Winner of the 2010 Non-Fiction National Book Award Patti Smith's definitive memoir is an evocative, honest and moving coming-of-age story of her extraordinary relationship with the artist Robert Mapplethorpe
‘Sharp, elegiac and finely crafted' Sunday Times ‘Terrifically evocative ... The most spellbinding and diverting portrait of funky-but-chic New York in the late '60s and '70s that any alumnus has committed to print' New York Times ‘Render, harrowing, often hilarious' Vogue
In 1967, a chance meeting between two young people led to a romance and a lifelong friendship that would carry each to international success never dreamed of. The backdrop is Brooklyn, Chelsea Hotel, Max's Kansas City, Scribner's Bookstore, Coney Island, Warhol's Factory and the whole city resplendent. Among their friends, literary lights, musicians and artists such as Harry Smith, Bobby Neuwirth, Allen Ginsberg, Sandy Daley, Sam Shepherd, William Burroughs, etc. It was a heightened time politically and culturally; the art and music worlds exploding and colliding. In the midst of all this two kids made a pact to always care for one another. Scrappy, romantic, committed to making art, they prodded and provided each other with faith and confidence during the hungry years--the days of cous-cous and lettuce soup.
Just Kids begins as a love story and ends as an elegy. Beautifully written, this is a profound portrait of two young artists, often hungry, sated only by art and experience. And an unforgettable portrait of New York, her rich and poor, hustlers and hellions, those who made it and those whose memory lingers near.
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.
