Just Kids: A National Book Award Winner
Just Kids begins as a love story and ends as an elegy. It serves as a salute to New York City during the late sixties and seventies and to its rich and poor, its hustlers and hellions. A true fable, it is a portrait of two young artists' ascent, a prelude to fame. It was the summer Coltrane died, the summer of love and riots, and the summer when a chance encounter in Brooklyn led two young people on a path of art, devotion, and initiation. Patti Smith would evolve as a poet and performer, and Robert Mapplethorpe would direct his highly provocative style toward photography. In this milieu, two kids made a pact to take care of each other. Scrappy, romantic, committed to create, and fueled by their mutual dreams and drives, they would prod and provide for one another during the hungry years.
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Community Reviews
(First book downloaded on the nook!)
I've loved Patti since my high school days, listening to the "Horses" album over & over... OK, I'm still listening to it over & over (on the iPod now). I remember thinking what a GENIUS she was, and how she had that air of self-confident, "I could give a flying f*** what people think of me" attitude. What an eye-opener to learn that she was, really, just a kid, trying to find her way in the world in Brooklyn & NYC, and not really sure of how she was going to do it.
Loving, tender tribute to Robert Mapplethorpe and their life-long friendship. They started out as lovers and as he was struggling with his sexual identity, they became friends, and helped each other find their way creatively.
It's a great period piece about Brooklyn and New York, too. Patti lived in my neighborhood when she first arrived, right around the Pratt campus, so it was fun to hear her talking about places I know, albeit more than 40 years ago and it was definitely a different world back then!
Great read. Makes me love her even more.
OK, one thing about the nook - you don't get all those great pictures that the hard copy books have! :(
I've loved Patti since my high school days, listening to the "Horses" album over & over... OK, I'm still listening to it over & over (on the iPod now). I remember thinking what a GENIUS she was, and how she had that air of self-confident, "I could give a flying f*** what people think of me" attitude. What an eye-opener to learn that she was, really, just a kid, trying to find her way in the world in Brooklyn & NYC, and not really sure of how she was going to do it.
Loving, tender tribute to Robert Mapplethorpe and their life-long friendship. They started out as lovers and as he was struggling with his sexual identity, they became friends, and helped each other find their way creatively.
It's a great period piece about Brooklyn and New York, too. Patti lived in my neighborhood when she first arrived, right around the Pratt campus, so it was fun to hear her talking about places I know, albeit more than 40 years ago and it was definitely a different world back then!
Great read. Makes me love her even more.
OK, one thing about the nook - you don't get all those great pictures that the hard copy books have! :(
One of my favorite books. Patti Smith has a way with words, and what a story she tells. A story of love, friendship and absolute devotion to art. A fascinating and whirlwind tour through the late 60s and early 70s art scene in New York.
In the early 2000s, I worked in PR for Borders Group, the now-defunct global bookstore chain. A large part of my job was dedicated to fighting narrow-minded members of the Florida Family Association who were crusading to have, among many other great works of art they deemed “pornographic,” books of Robert Mapplethorpe’s art banned from sale. I cherished the time spent defending his right to expression, quoting the Fifth Amendment, and telling the righteous campaigners that if they didn't like the art, then simply don't look at it. I've wanted to read this biography for a long time, but I am so glad I waited. Now that I am older, I am more able to admire the adventure these “kids” went on together. This is a love story, tenderly and truthfully told. Not the “once upon a time” fairytale we've all come to expect of love stories, but the gritty, bloody, full-throttle gut-wrenching recollection of one of the greatest poets of our day. Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe were as essential to each other as black is to white, negative to positive. There is so much love and acceptance and kindness and improvisation on display here - and all of it contributes to the remembrance of a once in a lifetime - maybe once in a universe - kind f undefineable, undeniable, LOVE. I could not love these two extraordinarily brave souls more than I do having read this book. Thank you Patti. Thank you Robert.
Patti Smith is a great storyteller and this was a complete escape to read during early COVID lockdown - wishing I was with the fabulous and freaky at the Chelsea Hotel
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