Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Year of the Monkey
    Unavailable
    Year of the Monkey
    Unavailable
    Year of the Monkey
    Audiobook4 hours

    Year of the Monkey

    Published by Penguin Random House Audio

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    From the National Book Award-winning author of Just Kids and M Train, a profound, beautifully realized memoir in which dreams and reality are vividly woven into a tapestry of one transformative year.

    Following 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. In 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 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. Taking us from 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 set in. But as Smith heads toward a new decade in her own life, she offers this balm to the listener: her wisdom, wit, gimlet eye, and above all, a rugged hope for a better world.

    Riveting, elegant, often humorous, Year of the Monkey is a moving and original work, a touchstone for our turbulent times.

    Editor's Note

    Editor’s pick…

    “Year of the Monkey” is a slim and mystical memoir of just one year in Smith’s life, but it’s also a philosophical and poetic examination of time, memory, age, and art. Though there’s plenty of biographical detail to contend with here, the book has more in common with the quiet musings of “M Train” than the more truly biographical nostalgia of “Just Kids.”

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateSep 24, 2019
    ISBN9780593155745
    Unavailable
    Year of the Monkey

    Related to Year of the Monkey

    Related audiobooks

    Literary Criticism For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Love and Hate in the Time of Brexit

      Jan 22, 2018

      SOMETIME IN THE PAST FEW years, the Cambridge, England–based novelist Ali Smith and the Norwegian Karl Ove Knausgaard had the same idea: to write a quartet of novels called Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer. This month, Winter arrives in each series.

      1 min read

    • Article

      Autumn Book Reviews

      Mar 8, 2022

      by Raynor Winn Published by Penguin Books ISBN 9781405937184 $22.99 Rendered homeless and penniless by an ill-advised investment with a friend, abetted by an unblinking court system, a couple in their fifties face profound economic and social upheava

      4 min read

    • Article

      Soundtrack To The Revolution

      Jul 15, 2021

      Soundtrack To The Revolution
      1 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Kevin Barry

      Dec 23, 2019

      To protect that vision, he had to be a monster sometimes, too, and the book doesn’t flinch from the often grim and telling details. The post A Year in Reading: Kevin Barry appeared first on The Millions.

      2 min read

    • Article

      To See ‘Such Color’

      Jan 4, 2022

      To See ‘Such Color’
      8 min read

    • Article

      With Clarity And Much Hilarity, Alejandro Zambra Remembers It All

      Mar 14, 2022

      For this reviewer at least, there are few newsflashes as thrilling as “a new book by Alejandro Zambra”. The Chilean poet, essayist and novelist is not especially prolific, but within his output are some of the most original writings of the last two d

      2 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Bill Morris

      Dec 17, 2017

      It wasn’t planned, but 2017 turned out to be a year when my reading hopscotched happily between genres, styles, and voices. Here are half a dozen highlights, arranged by where you might find them shelved in your favorite bookshop. Memoir Joan Didion’

      4 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Schulz, Attenberg, Yanagihara, and More

      Jan 11, 2022

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Kathryn Schultz, Jami Attenberg, Hanya Yanagihara, and more—that are publishing this week. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Schulz, Attenberg, Yanagihara, and More appeared first on

      10 min read

    • Article

      Secrets Of The Gay Retreat

      Apr 14, 2022

      Secrets Of The Gay Retreat
      4 min read

    • Article

      Lockdown Lyricism

      Apr 8, 2022

      Lockdown Lyricism
      3 min read

    • Article

      ‘Year Of The Monkey’

      Jan 4, 2022

      ‘Year Of The Monkey’
      4 min read

    • Article

      Time Out

      Sep 4, 2020

      Time Out
      4 min read

    • Article

      He Left His Harte

      Oct 2, 2018

      His friend (and later foe) Mark Twain is better known, but Bret Harte (1836-1902) was a similarly important figure in California literature as a chronicler of 19th century life and teller of tales, most notably “The Luck of Roaring Camp.” Like Twain,

      2 min read

    • Article

      Rites of Spring: Does the Latest in Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet Satisfy?

      May 3, 2019

      Several themes—migrants, ecology and the procession of the seasons, humans versus the establishment “machine”—have been building with each book. The post Rites of Spring: Does the Latest in Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet Satisfy? appeared first on The

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Light and the Dark: On Ali Smith’s ‘Summer’

      Sep 25, 2020

      Summer brings us, too, a completion of the cycle of seasons: suffering to hope, green to gray, life to death, and back again. Or all of them at once. Or not really at all. The post The Light and the Dark: On Ali Smith’s ‘Summer’ appeared first on The

      4 min read

    • Article

      Letter From The Editor

      Feb 7, 2020

      Letter From The Editor
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Books Briefing: The Best Books to Get Lost in This Summer

      Jul 9, 2021

      Memoirs and novels that satisfy the urge for high drama: Your weekly guide to the best in books

      3 min read

    Reviews for Year of the Monkey

    4.5/5

    18 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Poetic as always in her writing. Spending any year looking through the eyes of Patti, is sure to be a majestic and imaginative journey through a love of solitude, and companionship

      2 people found this helpful