Following a run of New Year's concerts at San Francisco's legendary
Fillmore, Patti Smith finds herself tramping the coast of Santa Cruz,
about to embark on a year of solitary wandering. Unfettered by logic or
time, she draws us into her private wonderland, with no design yet
heeding signs, including a talking sign that looms above her, prodding
and sparring like the Cheshire Cat.
In February, a surreal
lunar year begins, bringing with it unexpected turns, heightened
mischief, and inescapable sorrow. In a stranger's words, "Anything is
possible: after all, it's the year of the monkey." For Patti Smith -
inveterately curious, always exploring, tracking thoughts, writing the
year evolves as one of reckoning with the changes in life's gyre: with
loss, aging, and a dramatic shift in the political landscape of America.
Smith melds the Western landscape with her own dreamscape.
Taking us from Southern California to the Arizona desert; to a Kentucky
farm as the amanuensis of a friend in crisis; to the hospital room of a
valued mentor; and by turns to remembered and imagined places - this
haunting memoir blends fact and fiction with poetic mastery. The
unexpected happens; grief and disillusionment. But as Patti Smith heads
toward a new decade in her own life, she offers this balm to the reader:
her wisdom, wit, gimlet eye, and above all, a rugged hope of a better
world.
Riveting, elegant, often humorous, illustrated by Smith's
signature Polaroids, Year of the Monkey is a moving and original work, a
touchstone for our turbulent times.
Year of the Monkey - Patti Smith
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£9.99