Devotion

Bookseller recommendation

“I could hear Smith's unique voice throughout, and for that I was grateful. I bought this at The Strand bookstore where Smith worked in her youth, so I felt a magical power within the slim volume. Why does Smith write...'Because we cannot simply live.'”

— Andrea • Bookstore1Sarasota

Bookseller recommendation

“There is reading done for entertainment and there is reading done for art; For the magical way that authors can craft words into a sentence and that sentence sends your brain into a technicolor haze; A closed-eye sigh knowing that the author has bewitched you for a moment and the act of reading becomes almost meditative. Patti Smith has this effect on me with whatever she writes. For you, it may be someone else but Patti? She is my brain's equivalent of a few soothing breaths and a meditative stroll through some imaginary garden where the ghosts of all my good thoughts linger.In Devotion, Patti Smith examines the act of writing as an act of devotion. She begins by describing her journey to Paris as an adult to talk to her French publishers about her new book. She tries to write but words escape her and seemingly benign moments turn beautiful. She describes watching figure skating with her father as a child. She describes the eggs she eats over breakfast; about recognizing a bench she once sat at with her sister years earlier. After a time, her reflections and musings transform into a short story about a memorizing young figure skater, alone in the world whose driving passion is to skate and who is pulled in other directions by life and love, but understands only her devotion to the one thing she loves. Patti makes me want to write; to stroll through old French cemeteries looking for the names of people I admire. If you, like me, have read her and love her, or if you are looking to read her work, I would suggest her work on audio. Pairing the particular cadence of her slight accent, the way she says "pillah" instead of pillow, "burries" instead of berries only adds magic to her words. Do not operate machinery or read while under the influence. She will leave you drunk on words and isn't that just a beautiful thing?”

— Chelsea • McLean & Eakin Booksellers