[Spoilers] The good, bad & ugly about Springsteen’s new book

I just finished reading Bruce Springsteen's powerful new autobiography, "Born to Run", and I have to admit, it was all of the things I love about Bruce Springsteen and all of the things I don't love all rolled into a big fat juicy can't- put-it-down hardcover.

I really didn't want it to end. It's no secret that Bruce Springsteen is one of the most profound and self introspective writers of the 20th and 21st centuries. You know just from listening to his music over and over again throughout the years that he is a magnificent writer. He is deep, intellectual, and writes here with a fluidity and an artistry rivaled only by his beautiful song lyrics. The problem is… You guessed it folks: the politics.

It's just hard to take! Yes, we're used to it, yes we've heard it all at concerts, but just to see it written down right there next to all of the agonizing, kishke-ripping (google that) soul searching that he does in the book makes the politics seem, well, trite. I was really feeling for him. Pulling for him as a creative person and relating to the internal struggles. And then, like the proverbial record scratching, he ends your empathy and makes you take sides.

So my advice to you is to skim the book and then pick and choose your chapters. Stick to those glorious descriptions of his childhood and growing up years with its fits and starts, and the early stages of his career with his gut- wrenching analysis of why he is the way he is and the ensuing questions you'll ask yourselves while reading. The book is worth it for all that.

When he gets to the part about Ronald Reagan, Amnesty International, and the plight of the working man, you might wanna turn the page. Quickly.

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