The long-awaited autobiography of Rush’s bassist-vocalist Geddy Lee, titled My Effin’ Life, is a fascinating and entertaining inside look into one of Canada’s greatest musicians and artistic heroes.

There’s been a huge glut of ghostwritten rockstar tell-alls that have hit the bookstands in recent years, and most of them are carefully sanitized and utter dullsville and don’t give the reader any true insight into the subject’s real character, or their creative motivation…but Geddy Lee’s story is wonderful.

  There are in-depth descriptions of his family’s harrowing backstory; his parents were Polish Jews who just barely survived the Holocaust. Poignant, insightful tales of growing up Jewish in hard-bitten, coarse-tempered “Toronto the Good,” Geddy’s bursting love for music, and his first steps into live performance during the height of the vaunted Yorkville Scene.

Things heat up for real when he describes the creation of Rush with (Fernie-born) guitarist Alex Lifeson, and the band’s struggles to be taken seriously and build a larger audience and be recognized beyond the high-school gymnasium gigs and the reeking beer parlors of turn-of-the-1970s Ontario.

The tale keeps revving up the literary momentum as Lee recalls the flowering of the amazing international rollercoaster that Rush became – and how that rollercoaster roared along, almost in spite of itself, plowing its own artistic path through ever-changing musical trends and times, carving out its own unique place in the whole wide spectrum of rock and roll, from musty theatres and splintery rugby stadiums up to the shining arenas of the world, where they remained all the way to their end.

  For those yearning to know what made Rush tick musically, Geddy spells it all out. The band started out as a standard psychedelia-tinged blues-rock unit, derivatively mashing together the sounds of the Who, Led Zeppelin, Humble Pie and Blue Cheer (as evidenced on their 1974 debut album), but Lee and Lifeson’s growing interest in the UK Progressive Rock scene of the day (Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Gentle Giant, Emerson Lake & Palmer, etc.) saw them moving into more complex and challenging songwriting – a move that truly caught fire when former tractor-salesman Neil Peart joined the band as drummer and lyricist.

Rush then erupted into a true phenomenon, from their fourth album “2112” onwards, and even as their British prog heroes disbanded (or simplified their music to more pop-friendly sounds out of career desperation), Rush continued on their own way, ignoring the scowls of the rising punk-rockers and releasing ever-enjoyable classic albums like “A Farewell to Kings” and “Hemispheres” before chiseling themselves into the eternal playlists of every classic-rock radio station around the world, where they remain – and where they’ll stay.

Geddy explains Rush’s creative development – album by album, gig after gig, tour after tour – including memories in the recording studios with various famous producers, but he avoids the confusing technical gibberish so the non-musician readers can also enjoy the history.

It’s rare to read in detail on how a band with an impressive 40-year career kept challenging themselves on their own terms, pushing themselves to the limits of their instrumental abilities, but never losing sight of concise melodic songwriting. Which is why you only hear two or three Yes songs on classic-rock radio, while you hear 20 Rush songs on the same station.

And the magic of Rush is explained by Geddy through the deep and loving friendships he maintained with his childhood buddy Alex Lifeson, and the brotherly connection he enjoyed with Neil Peart.

Indeed, Geddy makes sure the reader knows that Rush would not be Rush without Peart – who is recognized as one of the world’s greatest drummers, as well as one of rock and roll’s most thoughtful lyricists and intelligent conceptualists.

And Geddy spends much time exploring his personal relationships, with his wife, his children, his mother – revealing the man behind (and beyond) the tendon-creaking basslines and the Jericho-trumpet singing. This is certainly not your average rockstar bio.

My Effin’ Life is a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairytale of the Ugly Duckling, but with overdriven Rickenbacker 4001 bass guitars cabled into red-hot screaming Garnet amplifiers.

A story of a quiet, insecure, sensitive soul who had been written off as most-likely-not-to-succeed, but who bucked the massive odds and transformed himself into a beloved superstar, not just in the niche worlds of Progressive Rock or Heavy Metal, but Canadian popular music as a whole.

Geddy Lee’s prose is very self-effacing, and there’ not much ego on display here. He’s been an inspiring Canadian hero for decades now, but as his story unfolds there’s a deeper appreciation beyond the fact that he can make a bass guitar walk and talk, and can shatter crystal vases with his powerful Robert-Plant-meets-Donald-Duck vocals.

This was a twerpy kid who was bullied through school, and then spent his early adulthood being sneered at by so-called Toronto music-masters, and then spent the following years being endlessly trashed by virtually every snobby music critic along the way – but clearly Geddy Lee was doing something right. A band that sells 42 million albums worldwide can’t be wrong.

My Effin’ Life is heartily recommended to any Rush fans out there, be they casual listeners or rabid die-hards, but this is more of a considered read for anyone interested in the very real depth of Canadian popular music, or for anyone who appreciates a rousing feel-good story about an underdog who emerged as a champion.