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Year of the monkey

Call Number

  • 921 S656.3 (CEN, OSH)

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Edition

First edition.

Publication Information

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2019.

Physical Description

171 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm

Summary

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 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 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 set in. But as 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 for 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.

Notes

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

  • Way out West
  • ICU
  • YOM 2016
  • What Marcus said
  • Big red
  • Intermission
  • Home is the sailor
  • Imitation of a dream
  • Black butterflies
  • Amulets
  • In serach of imaginos
  • Why Belinda Carlisle matters
  • The holy see
  • The mystic lamb
  • The golden cockerel
  • A night on the moon
  • A kind of epilogue.

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