Surrender: 40 songs, one story
Bono
Penguin
2022
513 pages
Bono, the lead singer and driving force behind one of the world’s best-selling music artists U2, has produced this remarkable account of his life as musician, as fund-raising activist, and as husband and father. Surrender’s subtitle, “40 Songs, One Story,” refers to the book’s forty chapters, each named after a U2 song.
Over the course of 500 plus pages, Bono takes the reader (or listener, if you listen to the audio version narrated by the author himself) through the story of growing up in Dublin’s Northside during the Seventies and forming the band U2 with three of his school-mates, their steady rise to superstardom through the Eighties and Nineties, ending up being one of the biggest rock bands of all time, selling an estimated 150 –170 million records worldwide. In a way it is a book all about relationships rather than the music: in particular his relationship to his parents, his fellow musicians, his girl-friend and later wife Ali Hewson, and later with the many, many world figures he has met through his work campaigning for assistance for AIDs ravaged Africa. The names include the likes of Steve Jobs, Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, George Soros, presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush, Warren Buffett, Diana, Princess of Wales, Mikhail Gorbachev, Rupert Murdoch, Oprah Winfrey, Bill and Melinda Gates and Pope John Paul II. Some of these figures subsequently became real friends of his.
Some readers have complained that Bono’s long account of his work as a fund-raising activist is a bit tedious. I suspect the tedium is lessened in the audio version by Bono’s own lively narration, and in particular his surprising talent as a mimic, very successfully taking off the likes of Bill Clinton at one moment, and Bill Gates at another. Others complain about Bono’s well-known penchant for sermonising, and certainly there is a lot – in particular in his account of his work of philanthropy – that grows tedious at times.
However, it appears a bit mean-spirited to focus here on Bono’s loquacity, rather than on his incredible fund-raising efforts for the Third World. RED, an organisation co-founded by Bono to help fight the AIDS crisis has raised over $600 million to date. He has also successfully lobbied the US government to cancel many millions in debt owed them by Third World countries.
What is most striking about the book is the degree to which Bono, drummer Larry Mullen and lead guitarist The Edge, have been inspired by their Christian faith going right back to their school days (bass guitarist Adam Clayton is a bit more agnostic). That was news to me. This faith is what motivates and sustains the philanthropy for sure, but also their unusually un-rockstar-like lifestyles, and of course the music itself which could be qualified as Christian rock. Bono’s unabashed devotion for and fidelity to his childhood sweetheart and now wife, Ali Hewson, has to be acknowledged as both moving and edifying. Reading (or rather listening to) Bono’s wonderfully frank acknowledgement of this Christian faith throughout Surrender I suppose only deepens the sadness of many Christian fans of U2 that the band has allowed its mighty name be coopted into the cause of promoting abortion. For many their endorsing of the 2018 abortion campaign came as a shock and a source of profound disappointment. However, throughout Surrender Bono shows himself capable of sincerely re-evaluating his stance on certain issues. He – and the band – also exhibited great courage in expressing their opposition to IRA violence. Who knows – perhaps that sincerity and courage will one day lead him to speak up in defence also of the world’s most vulnerable lives.
About the Author: Rev. Gavan Jennings
Rev. Gavan Jennings is a priest of the Opus Dei Prelature. He studied philosophy at University College Dublin, Ireland and the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome and is currently the editor of Position Papers.