Details from Audible:
- Surrender
- 40 Songs, One Story
- Written by: Bono
- Narrated by: Bono
- Length: 20 hrs and 25 mins
- 4.9 out of 5 stars (284 ratings)
Publisher’s Summary
Bono—artist, activist, and the lead singer of Irish rock band U2—has written a memoir: honest and irreverent, intimate and profound, Surrender is the story of the remarkable life he’s lived, the challenges he’s faced, and the friends and family who have shaped and sustained him.
Narrated by the author, Surrender is an intimate, immersive listening experience, telling stories from Bono’s early days in Dublin, to joining a band and playing sold out stadiums around the world with U2, plus his more than 20 years of activism.
Throughout a remarkable life, music has always been a constant for Bono and in the audiobook, his distinctive voice is interwoven with a very personal soundtrack adding atmosphere and texture to each and every scene. From moments of classic U2 hits to snippets by The Clash, Patti Smith, Verdi, Johnny Cash and Mozart, Surrender also exclusively features clips of newly recorded reimagined versions of U2 songs including ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’, ‘With Or Without You’, ‘One’, ‘Beautiful Day’ and more, glimpsed for the first time on Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story.
©2022 Bono (P)2022 Random House Audio
Initial Thoughts:
I love U2, I have seen them twice in concert so of course I had a lot of interest in this book. Bono has a nice voice and U2 is part of the soundtrack to my life, I listened to “Achtung Baby” hundreds of times, had it on cassette in my Jeep. As I’m still on my non-fiction kick for audiobooks, this was a natural choice, so of course I gave it a listen.
Main Points:
I was going to wait until it showed up on Libby but I got tired of waiting and started up Audible again to get this. I started listening to this book back in July ’23, it’s now the end of Jan ’24, suffice it to say I’m sure there were many details I’ve forgotten. As I tend to do I’ll get the negative out of the way, as I thought this was an excellent book. While I’m sure many people love the amount of exhaustive detail Bono goes into, I found there were several parts in the book (especially in the first 6-7 chapters in particular) that dragged a lot. Bono is not just an amazing musician, but an incredible humanitarian and activist as well. I suppose I was expecting a lot more behind-the-scenes rock lifestyle/meeting people memories and of course, that is there but a lot of this book is very heavy and serious, so I was just surprised by the amount of detail on these events in his life.
The way he uses songs, I believe every chapter title is a U2 song, is very unique and I loved it. Some parts of the book are hilarious, others will pull on your heartstrings and I learned much more about Bono and everyone in the band than I ever knew before. Other parts in the book (especially while he is war-torn countries) are quite visceral, and even a little bit disturbing due to the violence and destruction he has seen. His voice is excellent and he does a great job reading this book. The way music and sounds are mixed in is wonderful and one particular story towards the end (I won’t spoil it) was so funny that I have already told it to a friend twice, I was laughing about it for a good half hour afterwards. I could talk about this book a lot but I just can’t do super long reviews anymore, so I’ll finish up. If you are a U2 fan this is a MUST listen, though I think it’s fair to say of course you’ll learn more about Bono than the band.
Final Thoughts:
It’s funny you know, while I was listening to this book I complained to a friend several times that it was long (and it is over 20 hours) but today when I finished it I immediately missed it and wanted more. This book made me love Bono and U2 even more, made me want to listen to more of their music and it really made me want to see them one more time. If you don’t mind the longer runtime I would highly recommend this book. Though I do have to say I was disappointed with the final chapter, it just ended on an odd note and really not how I expected it would. I give it a solid 8 out of 10, not for children due to subject matter and some coarse language, ages 16+. I really hope Bono does more writing, a book just about every tour U2 has been on (or every album recording) would be amazing. Hell I’d love a book just on his friendship with Johnny Cash, one can dream.