Patti Smith's Latest Memoir Reveals Surprising Depths
In the post-pandemic surge of artist memoirs, Patti Smith continues to stand distinctly apart. The legendary poet who essentially wrote punk into existence before transitioning to pop stardom, then stepping away from the spotlight to raise a family, has in the 21st century embraced both literature and music with such remarkable energy that it has become challenging to determine which medium truly suits her best. At 78 years old, Smith demonstrates she lives and breathes both art forms with undiminished passion.
From Childhood Dreams to Artistic Awakening
Bread of Angels serves as both prequel and sequel to her acclaimed 2010 memoir Just Kids, creating a more comprehensive autobiography that spans from Smith's challenging childhood through to recent years. The book opens with what could be described as a Proustian invocation, flickering between present reflections and distant memories. Smith confesses her childhood feelings of being an outsider, wanting to "disguise the miniature Quasimodo trapped inside an awkward child's body", and introduces her powerful metaphor of the "rebel hump" – a sort of sacred flaw she eventually learns to accept, harness, and ultimately ride toward her destiny.
Like many of us, Smith romanticises her early years, spending considerable narrative time on her formative experiences. We learn about her hardscrabble childhood, her father – a damaged Second World War veteran who worked factory jobs to support his young family – and their frequent relocations, moving twelve times before finally settling in modest government housing in rural South Jersey. Smith was a sickly child diagnosed with tuberculosis, sent to Chattanooga to quarantine and recuperate with relatives who enrolled her in Presbyterian Sunday school in response to her metaphysical questioning.
Her artistic awakening unfolds in stop-motion throughout these early chapters. We witness pivotal moments: her refusal to salute the American flag in school following Jehovah's Witness teachings; her first electrifying encounters with art museums where Picasso and Modigliani ignited her imagination; and her discovery of transformative works including the film Lost Horizon, the Shirelles' Will You Love Me Tomorrow, Bob Dylan's Another Side, and literature from Oscar Wilde to Arthur Rimbaud.
The Pivot to New York and Musical Legacy
The narrative accelerates dramatically when nineteen-year-old Smith announces her pregnancy, coinciding with her brother's confession of his gender non-conformity. After giving her child up for adoption, Smith heads to New York City, beginning the life famously chronicled in Just Kids. These transformative years, including her profound relationship with soulmate Robert Mapplethorpe, pass by in an evocative blur in this new memoir.
We learn fascinating new details about this period: her romance with Sam Shepard; her debut performance at St Mark's Church with guitarist Lenny Kaye; the legendary CBGB residency that cemented her place in music history. Surprisingly, Bob Dylan invited her to join the fabled Rolling Thunder Revue, only to remove her from the lineup on opening night. She hints at a love triangle involving herself, actor Maria Schneider, and billionaire Paul Getty, and recounts her principled commercial decisions, including refusing to alter lyrics to "Pissing in a River" for radio play or lip-sync "Because the Night" on American Bandstand.
Her initial retirement from public life in 1979 is marked by a final show for 80,000 Italian fans and a pre-retirement counselling session with counterculture icon William S. Burroughs.
Love, Loss and Creative Rebirth
The memoir's pace slows as Smith departs for Michigan with MC5 guitarist Fred Smith, beginning a bohemian love story. They make their home in an abandoned hotel, refurbish an old boat, travel to distant artistic landmarks, and marry with only their parents present. They have children together, and Smith embraces domestic life – doing laundry while continuing to write. The narrative here becomes radiant and intimate, though notably guarded about their private struggles.
"The trials and challenges that Fred and I suffered were our own," she writes elliptically, alluding to her husband's health, drug history, and marital difficulties, declaring "his decline was the tragedy of my life." Fred Smith's death from heart failure in 1994 triggers a cascade of other losses, which paradoxically spark Smith's creative rebirth.
This renewal comes through unexpected connections: Michael Stipe cold-calls her ("confessing he was somewhat intoxicated"), beginning a lasting friendship. Allen Ginsberg urges her to return to the stage. Longtime comrade Tom Verlaine joins her band for a comeback tour. Dylan invites her to open shows and sing a magnificent duet of Dark Eyes, which she captures in one of the book's most indelible moments.
As the narrative progresses into an elegantly diaristic chronicle of new albums, endless tours, books, awards, and heightened activism, Smith and her sister Linda discover something profound about their lineage that realigns the architecture of her remarkable life. Yet this revelation doesn't fundamentally change what the book has already made abundantly clear – that the Patti Smith we know essentially gave birth to herself. She sang herself into being, and through works like Bread of Angels, she continues writing her own extraordinary story.
