Reading the Boss

It is no longer surprising to see scholars devote themselves to the significance of Bruce Springsteen, whether as a performer, a poet, or a global cultural symbol. But it is indeed a pleasure to find the quality of such investigations so consistently impressive, probing, and often eloquent. This is a collection worthy of its subject. I know of no higher praise. -- Eric Alterman, distinguished professor at Brooklyn College and author of It Ain't No Sin to be Glad You're Alive: The Promise of Bruce Springst
This collection focuses explicitly on Bruce Springsteen's literary connections: to the authors Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy, and John Steinbeck (among others), and to the tensions in his songcraft, whether of rebellion and rootedness, or gender and blue-collar ethnic masculinity. In contrast to a discourse often filled with praise-song, these essays instead hone in on the artistic elements Springsteen wields to create moments of redemption for his everyday alienated working-class characters. -- Joel Dinerstein, associate professor in the department of English at Tulane University
College-level music and literary collections alike will find this a winner! * Midwest Book Review *
Call it what you will -- hyperbolic, hagiographic, hilarious -- but Roxanne Harde and Irwin Streight, editors of Reading the Boss, liken their subject to a modern-day Shakespeare. Their introduction, "The Bard of Asbury Park," adumbrates some of the literary traits the two share; beyond a 2009 cover photo from Rolling Stone and its resemblance to the famous Chandos portrait of the Bard, there's Springsteen's abiding interest in loco-descriptive histories, or stories involving a particular place (i.e. Nebraska, Thunder Road, E Street), class struggle, song cycles and the fact that both the Boss and the Bard "offer a profound insight into the hungry human heart -- and Springsteen, arguably, with more breadth and depth than any other current American singer-songwriter" (6)....editors Harde and Streight have assembled some informative and insightful approaches to the Bard of the Garden State. * Rocky Mountain Review *