Born to Run, by Bruce Springsteen

My book club selected Born to Run as one of our winter picks. I've always been a casual fan of Bruce Springsteen's music, being familiar with his hits at least; however, I didn't know much about his life and career. This memoir has helped me to understand much more about him, and was surprising (to me at least) in many ways.

First of all, I was impressed with his writing style which was very literary and poetic. I was surprised by that, although I probably shouldn't have been, given that he's been writing song lyrics for five decades. I was also a bit surprised by the poverty he experienced as a child and young man. I had no idea that his family had struggled so much, partly due to his father's depression and other mental illness issues. Similarly, I wasn't aware that Springsteen himself suffered from depression; however, his memoir makes it very clear that this is something that he is constantly battling.

One of the things that I enjoyed about this book (and which was similar to my experiences reading recent books about David Bowie and Pink Floyd) was the way this book turned into almost a pop-culture history lesson. I had to keep my iPad handy so that I could google people, bands, albums, and events, and look up videos of performances on YouTube. This caused me to take much longer with the book than if I had just read it straight through, but it was entirely enjoyable and fascinating.

Bruce Springsteen. Born to Run. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016. 510 pages. ISBN 9781501141522.