Year of the Monkey

From the National Book Award-winning author of Just Kids and M Train a profound beautifully realized memoir in which dreams and reality are vividly woven into a tapestry of one transformative year.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.

Hardcover: 192 pages

Publisher: Knopf (September 24 2019)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0525657681

ISBN-13: 978-0525657682

Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.2 inches

Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces