Just Kids: the National Book Award-winning memoir (Bloomsbury Paperbacks)

Really beautiful and touching book, which greatly exceeded my expectations. This isn't a book about Patti Smith, or her music, nor even about Robert Mapplethorpe, though obviously there's plenty about them and their work between these covers. It's a book about their relationship as artists and lovers as an entity in its own right, and as such it's one of the finest love stories you will ever read - a mostly platonic story for sure, but no less powerful for all that. You put the book down feeling that he was surely her 'other half', and she his - that they made one another whole, as people as well as artists. The writing is never sentimental, even when it's dealing with Robert's untimely end - it's crisp and hard-edged, but never prosaic, and the more powerful for it. Her recollections of tough times in New York around the turn of the 70s and growing up in places like the Chelsea Hotel and CBGBs before they became tourist destinations are captured with an artist's clear eye and are a valuable addition in themselves to other memoirs of those times. But it's the story of Robert and Patti that rightly dominates. A very moving, life-affirming memoir, and highly recommended to anyone with even a passing interest in their work and those times.

Patti Smith forged a formidable reputation from her performance on stage + in front of the camera whenever she gave interviews. But behind the Rebel Yell lay a person of incredible warmth , good humour + generosity of spirit. As she grows up in the counter-culture we hear all about her adventures , encounters + formative influences. Rock fans will love her memories of chatting with Jimi Hendrix just days before his death or the night she spent consoling Janis Joplin when yet another man let her down. If you adore the beatnick writers then you'll be intrigued to learn one of them once mistook her for a pretty boy + tried to pick her up ! But if Just Kids has anything to teach us it is surely that Love comes in many different forms. And at that time the Love of her young Life was Robert Mapplethorpe. Only later did she discover he was homosexual + quite willing to sell his body to men for sex. But he then developed an interest in Bondage + Sadomasochism which he maintained was entirely artistic but poor Patti had her doubts. Yet the bond ( ! ) between them remained as strong as ever. Their Love had undergone a strange alchemical change : now they were like brother + sister . Even when Robert was dying from AIDS an older , more mature + now married Patti was still by his side. She'd had her first child with Fred Sonic Smith + her second was on its way...living within her as Robert lay dying... As Patti so beautifully puts it : We were as Hansel + Gretel + we ventured out into the black forest of the world. There were temptations + witches + demons we never dreamed of + there was splendour we only partially imagined. No one could speak for these 2 young people nor tell any truths of their days + nights together. Only Robert + I could tell it. And , having gone , he left the task to me ...

I was a great fan of Patti Smith in my younger days but as she has grown older she has become an example of the kind of New Age weirdness and political correctness that make my teeth grind.* So it was with some trepidation that I picked her memoirs of her time with Robert Mapplethorpe, expecting peace and love-type psychobabble. Instead, it was a well-written, disciplined account of her relationship with him and early life and mercifully free from her political opinions. She also resisted the temptation to get over-emotional about some episodes in her life, such as giving away her baby daughter when she was 19, and her description of how she and Mapplethorpe went their separate ways is refreshingly sober. Her obsession with French badboy poet Rimbaud becomes a bit tedious especially as she does not explain why he was so important to her. Nor does she give any good reason why she and Mapplethorpe chose to live in a cramped room in the Chelsea Hotel next to the room where Dylan Thomas died. The quality slips at times and name dropping abounds - Dylan (Bob, not the Welsh one), William Burroughs, Salvador Dali, Janis Joplin, Lou Reed and Alan Ginzburg** - but overall the book is low key, factual and fairly convincing. There are also incisive barbs such as her comment comparing Mapplethorpe with Andy Warhol: "I preferred an artist who transformed his time, not mirrored it." It's difficult to believe she was as innocent and naïve as she makes out. Patti Smith obviously regards herself as a "writer, performer and visual artist". However, as far as I am concerned she is a rock singer and will be judged as such. I`ll never forget the impact her first album had on me when I was a student in Edinburgh in the early/mid 1970s and life was founded on rock and roll and first love. * Check out her site if you don't believe me. ** Who thought she was a boy the first time he met her.

I found this a compelling insight into the complex, close and highly (artistically and emotionally, if not always financially) supportive relationship between Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe. I'm not familiar with the work of RM and have come to the book as a fan of the author's music, and whilst music and some of its icons of the late 60s to mid 70s do get a mention (Jimi, The Doors, Janis, Tim Buckley) it is not a book about music. Rather, the central story concerns the artistic paths taken by two driven individuals. You get the impression neither could have achieved what they did without the other, and because I know nothing about the work of RM I have accepted the praise heaped on it by the author (other reviewers clearly think otherwise). The book beautifully evokes New York with characters from many forms of the arts including painters, poets, fashion designers and musicians - as well as just the beautiful. I personally really liked the space given to Harry Smith (who lived in the Chelsea Hotel at the same time as PS and RM), who I had previously only known as the enigmatic creator of the important and highly influential collection of field recordings of American folk. Very readable, and highly recommended. .

