Walk Like a Man
Coming of Age with the Music of Bruce Springsteen
- ISBN: 9781553658450
- Tags: Biography & Memoir, Music & Performing Arts, Robert Wiersema,
- Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.5
- Published On: 09/02/2011
- 208 Pages
"Walk Like a Man is a touching and intimate look into one man's life, it also brings up bigger questions of fandom, of the public facade of celebrity, of the difference between art and artist." -Greg Pratt, Exclaim.ca
"Walk Like a Man: Coming of Age with the Music of Bruce Springsteen succeeds on multiple levels both as music writing and as a reflective story of how to navigate manhood . . . it is a title that speaks to all of us of the powerlessness of youth and the longing for more that also permeates much of Springsteen's music. The author could not be more removed from the singer's experience (BC is about as far as it gets from New Jersey without crossing an ocean) and yet Wiersema easily shows how Springsteen's music resonated with every aspect of his young adulthood. The trick to the writing is that he not only makes the comparisons between the two of them believable, he makes you realize just how much you might have in common with both men as well." -Bookslut
"Walk Like a Man beautifully and accurately describes the way that rock and roll and fandom can touch and change our lives." -Craig Finn
"Wiersema ought to be commended for grabbing one non-fan's attention and maintaining his interest. The Victoria-based bookseller and bestselling novelist's unique biography/memoir/love letter is a hardcore connoisseur's enthusiastic take on the life and music of Springsteen and, more generally, a warm ode to the singular 'power of music.'" -Brett Josef Grubisic, Vancouver Sun
"Wiersema . . . riffs with alacrity . . . " -Shaun Smith, Toronto Star
"[Walk Like a Man is] a fun read, and a strong reminder of why Springsteen is as popular as he is. Wiersema is particularly good at charting the highs and lows (he is not so gobsmacked as to not be able to see that there are lows), and putting the various aspects of Springsteen's career into a wider context." -Globe & Mail
"The book is the story of a man becoming a man (despite getting a little lost along the way), and of the music that accompanied him on his journey." -Toronto Quarterly
"If writing about music is, in fact, akin to dancing about architecture, Robert J. Wiersema might have a two-step in his future. With Walk Like A Man, the Victoria-based novelist . . . ventures into previously uncharted territory: non-fiction, with a music nerd twist, thanks to the ever-present role that rock's working class hero, Bruce Springsteen, has played in Wiersema's life. Using the venerable icon's lengthy discography, Wiersema has crafted the ultimate memoir mixtape, with enough wit and honesty to convince even the haters to give the Boss a second chance." -Vancouver WestEnder
"In his darkest mid-life days, author Robert J. Wiersema rediscovered Bruce Springsteen, and found rapture." -Adrian Mack, The Tyee
"The highest accolade I can give [Walk Like a Man] is that it made me revisit Springsteen. It made me listen to albums I was only vaguely aware of and read the critics' dispatches of the day . . . it is the author's talent that he makes us look at a major international artist anew and through different eyes." -Les Wiseman, Victoria Times Colonist
"This September, Victoria's Robert Wiersema goes public with his own mixtape . . . Walk Like a Man is a book - a combination of memoir and musings on how he's been affected by the music of Bruce Springsteen. In true mixtape style, Wiersema wraps each chapter around a Springsteen song. There are 13, as well as a bonus track. For greater mixtape verisimilitude, the songs are divided into 'side one' and a 'side two.'" -Victoria Times Colonist
"What Wiersema has really created is his own brilliant disguise. Springsteen's songs didn't teach him how to walk like a man; no more than they did me. Rather they were there, as a soundtrack to his life, as he learned." -Raymond Beauchemin, The National