According to Philip Norman’s new biography, John Lennon: The Life, the teenage Lennon occasionally napped with his mother, Julia, and the accidental touch of her breast one time triggered longings in him to have sex with her — longings, Lennon believed, that Julia might have been willing to satisfy. The “truth” of the story may be more psychological than literal — who knows what Julia would have done? — but it deepens our understanding of a complex artist and man.