Who’s The Boss? Carlin’s ‘Bruce’ seeks clues

It's difficult to document how someone born under seemingly ordinary circumstances grows up to become one of his generation's most brilliant songwriters and charismatic performers — and harder still if the person in question is known to be private.

This puts any biographer of Bruce Springsteen at a double disadvantage. Peter Ames Carlin, who has written the latest, simply titled Bruce, was lucky enough to get access to Springsteen's friends, relatives and professional and artistic colleagues, and to the Boss himself.

The result is an astute, engaging account of the singer/songwriter's life and career — neither as presumptuous nor as grandiose as Marc Dolan's Bruce Springsteen and the Promise of Rock 'n' Roll, released earlier this year, though not quite as lively as that tome, either.

We learn how, as a toddler, Springsteen was coddled by his paternal grandmother, for whom his presence was a reminder of a daughter she'd lost. We're told more of his complicated but ultimately rewarding relationship with his dad, and of the women who preceded Springsteen's wife and bandmate Patti Scialfa — including first spouse Julianne Phillips, who remembers her ex, as he does her, with grace and discretion.

Still, it's ultimately up to the reader to extrapolate from comments provided by Carlin's predictably thoughtful, and prudent, subject and those who have known him, among them such longtime compadres as manager Jon Landau and the late Clarence Clemons.

Bruce concludes with a memory from Springsteen's sister Pamela, who at 6 was transfixed as her 18-year-old brother made a balloon disappear into the sky. Forty years later, she has yet to learn the method behind his magic — and he remains as fascinating and elusive as ever.