Just Kids Patti Smith

Just Kids (Hardcover)







Authors Patti Smith

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Product Description
Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe weren't always famous, but they always thought they would be. They found each other, adrift but determined, on the streets of New York City in the late '60s and made a pact to keep each other afloat until they found their voices--or the world was ready to hear them. Lovers first and then friends as Mapplethorpe discovered he was gay, they divided their dimes between art supplies and Coney Island hot dogs. Mapplethorpe was quicker to find his metier, with a Polaroid and then a Hasselblad, but Smith was the first to fame, transformed, to her friend's delight, from a poet into a rock star. (Mapplethorpe soon became famous too--and notorious--before his death from AIDS in 1989.) Smith's memoir of their friendship, Just Kids, is tender and artful, open-eyed but surprisingly decorous, with the oracular style familiar from her anthems like "Because the Night," "Gloria," and "Dancing Barefoot" balanced by her powers of observation and memory for everyday details like the price of automat sandwiches and the shabby, welcoming fellow bohemians of the Chelsea Hotel, among whose ranks these baby Rimbauds found their way. --Tom Nissley

Product Details
# Hardcover: 304 pages
# Publisher: Ecco (January 19, 2010)
# Language: English

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Reviews Just Kids Patti Smith


She reveals herself as an innocent kid, coming from a simple, middle-class and loving home who braved the Big Apple for better or worse. It is a wonderful inside glimpse into Patti's metamorphosis, told with acceptance and love. Those who may have only heard Patti Smith perform as an outspoken tough-girl will marvel at the tender heart that beats inside that slender body. Those who know her better, recognize parts of ourselves. I loved this book!

While this is true of almost everyone from her generation, it is somehow shocking and bizarre to ponder. More interesting was that her first lover and partner in New York was none other than future photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. The bulk of "Just Kids" is Smith's recollection of Smith's early years in New York with Mapplethorpe and how they came to create their own image as artists and autuers and to craft their image and art. Again, it seems weird to think of either of them as being anything other than fully formed individuals, and that, in and of itself, seems supremely bizarre.