Last night I finished reading Bruce , a new biography of Bruce Springsteen by Peter Ames Carlin. I've been a fan of Bruce ever since the Born in the U.S.A. singles started hitting the radio in 1984; I finally got it on cassette in 1985 (maybe for my 14th birthday) and listened to it over and over again while working in the garden or doing whatever other chores my father had for me that summer. When I got the Live/1975-85 box set for Christmas 1986, I heard his older songs and fell even further in love. All of which is a long-winded way of saying that this book is for me (my brother, who knows me quite well, gave it to me for Christmas). While I did know quite a bit of his history, there was still plenty that I didn't know and Carlin does a good job of keeping the narrative flowing while also giving some analysis on the music. This is not a hagiography of Springsteen. Rather, it presents him as an extremely talented musician who is just as messed-up and human as the rest of u...