Full disclosure: This review is by a Bruce Springsteen fan. My listening began with “Born to Run” in the late 1970s, and I’ve been to almost every concert he’s played in Pittsburgh since the “Born in the USA” tour in 1985. I use his music in my college teaching: His songs serve as mini-case studies for my social work students, and his evolution as a protest singer provides opportunities to use his music to explore social issues.

I’ve read hundreds of articles and most of the couple of dozen books on Bruce (as he’s universally referred to), and I’ve written a book chapter and presented papers at academic conferences. But I’m not an expert on him. Experts truly exist — they write on the many fan blogs, call into talk shows on Bruce’s satellite radio station, and wait in line for days to populate the front stage pit at his concerts.

Despite all that we fans — and the experts — think we know about Bruce, his autobiography “Born to Run” is no less revelatory, instructive, moving and, at times, very funny. Written as a continuation of an essay he wrote for a fan website after his 2009 Super Bowl halftime performance, “Born to Run” unfolded over a period of six years in a voice that sounds mostly honest, at times self-deprecatory, and always keenly aware of the ironies implicit in the evolution of a blue collar Jersey Shore rocker to multimillionaire worldwide pop star.

Like many of his fans, I entertain an illusion of a personal relationship with Bruce. We fans believe that we already know his story because he’s told it in his concert narratives, and more poignantly through his songs. We don’t necessarily need to read his book, but I suspect most of us have, probably the day it was released.

We already knew the basics: hardscrabble early childhood, difficult father, saintly mother, transformative experiences of seeing Elvis and later The Beatles on the “Ed Sullivan Show,” girls, cars (more symbolic than actual), early professional hardship, bad business relationship with his first manager, Columbia recording sessions, professional salvation found with his second and current manager, formation of the E Street Band, meteoric ascent to fame, failed first marriage, storybook second marriage and resulting family, breakup and reunion of the E Street Band, the deaths of Danny Federici and Clarence Clemons, taking stands on political and social issues (and risking alienation of some of us as a result). But then there are Bruce Springsteen’s revelations, like his struggles with depression, that both surprise us and draw us closer to him.

His story isn’t limited to his fans. Like the haiku moments in so many of his songs, his prose can connect any reader to deeper ideas and feelings by making the personal seem universal. Take Bruce Springsteen’s transformative experience as a teenager hearing soul music “that was filled with deep longing, a casually transcendent spirit, mature resignation, and … hope … hope for that girl, that moment, that place, that night when everything changes, life reveals itself to you, and you, in turn, are revealed.”

It’s that revelatory power of music that his fans find in so many of his songs, and that readers in general will enjoy in his autobiography. For the fan, Bruce’s book is like a Where’s Waldo search for the experiences and characters that inspire songs such as “Rosalita,” “Sandy,” “Brilliant Disguise,” “Living Proof.” For readers who aren’t fans (yet?), Mr. Springsteen opens a window on a remarkable journey (there’d be a biopic screenplay coming, except no one but Bruce could credibly play the main character in concert performances). He tells us that his success derived from both his fear and the realization that he needed to “use every ounce of what was in me — my cunning, my musical skills, my showmanship, my intellect, my heart, my willingness — night after night to push myself harder, to work with more intensity than the next guy.”

All readers can find inspiration here. There’s the added benefit of being able to follow Bruce Springsteen’s musical progress by listening to “Chapter and Verse,” the album he released to accompany the book (cynics will see a clever marketing ploy, but there’s illustrative chronological logic to the song selections). Bruce’s autobiography, like the best of his songs, is borne of his commitment to connect with his audience. As a fan, I would welcome more people to the show.

Jim Kelly, Ph.D., is professor of social work at Carlow University (jmkelly@carlow.edu).

First Published: October 16, 2016, 4:00 a.m.