I couldn't believe she won. I've been eyeing her book for a while now as I'm intrigued by the whole early punk/New York/Chelsea Hotel era. While I don't listen to her much these days, I consider her a national treasure.

I finished this book today. It's exactly what I thought it would be. All Patti Smith. All the time. She is probably one of the only pop culture personalities that I respect with an ardor bordering on hero-ish type regard. That said, as much as I like her guts and heart, her output isn't always top tier. Her Gothic French poetess "me and Robert are geniuses" thing seem non-intuitive to me and something I would typically hold in contempt were it any one else. This, I guess, is a common sentiment with those who knew her. She could get away with stuff no one else would even dare attempt and had some mystical free pass among the myth-makers to do whatever the fuck she wanted to. Gotta respect balls like that.

But she has a heart as big as Kansas and touches something inside me. I admit I was crying like a little baby reading the last three or four pages while simultaneously rolling my eyes over her inconsistent, self-indulgent writing style. I'm not sure this book was National Book Award material but it's one hell of a valuable historical artifact, much like its author so if this award familiarizes more people with that time and place, all the better. Also all her male intimates tended to die young so that is pretty fascinating.