Review
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'Memoirs usually rearrange events to suit the author
and downplay their shortcomings. Springsteen doesn’t spare
himself.' (Sunday Times Magazine)
'By the standards of most rock star autobiographies, Born to
Run is neither sensational nor self-serving… Springsteen has
delivered his story with quiet dignity. Give thanks that we can’t
get rid of him.'
(Guardian)
'I can’t think of a more honest or revealing memoir by any rock
musician: in comparison, it makes the efforts of Patti Smith,
Keith Richards and Bob Dylan seem strangely commonplace.' (Mail
On Sunday)
'Astonishing.' (Vanity Fair)
'An utterly unique, endlessly exhilarating,
last-chance-power-drive of a memoir.'
(Rolling Stone)
'Frank and gripping.' (Atlantic)
'Intensely satisfying...Born to Run is, like his finest songs,
closely observed from end to end. His story is and
personal, but he has an interest in other people and a gift for
sizing them up...' (New York Times)
'Springsteen can write—not just life-imprinting song lyrics but
good, solid prose that travels all the way to the right
margic...And like a fabled Springsteen concert—always notable for
its deck-clearing thoroughness —Born to Run achieves the
sensation that all the relevant questions have been answered by
the time the lights are turned out. He delivers the story of
Bruce—in digestibly short chapters—via an informally steadfast
Jersey plainspeak that’s worked and deftly detailed and
with its readers—cleareyed enough to say what it means when it
has hard stories to tell, yet supple enough to rise to occasions
requiring eloquence—sometimes rather pleasingly subsiding into
the syntax and rhythms of a Bruce Springsteen song.' (New York
Times Book Review)
'There’s a great book inside this book, and it isn’t hiding. It’s
there to be read and it’s wonderful.' (Roddy Doyle Irish Times)
‘For the Springsteen fan, this book is the definitive commentary
on every note he has played. For the rest of us, it is a road
trip into the American soul.’ (The Times)
From the Inside Flap
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'Writing about yourself is a funny business…But in a
project like this, the writer has made one promise, to show the
reader his mind. In these pages, I’ve tried to do this.' —Bruce
Springsteen, from the pages of Born to Run
In 2009, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at the
Super ’s halftime show. The experience was so exhilarating
that Bruce decided to write about it. That’s how this
extraordinary autobiography began. Over the past seven years,
Bruce Springsteen has privately devoted himself to writing the
story of his life, bringing to these pages the same honesty,
humour and originality found in his songs.
He describes growing up Catholic in Freehold, New Jersey, amid
the poetry, danger and darkness that fuelled his imagination,
leading up to the moment he refers to as 'The Big Bang': seeing
Elvis Presley’s debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. He vividly
recounts his relentless drive to become a musician, his early
days as a bar band king in Asbury Park, and the rise of the E
Street Band. With disarming candour, he also tells for the first
time the story of the personal struggles that inspired his best
work, and shows us why the song 'Born to Run' reveals more than
we previously realized.