M Train
By Patti Smith
- Release Date: 2015-10-06
- Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the National Book Award–winning author of Just Kids: a “sublime collection of true stories … and wild imaginings that take us to the very heart of who Patti Smith is” (Vanity Fair), told through the cafés and haunts she has worked in around the world. Patti Smith calls this bestselling work “a roadmap to my life.”
M Train begins in the tiny Greenwich Village café where Smith goes every morning for black coffee, ruminates on the world as it is and the world as it was, and writes in her notebook. Through prose that shifts fluidly between dreams and reality, past and present, we travel to Frida Kahlo’s Casa Azul in Mexico; to the fertile moon terrain of Iceland; to a ramshackle seaside bungalow in New York’s Far Rockaway that Smith acquires just before Hurricane Sandy hits; to the West 4th Street subway station, filled with the sounds of the Velvet Underground after the death of Lou Reed; and to the graves of Genet, Plath, Rimbaud, and Mishima.
Woven throughout are reflections on the writer’s craft and on artistic creation. Here, too, are singular memories of Smith’s life in Michigan and the irremediable loss of her husband, Fred Sonic Smith.
Braiding despair with hope and consolation, illustrated with her signature Polaroids, M Train is a meditation on travel, detective shows, literature, and coffee. It is a powerful, deeply moving book by one of the most remarkable multiplatform artists at work today.
Featuring a postscript with five new photos from Patti Smith
Reviews
Longest time spent to fins I a book
5By EroqPatti Smith is such a good writer! She uses the English language with such skill! This was like an homage to her late husband but also a diary of sorts. I so respect the art Patti produces. I would love to see her live reading/singing.LOVELY and POIGNANT
5By reveur99Smith is a true artist and has a wonderful lyrical prose voice. I hope she continues to write, even if it's more books "about nothing" -- thank you Ms. Smith.A heartfelt journey
5By eneldSmith takes the reader on a non-linear ramble through her adult life, exposing countless moments of beauty, in a way that's both deep and, somehow, accessible.Well written
3By Cyber_GruntStory though a little different from what I am use to reading. A thumbs up to Patti for telling her amazing tales with unique style and flair.BEAUTIFUL
5By juliusaThis is a magnificent collection of thoughts and experiences from a true talent. Through the tears I felt I was with her and understand, as one Queens native to another, her love of where she lives, the authors she so admires, and the love and loss she feels. Thank you for this wise and gentle book.