Yoko Ono

Hopkins, author of Bowie, has written the first book to focus primarily on Yoko Ono. Although not done with her cooperation, it is also perhaps the most sympathetic portrait of her to appear. Hopkins goes into some detail on Ono's career as an artist in the late '50s and '60s (her work, strongly influenced by the ideas of John Cage, seems today, at least as described by Hopkins, purely conceptual and not emotionally engaged). The material on her early days, marriages and art is interesting, but the book really comes to life with the appearance of John Lennon. Although Hopkins provides a corrective to previous writers who have tended to describe Ono as a kind of evil dragon, she ultimately emerges here as arrogant and manipulative. Photos not seen by PW. First serial to National Enquirer. (January 20)