Merry Wanderer of the Night + TIME

Just Kids

I protested vehemently and announced that I was never going to become anything but myself, that I was of the clan of Peter Pan and we did not grow up (10). Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe were best friends at the height of 1969, when they lived at the Hotel Chelsea in New York City and rubbed elbows with the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. Robert and Patti were both struggling artists before, during, and after this period, and beyond that they were struggling young adults trying to understand a culture of young people who were somewhat like them but somewhat different at the same time. They were sometimes romantically involved and sometimes not, but they were always close. They were family.

I heard about Just Kids in March when I was listening to a two part podcast on KCRW's Bookworm with Micahel Silverblatt. Even though the podcast between Silverblat and Smith totaled 58 minutes I still found myself constantly returning to it. I rarely return to podcasts after listening to them, so the fact that I was so entranced by Patti Smith told me I really had to read this book. Her voice was so strong in the podcast, and I was pleased to find I could easily hear her voice in her memoir. I was also pleased to find she was just as easy to relate to in her book as she was on the podcast, which is amazing considering she has lived an incredible life. I've read a lot of music memoirs in the past, and I used to be kind of into Patti Smith (although not as much as earlier rockstars like Joplin or Jim Morrison) but nothing quite like Just Kids. This isn't so much a memoir about her time as a rock star; in fact, she never really gets into her music career. Instead what is found here is a relationship between two lost young people who found support in one another. Patti Smith is honest and unapologetic, but you can still see the young, wandering girl in her. And the woman has got it together. She sees things and puts them into words better than a lot of writers I've read: "I craved honesty, yet found dishonesty in myself" (65) and "Apart, we were able to see with even greater clarity that we didn't want to be without each other" (80) are just two such examples.

I had two little, little beefs with this book though. In my opinion Robert kind of fell out of the picture about 3/4 of the through the book. I think this is because their relationship changed at this point, but I still wanted to know a little more about him, even if it was just what Smith was thinking about him. I also felt like when Robert fell out of the picture Smith lost her unapologetic voice a little bit. I'm fine with that, but I thought it should be acknowledged a little more. And sometimes Smith goes off on a bit of a tangent once in awhile. So the book wasn't perfect for me, just not quite there. But I still really enjoyed it as a Patti Smith fan, as a nonfiction writer, and as a reader.

The book is also scattered with images of Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe, so it just didn't seem right to me to not include such a picture in my review.

I also think I should mention that Robert Mapplethorpe's art is highly sexual and Smith is honest about this, so there are some fairly graphic descriptions in the memoir. This memoir earned a B.

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Just Kids + TIME