Toast of New York

Patti Smith's latest memoir reflects on the entirety of her life.

- JAMES ELLIOTT

Patti Smith is... is a challenging, albeit much-attempted, sentence to complete. You could adopt “the shaman poet of punk rock”, or “the female Bob Dylan”, or maybe just go with a visual reference, the icon of defiance on the album covers of Horses and Easter, perhaps buried deep in your vinyl collection. Play them again now, scratches and all; they still bristle and seethe “three chords and the power of the word”.

Bread of Angels is Patti Smith's fifth memoir and casts its net the widest, reflecting on the artist's entire lifetime. put aside what you think you know of the artist and the story to come and just savour the unflinching recollection of a childhood and coming of age. In her case a childhood of itinerancy and dreams. And illness, lots of illness. The feverish imagination of the artist-in-waiting is both metaphorical and literal. Of course these illnesses were not suffered or endured but, rather, "vanquished". Here's her power to arrest you with a single word.