Patti is one of the most high or miss artists out there. She's front and center of the NY Punk scene but she was always more of a hippie than she ever was a punk. Lots of her songs are superb, but her last few albums were pointless.
Her memoir Just Kids is one of the best books I've ever read, and one of the few that I read in one day. The key there is she is telling a narrative. Her most recent memoir, Bread of Angels, is her writing qualities at their worst.
Smith writes the way silent film actresses: everything is so over the top when a little subtlety will do. Unable to invoke emotion in the reader, she cheats by borrowing emotion-laden anecdotes to demonstrate what she wants to say. Finding a nice sweater at goodwill might invoke a small dissertation on St. Josephine or something.
The thing I was curious about is that in 1980 Smith abruptly left music and moved to Detroit with her new husband. She basically vanished for eight years, and he later died at a young age.
Both of those would be great to expound upon, but wtf she did for eight years she doesnt really show--nor does she walk us through the death and grieving process to any great extent. Such self-indulgent writing.
tl;dr: if you haven't yet read Just Kids go do it!
