Devotion by Patti Smith
A Review of Patti Smith’s Devotion
“Why do we write? Because we cannot simply live.”
Devotion by Patti Smith (2017). Published by Yale University Press.
I’m a big, big Patti Smith fan. I listen to all of her albums, I bought a copy of Just Kids, I devotedly like all of her Instagram posts. The youths may call me a Patti Smith stan, but I think I’m just a casual devotee to the art and energy that she puts out into the world.
This is my second book of Patti’s prose that I’ve read; I previously read Just Kids for the first time last year and thought that book tickled me in all the right sweet spots. And so when I saw that she had another nonfiction book about why exactly she writes out, I thought might as well give it a shot, I want to know a bit more about this beautiful woman’s creative process.
And so I ordered a copy at my local library, to be shipped from the other side of the county, and picked it up as my mother and I went to go buy new plants for our gardens. As I waited for my mother in the parking lot of Lowe’s as she put the cart back, I read pages of this, and cracked it open again as we were in line for the local McDonalds drive-thru.
It’s a short book, so this review might be a little bit shorter as well, but let’s dive into it.
Book Blurb
A work of creative brilliance may seem like magic—its source a mystery, its impact unexpectedly stirring. How does an artist accomplish such an achievement, connecting deeply with an audience never met? In this groundbreaking book, one of our culture’s beloved artists offers a detailed account of her own creative process, inspirations, and unexpected connections.
Patti Smith, a National Book Award-winning author, first presents an original and beautifully crafted tale of obsession—a young skater who lives for her art, a possessive collector who ruthlessly seeks his prize, a relationship forged of need both craven and exalted. She then takes us on a second journey, exploring the sources of her story. We travel through the South of France to Camus’s house, and visit the garden of the great publisher Gallimard where the ghosts of Mishima, Nabokov, and Genet mingle. Smith tracks down Simone Weil’s grave in a lonely cemetery, hours from London, and winds through the nameless Paris streets of Patrick Modiano’s novels. Whether writing in a café or a train, Smith generously opens her notebooks and lets us glimpse the alchemy of her art and craft in this arresting and original book on writing.
Content/Writing
I really, really wanted to like this book, especially after she started out with talking about her time in Paris, especially with her editors and her book about to launch. We get this very lyrical prose, one that is strikingly characteristic of a poet, that is like music on the page. And then, BAM. We completely switch perspectives. I think this would’ve been solved if I wasn’t under the notion that this would be a memoir, but it wasn’t completely one. It’s fiction, travel writing, and memoir fused all in one. And, while it is unconventional and a bit outside of the box to explore the sources of her inspiration to write in this manner, I just wanted more Patti Smith in this one.
After she discusses her time in Paris, we transition into this section that is fictional. Books and artifacts of art (like film and music) are what triggers Patti’s writing process and she writers every day, so we delve straight into this aspect via the fictional narratives. It’s like we’re following her mind and it works, which, in a way, makes sense because this is how she actually writes.
The majority of the book is this fictional narrative exploring Paris, and then it opens and concludes with Patti herself. It’s a look into her process, that’s for sure, but, again, I just wasn’t into it as much. I like exploring people’s minds and their creativity, and while this certainly was interesting to dig her brain in this manner, I wanted to know more about the nitty gritty of her writing life. We know of Patti from the punk rock and Robert Mapplethorpe days, especially as we read through Just Kids, but I wanted to see these smaller, more intimate moments of her just reading and creating. A lesson in simplicity, if you may say.
Her musings that are actually nonfiction actually blew me out of the water, by the way. I guess that’s why I’m a wee bit sad when it comes to the fact that she didn’t incorporate more of herself into this, although I do think I understand what she was going for. I didn’t like the short story though, to be honest. I absolutely hate notions of romance and this was with a sixteen year old girl trying to have an affair with an almost forty-year-old man. I don’t like pedophilia, sorry.
Overall Thoughts
All in all, I’m glad I checked this out of the library rather than just buy it like I was originally going to do. I wouldn’t buy it personally, especially because it is so short, but would instead recommend borrowing it from a friend or local library before actually committing to buying a copy. I think this is something you’ll either like or don’t like, with no much middle ground. Patti’s writing is incredible, it’s just be warned that this isn’t the kind of memoir you might be expecting.
