Year of the Monkey

Zusatztext Deft and enigmatic. . . . Year of the Monkey reminds us that despair and possibility often spring from the same source. Los Angeles Times A beautifully realized and unique memoir that chronicles a transformative year in the life of one of our most multi-talented creative voices. NPR [An] unclassifiable, symphonic exploration of dreams, love, loss, and mending the broken re - alities of life. Maria Popova, Brain Pickings Poignant, gorgeousa picaresque voyage through Patti Smith's dreams and life, blending fiction and reality, conjured characters and actual ones. She writes of seeing her image reflected on the surface of the toaster: 'I noticed I looked young and old simultaneously.' That describes her spirit perfectly. Maureen Dowd, The New York Times Elegant, poetic, wildly entertaining, touchinga beautifully realized and unique memoir that chronicles a transformative year in the life of one of our most multi-talented creative voices. Part travel journal, part reflexive essay on our times, and part meditation on existence at the edge of a new decade of life . . . Effortlessly weaving together fiction and nonfiction, Smith takes readers on two unique journeys: one that can be traced on a map and one, infinitely richer and more complex, that takes place inside her head and heart. Smith's musical career sometimes threatens to overshadow her accomplishments in other creative fieldsbut every page in this book is packed with enough outstanding prose to constantly remind readers that Smith is an accomplished novelist, essayist, and poet who won the National Book Award in 2010. In her capable hands, a simple look at New York City in winter becomes a flash of beautiful poetry. Smith's approach to nonfiction is unique and brave: It counts as true if it happened, if she imagined it, and if she felt it. This is a book about Smith and the world all around. And that is just one more reason why everyone should read it. Gabino Iglesias, NPR Movingan account of physical and intellectual wanderings . . . Smith does not rage against her approaching 70th birthday, nor does she turn away from it. She finds art everywhere, and remains a pioneer, the same rules-shattering poet and National Book Award-winning writer . . . She is, as she writes in Year of the Monkey , 'still going about my business, that of being alive, the best I can.' Jack Cline, The Washington Post Miraculous . . . A dream-driven, reality-reclaiming masterpiece laced with poetry and philosophy and surrealism and the hardest realism there is: that of hope . . . Smith is aglow; she moves through this world as a time-traveler, an eavesdropper, a vagrant, a vagabond in the land of literature and life; she is a human mirror. She. invites us to relinquish the different names we give to the living of life and just live it , with all its disorienting uncertainty. Reflecting on clarifying dreams, worrying for our shared future, Smith reminds us that the only remedy for a broken reality is more truth. She reaches, with a lucid and luminous hand, for the buoyancy that is our lifeline. Maria Popova, Brain Pickings A lucid dream of a memoir . . .Smith sees mystical connections everywhereand, floating along on the drifts of her words, the reader does, too. The New Yorker Deft and enigmatic. . . Life can't help but confound us; love is enough to sustain us, and loss, if not revocable, can, for the moment, be redeemed. [But] Smith is too smart for easy consolations; she has been through too much . . . She summons this scene, this moment, giving it the weight of a reckoning. Year of the Monkey reminds us that despair and possibility often spring from the same source. Davi...

“Deft and enigmatic. . . . Year of the Monkey reminds us that despair and possibility often spring from the same source.”
—Los Angeles Times

“A beautifully realized and unique memoir that chronicles a transformative year in the life of one of our most multi-talented creative voices.”
—NPR

“[An] unclassifiable, symphonic exploration of dreams, love, loss, and mending the broken re - alities of life.”
**—Maria Popova, *Brain Pickings

“Poignant, gorgeous—a picaresque voyage through Patti Smith’s dreams and life, blending fiction and reality, conjured characters and actual ones. She writes of seeing her image reflected on the surface of the toaster: ‘I noticed I looked young and old simultaneously.’ That describes her spirit perfectly.” 
—Maureen Dowd, The New York Times
 
“Elegant, poetic, wildly entertaining, touching—a beautifully realized and unique memoir that chronicles a transformative year in the life of one of our most multi-talented creative voices. Part travel journal, part reflexive essay on our times, and part meditation on existence at the edge of a new decade of life . . . Effortlessly weaving together fiction and nonfiction, Smith takes readers on two unique journeys: one that can be traced on a map and one, infinitely richer and more complex, that takes place inside her head and heart. Smith’s musical career sometimes threatens to overshadow her accomplishments in other creative fields—but every page in this book is packed with enough outstanding prose to constantly remind readers that Smith is an accomplished novelist, essayist, and poet who won the National Book Award in 2010. In her capable hands, a simple look at New York City in winter becomes a flash of beautiful poetry. Smith's approach to nonfiction is unique and brave: It counts as true if it happened, if she imagined it, and if she felt it. This is a book about Smith and the world all around. And that is just one more reason why everyone should read it.” 
—Gabino Iglesias, NPR
 
“Moving—an account of physical and intellectual wanderings . . . Smith does not rage against her approaching 70th birthday, nor does she turn away from it. She finds art everywhere, and remains a pioneer, the same rules-shattering poet and National Book Award-winning writer . . . She is, as she writes in Year of the Monkey, ‘still going about my business, that of being alive, the best I can.’” 
**—Jack Cline, *The Washington Post

“Miraculous . . . A dream-driven, reality-reclaiming masterpiece laced with poetry and philosophy and surrealism and the hardest realism there is: that of hope . . . Smith is aglow; she moves through this world as a time-traveler, an eavesdropper, a vagrant, a vagabond in the land of literature and life; she is a human mirror. She. invites us to relinquish the different names we give to the living of life and just live it, with all its disorienting uncertainty. Reflecting on clarifying dreams, worrying for our shared future, Smith reminds us that the only remedy for a broken reality is more truth. She reaches, with a lucid and luminous hand, for the buoyancy that is our lifeline.” 
—Maria Popova, Brain Pickings
 
“A lucid dream of a memoir . . .Smith sees mystical connections everywhere—and, floating along on the drifts of her words, the reader does, too.” 
—The New Yorker
 
“Deft and enigmatic. . . Life  can’t help but confound us; love is enough to sustain us, and loss, if not revocable, can, for the moment, be redeemed. [But] Smith is too smart for easy consolations; she has been through too much . . . She summons this scene, this moment, giving it the weight of a reckoning. Year of the Monkey reminds us that despair and possibility often spring from the same source.”
—David L. Ulin, Los Angeles Times
 
“Smith began writing Year of the Monkey on New Year’s Day 2016, a transformative ye…