Just Kids As recommended by both Emma Watson and Johnny Depp I began reading Patti Smith's book "Just Kids" and can see what all the fuss is about. It won the 2010 National Book Award for Non-fiction. I don't quite know what it is that makes this book so special; is it the sense of real people living real lives? Is it because it is set at a time that I know a little about (it intersects my own youth-more or less) ? Is it because Patti is such an excellent songwriter and poet? Or maybe because she is a potent activist and I agree with her politics? Answer: I don't know, but there is a reality in this book, not in the obvious sense that it is a piece of non-fiction, rather in the emotional openness and honesty of the author. This is real life-as it is lived and as we experience it, elevated by the brilliance of a true artist: Patti Smith.

What a wonderful and immersive read. I was captivated and totally immersed in their lives and culture from 50's/60's america through to how their lives progressed, developed, their creative processes, their struggles and triumphs, the people they met, the scenes and 'to be' stars of the age; the search for meaning and expression; a down to earth, honest living, emotive story which continues into today. It really made me realise that anyone can do anything if they put themselves to it. Anyone who has an interest for art, music, relationships and culture, especially in/from 60's US and Paris onward will sure to be taken by this. For those wanting a glimmer of hope and inspiration; to see honesty, love, support; to be brought to simple beautiful moments in life and how we exercise our passions, motivations and each find a place to fit individually but also together. Would highly recommend.

about a very beautiful , romantic , happy life i knew nor thought about patti smith , a friend urged me to read this book , i am so glad i did i read [ on kindle ] while She read to me on audio book , She has a beautiful voice and a wonderful way of saying ' drawings ' [ which to me sounds like ' DRAWLings ' ] i experience [ the tiniest part of the life of an artist ] and have lived off the power and energy that experience infused in my soul , this book spoke to that part [ and others ] it's better to have loved and lost ... knowing love [ art , work , people , inspiration , romance ] like that one can live [ and mourn ] a lifetime more ... patti you wrote a lovely book , thank you for your honesty in sharing stories of your life

This book describes a place and a time that's seems both lost and yet strangely still relevant. Patti was true to herself and that was most likely how she got into such places and how she managed to survive to tell the tale. Not sure I would have been so tolerant of the protagonists in the world she inhabited and describes in such detail. In this book and in real life artist's can be false and extremely annoying but at least some of what is created is of value. This book apart from being a homily to Robert is a reflection on artistic collaboration and how close relationships across generations of artists can occur. If you are interested in how art is created in general and the specific personalities involved in mid to late 20th century pop culture this is an interesting read..if not expect to be rather bemused.

Me llegó mal cortado, eso no es un problema para mí, y fuera de eso es un buen libro

Un libro stupendo, una scrittura super piacevole. Lo leggerei mille volte.

eu estou amando ler o livro, e o livro chegou no prazo certo. parabéns pelo desempenho

Tolles Buch, hab es mit Freude gelesen

Patti Smith forjó una reputación formidable gracias a su actuación en el escenario + frente a la cámara cada vez que daba entrevistas. Pero detrás del grito rebelde yacía una persona de increíble calidez, buen humor + generosidad de espíritu. A medida que crece en la "contracultura" escuchamos todo sobre sus aventuras, encuentros + influencias formativas. A los fanáticos del rock les encantará sus recuerdos de charlar con Jimi Hendrix pocos días antes de su muerte o la noche que pasó consolando a Janis Joplin cuando otro hombre la decepcionó. Si adoras a los escritores beatnick entonces te intriga aprender que uno de ellos una vez la confundió con un niño "bonito" + trató de recogerla! Pero si Just Kids tiene algo que enseñarnos es seguramente que el Amor viene en muchas formas diferentes. Y en ese momento el Amor de su joven Vida era Robert Mapplethorpe. Sólo más tarde descubrió que era homosexual+ muy dispuesto a vender su cuerpo a hombres por sexo. Pero luego desarrolló un interés en Bondage + sadomasoquismo que él sostuvo que era totalmente artístico, pero la pobre Patti tenía sus dudas. Sin embargo, el vínculo (! ) entre ellos permaneció tan fuerte como siempre. Su Amor había sufrido un extraño cambio alquímico: ahora eran como hermano + hermana. Incluso cuando Robert estaba muriendo de SIDA un mayor, más maduro + ahora casado Patti seguía a su lado. Ella había tenido su primer hijo con Fred Sonic Smith y su segundo estaba en camino... viviendo dentro de ella mientras Robert yacía muriendo... Como Patti tan bellamente lo dice: «Estábamos como Hansel + Gretel + nos aventuramos a la selva negra del mundo. Hubo tentaciones +brujas + demonios con los que nunca soñamos + había esplendor que sólo imaginamos parcialmente. Nadie podía hablar por estos 2 jóvenes ni contar verdades de sus días y noches juntos. Sólo Robert + podía decirlo. Y, habiendo ido, me dejó la tarea a mí...