We’re in something of a golden age for memoirs from the women who rode the waves of punk and so-called New Wave or post-punk or whatever. Women who rock; women who rule. I think maybe I first caught that wave with Viv Albertine’s Clothes Clothes Clothes Music Music Music Boys Boys Boys. A founding member of the Slits, Albertine threw herself into the mad world of music with boundless energy and enthusiasm. She was there where it all began (in the London scene anyway) and helped forge a revolutionary sound. Then she went on and became a filmmaker and a potter and survived cancer—and then picked up a guitar and did it all over again.

Then there’s the unsinkable Brix Smith Start whose memoir The Rise and Fall and Rise demonstrates the power of the creative impulse—and the need to roll with the punches that life offers. From the…