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While I very much enjoy biographies, I have no interest in celebrity. Also, I avoid autobiographies, preferring a more distanced look at a person. However, I am very interested in the way artists operate, especially those who write (novels, and to a lesser extent music). So I recently picked by Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen's memoir.
It's an interesting read. I'll give the guy credit, he could have had the book ghostwritten or at least heavily edited, but it's clear that he wrote it because one of its flaws is that it teems with the flowery prose of someone writing a book for the first time. But that's also its authenticity. It is sprinkled with metaphors like 'Hannibal crossing the Alps' and lurid descriptions such as that of the women who answered an ad to audition lead singers for his band, requiring them to come into 'the dark industrial wilderness toward what must have looked like a rapist's paradise' and his band's very early sound as 'a cheese-ball ****storm of submerged instrumentation that sounded like it was being puked up from the bottom of some dragon-infested ocean'. What it lacks in refined English, it makes up for in soul. It more or less sounds like the work of an unrestrained lyricist. Which, of course, it is.
The book is no attempt to burnish Springsteen's image. He's generally gentle though straightforward even with some characters who probably don't deserve it, such as his father - not much of either a dad or a husband, though his son's love of him shines through - and Mike Appel, who helped launch Springsteen's career but under one of those classic contracts wherein naive young artists sign over virtually everything to the guy who might be able to make it happen. And he never paints himself in an overly pleasant light. He owns his enormous ego and the narcissism that screwed up many of his relationships. He speaks matter-of-factly of infidelity, of avoiding the draft through deception and then later idly wondering who got sent in his place, of for many years not bothering with things like a driver's license or paying taxes (until he'd made several hundred thousand dollars and suddenly was in deep arrears), of openly stating that he learned early on that his preference in a band was for benign despotism instead of democracy (provided, of course, that he was the despot). This is neither bragging nor self-flagellation but an acknowledgment twinged often with regret.
I will admit that I stopped reading about the time of Tunnel of Love, for my main interests were in the early years of struggle and not the years of superstardom. As so often happens, the conquering of the artistic mountain often leads to a life of luxury wherein main of the struggles that are an artist's vitality disappear. The story became less interesting to me at that point. All of that said, it is a unique work, unconventional and enlightening and enjoyable, at least what I read.
Will finish up Eleanor Oliphant tonight. While it has kept my interest, I also found it annoying as it dribbled bits of her past into the story. I kept thinking, ok so something terrible happened. Spit it out already
I am reading a Thrilling suspense novel named The Girl Who Lived. It is the perfect kind of book that keeps you so addicted once you start reading and you won't be able to stop till the last page. This incredible story with so many twists and turns takes you to the edge of madness and keeps you screwed till the last page.
Mother of Black Hollywood by Jenifer Lewis, just a little in, but super fun and enjoyable, and Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult (SO different from Leaving Time).
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Will finish up Eleanor Oliphant tonight. While it has kept my interest, I also found it annoying as it dribbled bits of her past into the story. I kept thinking, ok so something terrible happened. Spit it out already
I was hooked and was not annoyed; just a bit confused at times. I totally adored the book and thought the ending or reveal was just wonderful.
Just finished Bear Town by Fredrik Backman. LOVED it! Five stars. Hubby is reading it now and will probably finish it in a day.
I read this a few weeks ago also and liked it a lot more than I thought. I also enjoyed the sequel, Us Against You.
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