Bruce

From Barnes & Noble

Author Peter Ames Carlin has already written biographiess of Sir Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson, but his 512-page life of "The Boss" is his best yet. Bruce taps previously untold stories of Springsteen's early life, musical influences, E Band dynamics, professional career, and personal life. Well-written and carefully researched; "a Bruce bio like no other."

Publishers Weekly

Rock biographer (Paul McCartney) delivers a straight-on, rockin’ and rollin’ life of the Jersey youngster who sold his soul to rock and roll the night he saw Elvis on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1957. Drawing on exclusive interviews with members of the E Street Band, including Clarence Clemons’s final interview, and unrestricted conversations with Springsteen’s family, friends, manager Jon Landau, and Springsteen himself, Carlin takes us on a fascinating journey through Springsteen’s childhood, youth, and his rise to fame out of his early years playing in bands such as the Castiles, Earth, and Child to his most recent concerts in support of his Wrecking Ball album. Carlin energetically drives through the streets of Asbury Park, the bars and arenas around the world where Springsteen continues to work his magic. Carlin gives Springsteen the definitive treatment, and this is by far the best of the many books about the rock and roller, capturing his many moods, his desire to retain his privacy, but his secret craving for superstardom, and, above all, his consummate musicianship and his deep passion for pleasing audiences with rollicking, energetic shows. (Nov.)

The Atlantic

"Springsteen is biographical big game: majestic, fugitive, offering the unwary chronicler the possibility that he might get trampled. But Carlin has brought him down, with empathy and shrewdness. Here is Bruce, stylishly captured in all his Brucedom; the everyman, the unknowable; the anointed one, the loner; stadium swagger and dull, private pain. Are these contradictions, or just the span of a man’s soul? Read BRUCE and find out."
— James Parker

Booklist

An unusually intimate portrait.

People Magazine

“Carlin’s exhaustively researched portrait of rock and roll’s working-class hero delivers everything a fan could wish for.”

Kirkus Reviews

A painstakingly traced chronicle of the remarkable career of powerhouse proletarian rocker Bruce Springsteen. If you want to understand the magic and majesty that is The Boss, the best way is though his music. However, Carlin (Paul McCartney: A Life, 2009, etc.) successfully fills in some of the gaps Springsteen has left behind in his lifelong journey--at least the gaps New Jersey's favorite son now appears willing to address. As one of the most celebrated lyricists in the history of popular music, Springsteen remains a man of few words. In fact, many of the quotes attributed to him have already been published elsewhere. Like a lyric sheet, they often don't say much absent the spark of music. Carlin's own expressiveness, however, is another story and will no doubt have readers reaching for their favorite electronic music delivery system in an attempt to immediately corroborate his take on specific Springsteen tracks and performances. The author presents his subject as a supremely gifted musician and truly heroic figure, albeit one with a lot on his troubled mind. That darkness, attributed to bad genes and a childhood spent in the shadow of his parents' gloom following a tragic death in the family, at times reduces the working-class icon to a moody, self-centered and callous taskmaster. Surprisingly, none of these observations--taken in part or as a whole--is particularly damning. On the contrary, they might even serve to ground the ubiquitous superstar, allowing him to become more human and, ultimately, more understandable. An epic look at the man and his music.

Jon Stewart

“There are many things I could and should be doing right now, but I am not… I am reading and rereading this book. Why did you do this to me?”

Rolling Stone

“Interviews with bandmates, family members, and exes paint an unflinching portrait of the rock icon.... Dives into Springsteen’s personal life in unprecedented depth.... No previous biographer has uncovered as much about Springsteen’s family.”

People

“Carlin’s exhaustively researched portrait of rock and roll’s working-class hero delivers everything a fan could wish for.”

USA Today

"An astute engaging account."

Entertainment Weekly

“An honest portrayal of the rock & roll legend.”

Boston Globe

“Do we need another Springsteen biography? The answer, here, is yes, thanks in large part to Carlin’s tireless reporting, which helps straighten out some of the lore-laden stories of Springsteen’s early years in New Jersey, and further illuminates his later struggles with depression.”

New York Times

“Bruce delivers. . . . Carlin gets across why Mr. Springsteen has meant so much, for so long, to so many people.”

The Star-Ledger

"There are probably more books about Bruce Springsteen than there are about any other rock star of his generation. But until one comes out with the words 'By Bruce Springsteen' on the cover, Bruce will be the definitive one."

Brian Williams

"For all those of us who grew up on the Jersey Shore, chasing Bruce and the band every weekend: the chase is over. It’s all here. Everything we didn't know then — we're surprised to learn now. It's close, it's intimate — the master of introspection allows some full-on inspection of his life."