Just Kids (2010) is rock and roll icon Patti Smith’s memoir about her artistic blossoming alongside her lover, the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. The story is a love letter to him, to New York in the late 60’s and early 70’s, and to the hard-to-define process of becoming an artist.
Smith meets Mapplethorpe in NYC in 1967. They commence a love affair that glides (nearly) effortlessly into a friendship dedicated to making it as artists. Smith shares tantalizing details about their life and she includes many of the great artists who lived, even if just briefly, in New York at that time. These include Allen Ginsberg, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and dozens of others. By the end of the story, Robert Mapplethorpe has succumbed to AIDS and Smith is established as a rock and roll poet and star.
At times, Smith’s attention to detail weighs on the story a bit. Or maybe I was just anxious for both her and Mapplethorpe to achieve artistic success. The positive side of the details – and perhaps the greatest contribution Just Kids makes – is that it transforms this memoir into an encouraging recipe for artistic success: keep your dreams in mind, have an open mind (both Smith and Mapplethorpe find their calling at the repeated suggestions of friends,) have great friends on the journey with you, and always keep working. Never give up.
Anyone who wants to be an artist should read Just Kids.
Link to Just Kids on Powells.com
Posted by Drevil, 3/20/2014
This is a concise review of a book that really has a lot more going on in it. Don’t get me wrong, I like your brevity. Seems almost like a required disclosure for me to comment that this book has depth beyond just the recipe for artistic success.