Devotion
CBC Books | | Posted: December 21, 2018 8:55 PM | Last Updated: December 21, 2018
Patti Smith
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 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. (From Yale University Press)
Patti Smith 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. (From Yale University Press)
Paris is a city one can read without a map. Walking down the narrow Rue du Dragon, old Sépulcre Street, which once boasted an imposing stone dragon. No. 30 a plaque in mem-ory of Victor Hugo. Rue de l'Abbaye. Rue Christine. No. 7,Rue des Grands Augustins, where Picasso painted Guernica.
These streets are a poem waiting to be hatched — suddenly it's Easter; eggs everywhere.I walk aimlessly, finding myself in the Latin Quarter,then cut over to Boulevard Saint-Michel, searching for number 37, where Simone was raised and the Weil family lived for decades. I have a flash of Patrick Modiano tracing one address after another, crisscrossing the entire city in search of a certain stairway. I think of Albert Camus, about to receive the Nobel Prize, making this same pilgrimage to the Weil residence, but for graver reasons — not mere curiosity but contemplation.
A burgeoning routine. Awake at seven. Café de Flore at eight. Read until ten. Walk to Gallimard. Journalists. Book signing. Lunch with the Gallimard crew — Aurélien, Cristelle,duck confit and beans, local café fare. Tea in the blue salon,the garden beyond, interviews. A journalist hands me a book on Simone Weil, translated into English. Do you know of her,she asks. Later a journalist named Bruno presents me with an image of Gérard de Nerval, which I place on my night table.It is the same melancholy portrait I had taped above my desk when in my twenties.
From Devotion by Patti Smith ©2017. Published by Yale University Press.