Note: Thank you to NetGalley, She Writes Press, and author Anne Abel for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

Unlike Anne Abel, I’ve been a fan of Bruce Springsteen my entire life. The very first record album I bought with my own money was Born to Run. I’ve said numerous times that he is the soundtrack to my life. Abel, on the other hand, hadn’t heard of Bruce Springsteen before her son and daughter-in-law convinced her to go to a concert with them. Almost instantly, she felt like she had found a kindred spirit. High Hopes is her memoir of how finding Springsteen’s music changed her life.

Abel has suffered from depression for a long time. While she was parenting her three sons, she was able to feel motivated to get herself out of bed each day. Once they had grown to adulthood and left the nest, the real struggle began. It was hard for Abel to find the motivation to get out of bed each day. She found a job teaching at a local community college, until that proved to be too much for her any longer. The day she walked out of that classroom after having a desk thrown at her, she knew she needed to find a purpose, or she’d succumb to the darkness.

I can relate only too well. After reading High Hopes, I’m realizing just how much I suffered with depression my entire life. Unfortunately, my parents were from a time when mental illness was seen as a sign of weakness. I did not get help, and a lot of what went through my head scared me without having someone I could discuss it with. Abel had a rough upbringing, but also had a very supportive and understanding husband, Andy. He helped her through a few inpatient psychiatric stays and ECT therapy. Reading the details of what ECT therapy did to her, I’m glad I was never put through that, despite the issues I have.

Abel decided to go to Australia and see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band perform on that leg of their Wrecking Ball tour in 2013. Her husband, a college professor, couldn’t go. If she was going to do it, she was going by herself. She called a travel agent and had everything arranged for her. This was both terrifying and gave her something to look forward to. I have gone through that since losing my daughter to suicide in 2013. I needed trips planned that gave me something to look forward to as a way of combatting my depression. Quite a bit of what Abel describes was very familiar to me.

Although centered on Springsteen, High Hopes is really the story of how Abel found comfort in music. That was something I had from back in the 1970s. I can remember crying along to various lyrics as they hit home and gave me insight into what I was experiencing mentally at the time. Abel didn’t have that until she started listening to Springsteen, and then delving into his influences and other similar acts.

I felt affirmed after reading High Hopes. There were a lot of similarities between what I have gone through and what Abel has gone through. There are also similarities to what Springsteen talked about in his own autobiography, published in 2016. Of course, Abel didn’t know all of this when she followed the tour in Australia in 2013. Springsteen found his purpose in lifting others up through music. That’s what keeps him going, yet at the same time, there seemed to be times when Abel observed him becoming overwhelmed by it all.

I would have done more touring in Australia than she did, but she did what she enjoyed there. She was lucky to be able to afford to stay in high-quality hotels, most of which were the same hotels the band was staying in. This gave her close contact with several of the band members and staff. Her experience is not a typical one. Most of us can’t afford to travel the way she does. The trip and her return home help her realize things about her life and the people surrounding her.

If there’s one thing I struggled with, it’s how she describes her relationship with her oldest son and his wife. I have to wonder what that’s like after she published the book. Perhaps enough has happened in the intervening years that she could write freely about them. I know what it’s like to have a difficult mother-in-law, so I take her perspective with a grain of salt.

Although much of High Hopes centers around Springsteen and his music, it’s a good read for anyone who has suffered from depression. I felt transformed after reading it, realizing that so many of the things I experienced that scared me were normal parts of suffering with depression. Abel writes very candidly about her thoughts and feelings, and it all felt very familiar to me. She figures out how to live her life in spite of it and comes away better for having gone to Australia in the end.