{"product_id":"year-of-the-monkey","title":"Year of the Monkey","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFollowing a run of New Year's concerts at San Francisco's legendary Fillmore, Patti Smith finds herself tramping the coast of Santa Cruz, about to embark on a year of solitary wandering. Unfettered by logic or time, she draws us into her private wonderland, with no design yet heeding signs, including a talking sign that looms above her, prodding and sparring like the Cheshire Cat.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn February, a surreal lunar year begins, bringing with it unexpected turns, heightened mischief, and inescapable sorrow. In a stranger's words, \"Anything is possible: after all, it's the year of the monkey.\" For Patti Smith - inveterately curious, always exploring, tracking thoughts, writing the year evolves as one of reckoning with the changes in life's gyre: with loss, aging, and a dramatic shift in the political landscape of America. Smith melds the Western landscape with her own dreamscape.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTaking us from Southern California to the Arizona desert; to a Kentucky farm as the amanuensis of a friend in crisis; to the hospital room of a valued mentor; and by turns to remembered and imagined places - this haunting memoir blends fact and fiction with poetic mastery. The unexpected happens; grief and disillusionment. But as Patti Smith heads toward a new decade in her own life, she offers this balm to the reader: her wisdom, wit, gimlet eye, and above all, a rugged hope of a better world.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRiveting, elegant, often humorous, illustrated by Smith's signature Polaroids, \u003cem\u003eYear of the Monkey\u003c\/em\u003e is a moving and original work, a touchstone for our turbulent times.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Patti Smith","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43211190567169,"sku":"9781526614766","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/8600\/8738\/files\/websitecovertemplate-614.png?v=1706610424","url":"https:\/\/rarebirdsbooks.pro\/products\/year-of-the-monkey","provider":"Rare Birds Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}