M Train: A Memoir

 

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.

 

Patti Smith (Author) 

 

Patti Smith The Biography

 

Patti Smith is one of pop culture’s true originals. The 1975 release of her debut album Horses signalled the start of a career full of passionate commitment, abrupt gear changes and unlikely collaborations which continues to flourish well into the 21st century.   Arthur Rimbaud, Robert Mapplethorpe, Sam Shepherd and Bruce Springsteen are just a few who have become associated with the Patti Smith legend. She has toured with Bob Dylan, opened for the New York Dolls and recorded with R.E.M. She has written songs for movies and still produces albums of arresting originality.   Nick Johnstone, respected music journalist and long time fan, unravels the story of the girl from Chicago who mixed poetry, underground theatre, jazz and rock, and who played a key role in shaping the New York punk scene of the mid-Seventies.   From the hometown experimental poems through street performance in Paris to high times in New York’s Chelsea Hotel… from the quiet years in suburban Detroit with husband Fred ‘Sonic’ to her ascension to iconic status… the Patti Smith story is full of unexpected twists and turns.   Nick Johnstone makes fascinating sense of a complex creative and produces a compelling insight into the life and times of a woman who has always refused to compromise.