NONFICTION - Dec. 17, 1995

THE DAY JOHN MET PAUL: An Hour-by-Hour Account of How the Beatles Began by Jim O’Donnell (Penguin Books: $10.95 paper: 173 pp.). Ever seen those rice kernels on which a very patient artist has carved the Judgment of Paris, say, or the Last Supper? This volume is their literary equivalent. Fans can’t help but be intrigued by a Beatles book that promises to explain the odd attraction between John Lennon and Paul McCartney, but on that score, at least, Jim O’Donnell fails to deliver. “The Day John Met Paul” is well written and copiously researched--O’Donnell, a rock journalist, says he worked on it for eight years--but it’s a gilded lily, however much a labor of love.