Starred review from October 24, 2022
Bono, lead vocalist and primary lyricist for the rock band U2, reflects on his creative and personal evolution in this powerful and candid debut memoir. Born Paul David Hewson and raised in 1970s Dublin by a Catholic father and a Protestant mother, Bono always viewed music as his “prayers.” With remarkable frankness, he details what makes a great song (“The greatest songwriting is never conclusive, but the search for conclusion”); domestic life with his wife, Ali, and their four children; how the band almost fell apart during the 1990 recording of Achtung Baby (“We ran out of love for being in the band”); why he always wears glasses (migraines that were eventually diagnosed as glaucoma); and his experience of the conflict between unionists and nationalists in Northern Ireland that lasted from 1968 to 1998. Along the way, Bono also shares plenty of memories of famous friends—Prince, he notes, is a “genius” who made him realize the importance of U2 owning their master tapes. Self-aware (Bono admits that sometimes he feels like he’s “a sham of a rock star”) and poignantly reflective (“I’m discovering surrender doesn’t always have to follow defeat”), this is a must-read. Agent: Jonny Geller, Curtis Brown.
Starred review from January 1, 2023
Not content with writing one of the best memoirs of 2022, Bono has turned the creativity amp to 11 by making the memoir's audiobook version into a rapturous blend of music, sound effects, vintage sound clips, and of course, his own mesmerizing narration. For instance, when Bono talks about dreaming that he's in a movie, listeners hear an old film projector begin to spin and old-timey movie music plays under his narration. Bono begins his memoir in 2016, as he's about to undergo an eight-hour surgery to correct his heart's aortic valve. Each of the 40 subsequent chapters is named after a U2 song, and each chapter begins with or stripped-down acoustic or live versions of those songs, in music clips that run between 20 and 90 seconds. Bono provides the vocals, although musician the Edge pops up periodically, including singing the falsetto lead on "Desire." Although these musical snippets are short, they sound newly recorded, rather than clipped from existing album tracks. When Bono remembers watching the 1969 moon landing, Neil Armstrong's "one small step for man" speech plays quietly under Bono's narration. An innovative and wildly entertaining audiobook. VERDICT Bono's epic, introspective memoir is given an impressive music-filled production. It's certainly one of the best audiobooks of the year.--Kevin Howell
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