Recently read: A growing devotion to Patti Smith

Reviewing Devotion by Patti Smith

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Devotion by Patti Smith

I read a review of this book that said, “to relieve pain caused by bad books and inflammatory writing”. Perhaps pretentious but exactly.

Devotion feels like a palette cleanser, a reset (which I welcomed after hate-reading a light-hearted crime book).

It’s a short book, part of a series called Why I Write. It opens with Smith’s musings and journey from her home in New York to Paris. In her hotel, she turns on the TV and happens to see a young Russian ice skater. Before long, she’s wandering around the Latin Quarter and has made a routine out of visiting Café de Flore. Soon after, she jumps on a train bound for Southern France. As she often seems to be, she’s immersed in the world of other artists who have tread the same path.

On the train from Paris to Sète, she writes a piece titled Devotion. Pages 35 to 79 are that story.

It’s odd in a way, telling the story of a young ice skater who becomes involved with a 30-year-old man (which I understand some people won’t like). Bit by bit, small details from the opening of the book pop up in Smith’s story. Every observation becomes important, funnelled through the real world into her imagination and then out onto the page. That, I feel, is more the point of the story than the characters or plot are.

The third section of the book is called, A Dream is not a Dream, comprised only of a few pages. It opens with the question, ‘Why is one compelled to write?’ and it’s here that Smith tackles the question head-on.

We follow her as she’s invited to visit and stay at the home of Albert Camus, another of her muses. She enjoys a lunch prepared by his daughter, reads his manuscript and wanders the small town near the villa. She thinks of him, of writing, of where inspiration comes from and what to do with it.

“That is the decisive power of a singular work: a call to action. And I, time and time again, am overcome with the hubris to believe I can answer the call,” she writes.

The last page hits you with full force.