Bread of Angels - Patti Smith

 

Although she started as a poet/author, Patti mostly (never completely, of course) gave up her writings when the Patti Smith Group gained popularity and notoriety and she then settled down to married life with Fred Smith. Since his passing and her children coming of age, she has gotten quite prolific in her writings of poems and prose (and photos), with more books (seemingly) in the last year than in her life up until then. The books have all been high quality and so when I discovered this one, I searched it out.

This is another autobiography, initially concentrating on her youth - sickly but a leader of a rag-tag “gang” consisting of her younger siblings and other kids from the neighborhood . A prolific reader from an early age, she lived more in the world of her imagination than reality, which was filled with illnesses, bullies and boredom, particularly in school.

The family never has much money so ends up being fairly nomadic, but Patti always makes the best of the situations and explores the nearby areas in real life and in her imagination. It is fairly incredible just how sickly she was (near death more than once, apparently), but when she was not under the spell of one of her many illnesses, she sounds like she was active and hearty and liked nothing more than discovering the world around her and communing - and communicating - with nature.

Her writing is, as always, intelligent and poetic in its descriptions of the world and her thoughts and feelings. This stems from her early discovery of Rimbaud and Bob Dylan, close to the same time. From her concentration on her pre-pubescence she moves quickly to adulthood and her move to NYC where she quickly meets paramours like Mapplethorpe and Verlaine, inspirations like Dylan (he considered her for part of the Rolling Thunder Revue but it didn't happen) and bandmates like Lenny Kaye. Her musical endeavors grow quickly, as well, and soon they are selling out the clubs they are playing and get signed to Arista, becoming true rock'n'roll stars.

Patti meets Fred far earlier that I thought that they had, but the attraction seemed immediate and permanent and Patti still describes him as her true love. Of course, Patti also falls off a stage due to a headliner denying them proper space for their show and is hospitalized for months, although she continues to work in any way that she can and produces her book, Babel, with the help of Lenny. It seems like she never really got her r'n'r wind back after that and within a couple of years, she settled down with Fred.

No reason for me to detail her life story, but she retells the losses - several deaths in a short period of time - and her reemergence to public life. To this day, she continues to work, to travel pretty much as she pleases throughout the world, perform and exhibit. Despite heartbreaking losses, she can still experience what most of us can simply dream of. I only hope that she can continue for years to come. Yet another of her books that is highly recommended!