Friday, December 14, 2012
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Patti Smith has written a memoir recalling her friendship
with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Touching and incredibly vivid Just Kids
tells of their initial meeting as penny less artists in New York in the 1960’s.
It relates their love affairs, both together and apart, their struggles to
establish themselves and ultimately the successes they both achieve.
Throughout Smith makes no attempt to disguise the affection
she held for Robert Mapplethorpe who at times would serve as Smith’s friend,
lover, teacher and inspiration. The story of their life and times together is
extremely touching and highly personal and I’d imagine it was an extremely
difficult story for Patti Smith to recount.Many will be fascinated by the time Patti and Robert spent in the Chelsea Hotel where as young artists they first encountered the good and the great as they paraded in style through the corridors or buried themselves behind their doors. Here Smith throws a less than glamorous light on the lives of the various artists she encounters. But she also relates the many touching moments and acts of generosity she experienced.
Great names of the artistic and rock n roll world stride
through this memoir. Alan Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Janis Joplin, Jimi
Hendrix, Andy Warhol and of course Bob Dylan are just a few of the great ones
the reader will meet. Looking back the late 1960’s seem to be a time of high
ideals with a dark destructive underbelly. You had the scene in New York and
the reaction against war in Vietnam. Smith captures the atmosphere of the time
and the reaction to both.
Ultimately though it is the tragedy of Robert Mapplethorpe’s
death from an AIDS related disease that is the reason for the memoir’s
existence. Once the initial spark of
friendship is ignited Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe vowed never to leave
each other. Just Kids proves that up to Robert’s death and beyond, they never
have. Labels: Just Kids by Patti Smith. A review.
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