WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD
Reading rocker Smiths account of her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, its hard not to believe in fate. How else to explain the chance encounter that threw them together, allowing both to blossom? Quirky and spellbinding. -- People
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. Bound in innocence and enthusiasm, they traversed the city from Coney Island to Forty-Second Street, and eventually to the celebrated round table of Maxs Kansas City, where the Andy Warhol contingent held court. In 1969, the pair set up camp at the Hotel Chelsea and soon entered a community of the famous and infamous, the influential artists of the day and the colorful fringe.
It was a time of heightened awareness, when the worlds of poetry, rock and roll, art, and sexual politics were colliding and exploding. 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.
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.
Customer Review
Although I immediately bought this book at ABC when it came out 5 years ago, I never got around to reading it. Once in a while I would take it from the shelf with every intention of starting it, but I never did until this year. I was going to see Patti live in Paradiso and the week before, I dove into Just Kids and devoured it. Fresh and evocative, this loving portrait of a young Patti coming to New York, meeting Robert Mapplethorpe and developing as an artist is so full of life it almost leaps off the page. When I finished it, I immediately started M Train, which is a very different book, but just as wonderful.
Staff Choice: Bruna
This is one of my favorite books of all time. Not only because it tells us a lot about the 70’s art/music scene (which I love!), but because most precious is the love and sensibility with which she writes about her relationship with Mapplethorpe and her relationship with art itself.
With a very honest and pure recounting of her memories, Patti guides us throughout her ups and downs, her thoughts, her desire to find her voice using art.
I got very emotional and inspired by this book, especially being an artist myself and seeing how pursuing art can be hard, but still beautiful, still fluid, still necessary.
Staff Choice: Renate
After Patti Smith's 3rd visit to our store in Amsterdam, I decided it was time to read her memoir, which I've heard so much about. I finished reading it on the train home to my parents, and had a big lump in my throat as I closed the book. It was such a beautiful read and I just stared smilingly and full of wonderful sadness at the people sitting in front of me. They must've thought I was a crazy person.