Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story
Bono
Released Nov 1, 2022
20 hrs 25 mins
Audible
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Surrender is a fascinating and sometimes poignant, but awfully long memoir written by Bono, the lead singer of U2. I listened to the audiobook, which he narrates himself – this has the advantage of including clips from the featured songs. On the downside, you don’t get to see his artwork, which is apparently featured in the written version.
This autobiography takes us from his working class Dublin beginnings to his recent health scare and questions about the band’s future. Losing his mother Iris as a teenager had a profound impact, and could easily have sent him off the rails had he not connected with a handful of other schoolboy musicians…He talks candidly about his family, marriage, friendships and meetings with world leaders, and the different roles he plays – singer, activist, Christian, entrepreneur, artist…
I wouldn’t say I’m a massive U2 fan, but it reminded me how many epic hits they’ve had across four decades, and no matter what you think of Bono himself, he’s certainly achieved more beyond music in his 60 years than pretty much any other pop or rock star. Yes he’s preachy and egotistical, verging on narcissistic, but at least he’s aware of his own shortcomings. He does tend to ramble, and jump around in time and from topic to topic. His passion for his work on poverty reduction and AIDS mean these chapters go on a lot longer than most music fans would prefer, but I enjoyed the anecdotes from his meetings with, amongst others, Mandela and Gorbachev, Clinton and Bush – complete with terrible impersonations of their accents. Recommended for U2 fans with time to spare.
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