Just Kids: A National Book Award Winner

by Patti Smith

'It was the summer that Coltrane died. The summer Jimi Hendrix set his guitar in flames and China exploded the H-bomb. There were riots in Newark and marches against the war in Vietnam. The world was on the brink of change. It was the summer of love. And the summer of a chance encounter that would change the course of my life. It was the summer I met Robert.' Just Kids is the story of two innocents who shed sheltered lives and braved the city in search of art and freedom. In each other Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith found kindred spirits and pursued their mutual dreams, from Brooklyn to the Chelsea Hotel into the world. Each would eventually reach the pinnacle of artistic achievement and their vow to always care for one another survived painful trials and separations. Mapplethorpe's unforgettable portrait of Smith for the cover of Horses forever fuses their indelible mark on our culture. Intimate and broadly evocative of New York in the early 70s, Just Kids - part romance, part elegy - is finally about friendship in the truest sense, and the artist's calling.

• ISBN10: 006621131X
• ISBN13: 9780066211312
• Publish Date: 1 January 2010
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Collins
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[pamela]

I wanted so badly to like this book. I'm a Patti Smith fan, and a huge fan of Robert Mapplethorpe's photography, but this book left me completely underwhelmed. Instead of relying on her own ability to write a feeling of time and place, this book read more like a roll call of the who's who of the 60's and 70's. there were mentions of people she never even knew, but were name dropped because they once did something in proximity to an event happening in the narrative. As a biography it seemed weak and untruthful. Many of the memories she shares in the book are written too lyrically to be truthful, and many of her and Robert's less salubrious partakings are given an artistic overhaul to make the seem artistically justified, and therefore above judgement.

Not all bad, there were some valuable insights into the creation of Robert's work, but ultimately I found the book a contrived collection of references to famous people, with only a smattering of artistic depth.

[Nicole Lynn]

I was really enthralled with this book. I haven't read a lot of creative non-fiction, but this captured my interest. Although the story slowed towards the end, I truly fell in love with both Patti and Robert and their story. I fell in love with New York City in the 1960s and '70s. I envied the artists (literary, musicians, and artists) that Patti and Robert brushed shoulders with. The story was a great glimpse into that artistic and cultural time. I really enjoyed reading their story.