TONYA MOSLEY, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. Patti Smith, known as the grandmother of punk, has received several honors, including an induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the French Legion of Honor. But for our book critic Maureen Corrigan, a proud native New Yorker, Smith's greatest honor is that her 2010 memoir, "Just Kids," is now part of the canon of essential New York stories. Smith has just written a new memoir called "Bread Of Angels." Here's Maureen's review.
MAUREEN CORRIGAN, BYLINE: I teach Patti Smith's iconic memoir, "Just Kids," almost every year in my New York lit course at Georgetown. And without fail, there are undergrads, some of whom hadn't heard of Smith before, who say it's their favorite book. Like so many other great New York memoirs, "Just Kids" tells a starting-out story, one where Smith remembers arriving at Port Authority in 1967 on a bus from New Jersey, sleeping rough in parks and meeting Robert Mapplethorpe, who would become her soulmate. Part of what's so entrancing to my students is Smith's trust that if she just flung herself onto New York, the city would buoy her up. And so it did.
"Bread Of Angels" is both a sequel and a prequel to "Just Kids." The memoir Smith published in 2015, "M Train," focuses on the constellations of art and travel in the wake of the loss of her husband, Fred "Sonic" Smith of the Detroit band the MC5, and her brother, Todd. If "Bread Of Angels" lacks the strong coming-to-New-York plotline of "Just Kids," it feels more intimate. For instance, in "Bread Of Angels," Smith shares an update about the daughter she placed for adoption when she was 20 and reveals a mystery concerning her own paternity. She also addresses ever-present questions about her sexual identity.
When recording "Gloria" for her landmark 1975 debut album "Horses," Smith says she claimed the right to create without apology from a stance beyond gender or social definition. For a visionary punk poet who prefers to speak in images, these moments are positively confessional. Smith also revisits her childhood here in much greater depth. Born in Chicago in 1946, she grew up working-class, one of four kids. The family moved frequently, landing for a time at a subsidized housing complex outside Philadelphia nicknamed the Patch.
Smith recalls that the Patch overlooked a wide, unkempt field sprinkled with daisies and dandelions. Directly behind us was a concrete area with overflowing trash bins, oil barrels, rusted cans and discarded junk. The massive crawl space beneath the buildings was called the Rat House. As readers of Smith's books and Instagram posts know, she's drawn to tumbledown places and things. The Chelsea Hotel circa 1969, Rockaway Beach in the 1970s, cemeteries, falling leaves. That reverie about the Patch reveals Smith's bent for seeing beauty in decay was established early. The most riveting moment in this memoir is Smith's first glimpse of Fred. On tour in 1976 for "Horses," Smith and her band went to a party in Detroit.
That's when I first saw him, Smith says. He stood by a white radiator in a blue overcoat. I noticed the threads where a button was missing. He placed the button in my hand. I felt a gravitational force, my being truly shaken. I knew in that moment he was the one I would marry. What unfurls from that meeting is Smith's hit "Because The Night," as well as the decision to step back from performing and into a quiet life with Fred and their two children in Michigan. Smith explains the desire for illumination eclipsed that of ambition. Our life was obscure, perhaps not so interesting to some, but for us, it was a whole life. The marriage lasted 14 years until Fred Smith's death from heart failure.
"Bread Of Angels" isn't perfect. There's a structural awkwardness about the way Smith leapfrogs over those early New York years, the same ones that made "Just Kids" such a treasure, lest she repeat herself. But those of us who love Patti Smith don't love her because she or her art is perfect. We love her because of her rough authenticity, poetic language and occasional snarl. We also love her because she forgot the words of "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" when accepting the Nobel Prize on behalf of Bob Dylan in 2016. In that nightmare moment, Smith looked out at the august crowd and said, I apologize, I'm sorry, I'm so nervous. As she did when first entering New York as a young woman, Smith trusted that if she flung herself out onto the mercy of the crowd, it would buoy her up. And so it did and still does.
MOSLEY: Maureen Corrigan is a professor of literature at Georgetown University. She reviewed Patti Smith's new memoir, called "Bread Of Angels." If you'd like to catch up on interviews you've missed - like our conversation with Misty Copeland, the first Black woman to become a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, or with Richard Linklater on his new movies "Nouvelle Vague" and "Blue Moon" - check out our podcast. You'll find lots of FRESH AIR interviews.
(SOUNDBITE OF PATTI SMITH SONG, "BECAUSE THE NIGHT")
MOSLEY: And to find out what's happening behind the scenes of our show and get our producers' recommendations for what to watch, read and listen to, subscribe to our free newsletter at whyy.org/freshair. FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our managing producer is Sam Briger. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Roberta Shorrock, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Susan Nyakundi and Anna Bauman. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Our consulting visual producer is Hope Wilson. Thea Chaloner directed today's show. With Terry Gross, I'm Tonya Mosley.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BECAUSE THE NIGHT")
PATTI SMITH: (Singing) Because the night belongs to lovers, because the night belongs to lust, because the night belongs to lovers, because the night belongs to us. Have I doubt when I'm alone? Love is a ring, the telephone.
(SOUNDBITE OF METALLICA SONG, "... AND JUSTICE FOR ALL") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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