out hope in searching for The Meaning of The Beatles. But, as the pages chock full of swirling
thoughts/reveries/cultural lore went by, the more I came instead upon the The Meaning of Mr. McKinney. Revolution #9 as a masterpiece? McCartney as complex as Lennon? The Beatles creating The Sixties and being crushed by The Sixties because of the inability of its inhabitants to integrate demands for peace with feelings of rage? Not everyone from the Sixties was either a member of The Silent Majority nor a flag burning, drug-crazed, free-love hippie.
I could march with my high school to demonstrate against the Vietnam War, until it was time for me to fulfill my obligations by reporting for my 2:00 PM shift as a 16 year-old stockboy in Alexander's Department Store in The Bronx, New York, 1968. That makes me a Day Tripper or just more reflective of the millions of teens & some adults who admired the Beatles? Then came the final chapter, which I recommend be read first. An enjoyable autobiographical account of Mr. McKinney's interest in the Sixties! Much less pressured in delivery. More relaxed with his audience. Less need for a dictionary. Now it makes sense! That's what the book should have been about! It would have been both more interesting and possibly more significantly revealing. The title for which could have been: "The Beatles and Me: Search for Identity".
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