Just Kids: An Autobiography

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.

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.

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.

Loved it. A warts an all travel through her life at the times of the New York scene and with an insight into her partner the well known photographer she shared digs with whose name eludes me.

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 relished this book, every word, every page. As a tomboyish teen, the cover of the album Horses validated me and for me validated women in general. Patti proved to me women could be guitar players, wear ties, leave their legs hairy, be whoever they wished to be and still be undeniably heterosexual and all woman. I admire Patti and Robert's courage, making their way from abject poverty up the art scene's social ladder, believing in themselves and their talent. Robert's repressed sexuality eventually ended the love affair but not the love between Patti and Robert. Such a wonderful book, I thank Patti for sharing her musical gifts and thank Robert for inspiring me as a photographer. And I especially thank Patti, again, for giving us the story, so well written and so touching.

Such a beautiful relationship with a beautiful piece of writing! It makes you want to pursue your dreams and go with the flow. How much I wished I could be at the Chelsea hotel back then!!

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.

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

Das Buch ist eine Zeitreise in das New York der 70er Jahre und lässt einen so schnell nicht mehr los. Patti Smith schreibt, mit einer Wortgewandtheit die ihres gleichen sucht. Sie erzählt langsam und dennoch hat mich die Geschichte sofort in ihren Bann gezogen. Das Buch ist einfach wunderschön und trifft mitten ins Herz. Gespickt mit unzähligen Anspielungen und geschmückt durch bildhafte Formulierungen macht es einfach nur Spaß. Es lädt wirklich zum Träumen ein.

so so so so good

Excelente

Maravilhoso! Que relato espetacular!