Devotion by Patti Smith

In this review we will discuss Devotion by Patti Smith. Devotion is a short novel that begins with a brief essay recalling a trip to Paris. Her essay is followed by a story written as part of the Why I Write series. In this story we are swiftly brought into a world well lived in, as we often do with Smith, and see the world through her eyes and through the eyes of her character Eugenia. 

Patti begins a stream of consciousness narrative which describes her writing process and influences that led her to write Devotion. She gently guides us through hazy New York days and serendipitous moments in her life. We are then taken along with her to Paris as she reflects on her visits in the recent past, thinking of her siblings, and lamenting returning home. This voyage encompasses the introduction and conclusion of the piece while the center piece is the short story Devotion which is sat directly center of the book.

After the short story concludes we are back with Patti in the south of France when she’s invited to Albert Camus’s home. Shares lunch with Camus’s daughter Catherine and is granted a moment of solicitude with his manuscript, Le Premiere Homme, The Last Man, which she describes in simplistic yet dense detail. Her principal influences for this short piece include Simone Weil, Partick Modiano, and oddly enough, a figure skater she drew inspiration from after being aroused from sleep and watches on the television. Patti often contemplates the focus of this story, the Why I Write series, which she articulates in a dizzying and beautiful fashion. In Devotion readers are given a peak into Patti’s creative thoughts and process while allowing readers to contemplate for themselves; “Why do I write?”.   

Devotion

The core of Devotion focuses on the experiences of a solitary sixteen-year-old girl named Eugenia, a figure skater, and genius in her own right. She is left to care for herself after any and all adults in her life either pass away or abandon her. Separated from her parents as a child during WWII, she has a reclusive and unemotional disposition. The only thing that seems to stir our young heroine is her absolute desire to ice skate. When she meets Alexander, a much older man who takes her in as a companion, she is moved and changed through their experiences together, but severely restricted in her bondage. 

Devotion, being only being 107 pages, is an extremely concentrated yet extensive piece. Patti’s writing puts the reader into a dreamlike state, unable to shake back into reality even once the story is concluded. Returning to the focus of this piece, we should ask, why do we write? What inspires us? Which threads do we choose to tug on? It is not enough to simply experience life, we write to express the inexpressible, to feel deeply (and gently) and share the boundlessness of the human experience. This book is a perfect exploration of the day to day story we experience that is life, and how we are guided to duplicate or rearrange those things that impact and effect us, to explore, to consider, and to release.