by Patti Smith
Barnes & Noble link
(Fun fact: I read a chunk of this on an e-reader on display at my job, since I was supposed to stand there and demonstrate it for curious customers.)
A memoir can be more than just about the pen-holder. It can be about another, a person that had stood beside the author through the tumbles of life. Inspire them to do great things and become someone that ends up making history. That is what Patti Smith did in her memoir Just Kids, making it not only about her, but the famed photographer and best friend Robert Mapplethorpe.
Like any good memoir, it starts at the beginning. It covers Smith's early life in Chicago, while Mapplethorpe's is brushed upon with details like his love for jewelry-making and the first time he did acid. Their paths cross when Smith heads to New York City to start a new life. She tries to find an old friend and finds Mapplethorpe in the apartment nearby. Smith then goes on a disastrous date, they cross paths again and he saves her from a lecherous man. Since then, they are together for life.
They began as friends and were lovers, but it seemed like they were never meant to be the latter. They go through jobs and slowly nurture their artistic powers (Smith with poetry and Mapplethorpe with installations). Both seem to bounce off of each other's energies, one's success inspires another and so forth. Mapplethorpe later falls for a man who helps him into the world of photography. Meanwhile, Smith starts reading her poetry in public and performing in Mapplethorpe's exhibitions.
Bitten by the music bug, Smith becomes a songwriter and later a performer. At the same time, Mapplethorpe abandons installations and takes up photography. She later records her famous Horses and gets him to take the (later) iconic cover picture. He also would later photograph the album covers for Wave and Dream of Life. As she looked back at the life she had in New York, she said:
I feel no sense of vindication as one of the handful of survivors. I would rather have seen them all succeed, catch the brass ring. As it turned, it was I who got one of the best horses.
Just Kids by Patti Smith, page 209
The only complaint I have about the book is the same one I had when I first read it: Smith tends to romanticize being a starving artist. Trust me when I say she isn't the first one to do this.
Just Kids is a rare musician's memoir, as it isn't all about the musician herself. It is not just all about Mapplethorpe either. It is about two artists who share a special bond of love and friendship, about all that they went through, and how even with success, their bond will remain. Since I can't find a good way to end this, lemme leave you with this:
I was completely smitten by the book. I longed to read them all, and the things I read of produced new yearnings.
Just Kids by Patti Smith, page 6
Yeah, what she said.
COPYRIGHT NOTE: all bold quotes are from the novel and were written by the author herself. Those words are not my own.
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