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Just Kids: the National Book Award-winning memoir (Bloomsbury Paperbacks) Paperback – 4 Jan. 2011

by Patti Smith (Author)

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Winner of the 2010 Non-Fiction National Book Award
Patti Smith's definitive memoir is an evocative, honest and moving coming-of-age story of her extraordinary relationship with the artist Robert Mapplethorpe

'Sharp, elegiac and finely crafted' Sunday Times
'Terrifically evocative ... The most spellbinding and diverting portrait of funky-but-chic New York in the late '60s and '70s that any alumnus has committed to print' New York Times
'Render, harrowing, often hilarious' Vogue

In 1967, a chance meeting between two young people led to a romance and a lifelong friendship that would carry each to international success never dreamed of. The backdrop is Brooklyn, Chelsea Hotel, Max's Kansas City, Scribner's Bookstore, Coney Island, Warhol's Factory and the whole city resplendent. Among their friends, literary lights, musicians and artists such as Harry Smith, Bobby Neuwirth, Allen Ginsberg, Sandy Daley, Sam Shepherd, William Burroughs, etc. It was a heightened time politically and culturally; the art and music worlds exploding and colliding. In the midst of all this two kids made a pact to always care for one another. Scrappy, romantic, committed to making art, they prodded and provided each other with faith and confidence during the hungry years--the days of cous-cous and lettuce soup.

Just Kids begins as a love story and ends as an elegy. Beautifully written, this is a profound portrait of two young artists, often hungry, sated only by art and experience. And an unforgettable portrait of New York, her rich and poor, hustlers and hellions, those who made it and those whose memory lingers near.

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'The most beautiful, incredible autobiography - it will make you ache for a time and a place that you probably never knew, New York in the 1970s' ― Nick Hornby

'A sharp, elegiac and finely crafted tribute to their childlike, pre-fame romance, set against the thrilling back drop of New York's countercultural blast' ― Sunday Times

'Terrifically evocative ... The most spellbinding and diverting portrait of funky-but-chic New York in the late '60s and '70s that any alumnus has committed to print' ― New York Times

'A tender, harrowing, often hilarious portrait of young lovers forging their paths in an eccentric milieu of Beat poets, Warhol socialites, and transvestites, rock stars and artists ... Much has been written about that time, but Just Kids offers new insight' ― Vogue

Just Kids is not just one of the great rock-star memoirs - and there are a few - but one of the all-time greats. Smith's book is part youthful rapture, part elegy, part artists' handbook. And entirely sublime ― Guardian Australia: 15 Great Celebrity Memoirs

It's a book about women, and desire, and not necessarily fitting in the box of sexuality. I really love reading stories by women that really understand the complexity and the messiness of women ― Russh

Book Description

Winner of the 2010 Non-Fiction National Book Award Patti Smith's evocative, honest and moving coming-of-age story of her extraordinary relationship with the artist Robert Mapplethorpe

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0747568766
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury Paperbacks (4 Jan. 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780747568766
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0747568766
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.8 x 2.2 x 19.6 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 5,769 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 2 in Punk Music
- 6 in Music History & Criticism (Books)
- 11 in Alcohol & Drug Abuse Biographies

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10,468 ratings

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Patti Smith

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Patti Smith is a writer, performer, and visual artist. She gained recognition in the 1970s for her revolutionary merging of poetry and rock. She has released twelve albums, including Horses, which has been hailed as one of the top one hundred debut albums of all time by Rolling Stone.

Smith had her first exhibit of drawings at the Gotham Book Mart in 1973 and has been represented by the Robert Miller Gallery since 1978. Her books include Just Kids, winner of the National Book Award in 2010, Wītt, Babel, Woolgathering, The Coral Sea, and Auguries of Innocence.

In 2005, the French Ministry of Culture awarded Smith the title of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, the highest honor given to an artist by the French Republic. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.

In 1980, she married the musician Fred Sonic Smith in Detroit. They had a son, Jackson, and a daughter, Jesse. Smith resides in New York City.

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Customers consider this memoir one of the best books of the past decade, praising its beautiful writing style and life-affirming content that provides insight into Patti Smith's life. The storytelling is compelling, and customers describe it as a pocket book stream of consciousness travelogue that makes them nostalgic for a time. They appreciate the love story elements, with one review noting it's more about art than music, while another highlights how it paints a real picture of the rock and roll era.

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Readability Writing style Inspirational content Storytelling Beauty Pacing Love story Memory retention

90 customers mention ‘Readability’90 positive0 negative

Customers find the book highly readable, describing it as one of the best books of the past decade.

"What a wonderful and immersive read...." Read more

"...But behind the Rebel Yell lay a person of incredible warmth , good humour + generosity of spirit...." Read more

"Good read" Read more

"...Such a wonderful book, I thank Patti for sharing her musical gifts and thank Robert for inspiring me as a photographer...." Read more

74 customers mention ‘Writing style’69 positive5 negative

Customers praise the writing style of the book, describing it as beautifully written and poetic, with one customer noting how rich in detail it is.

"...'to be' stars of the age; the search for meaning and expression; a down to earth, honest living, emotive story which continues into today...." Read more

"...Instead, it was a well-written, disciplined account of her relationship with him and early life and mercifully free from her political opinions...." Read more

"Simply written yet eloquent, Smith has honored her friend, soulmate and fellow muse with a wonderful book about their relationship and artistic..." Read more

"...The writing is never sentimental, even when it's dealing with Robert's untimely end - it's crisp and hard-edged, but never prosaic, and the more..." Read more

56 customers mention ‘Inspirational content’56 positive0 negative

Customers find this memoir life-affirming and emotionally engaging, providing insight into the author's life.

"...For those wanting a glimmer of hope and inspiration; to see honesty, love, support; to be brought to simple beautiful moments in life and how we..." Read more

"...Lou Reed and Alan Ginzburg** - but overall the book is low key, factual and fairly convincing...." Read more

"Simply written yet eloquent, Smith has honored her friend, soulmate and fellow muse with a wonderful book about their relationship and artistic..." Read more

"...A very moving, life-affirming memoir, and highly recommended to anyone with even a passing interest in their work and those times." Read more

47 customers mention ‘Storytelling’47 positive0 negative

Customers praise the memoir's storytelling, describing it as a compelling and inspirational narrative.

"...search for meaning and expression; a down to earth, honest living, emotive story which continues into today...." Read more

"...In the hands of Smith, modestly recounted (unlike a similar book by Edmund White in which he mostly honors himself, his sex life] and his..." Read more

"...About the first half to 2/3 thirds of the book I enjoyed and found fascinating, especially up to the early days of moving to New York and meeting..." Read more

"...It's not an easy read but it's a fascinating one, as name upon name appears of the people who made the 60's what it was in the fields of art, music..." Read more

25 customers mention ‘Beauty’25 positive0 negative

Customers find the book stunning, with one review noting how it beautifully evokes New York, while another describes it as an astonishing picture of the rock and roll era.

"...sentimental, even when it's dealing with Robert's untimely end - it's crisp and hard-edged, but never prosaic, and the more powerful for it...." Read more

"...The book beautifully evokes New York with characters from many forms of the arts including painters, poets, fashion designers and musicians - as..." Read more

"about a very beautiful , romantic , happy life..." Read more

"...said, "Just Kids" is a good read and even more so because of the just beautiful (!!!) photographs that are spread throughout the book." Read more

18 customers mention ‘Pacing’18 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's pacing, describing it as a moving and engaging pocket book stream-of-consciousness travelogue through New York.

"...But it's the story of Robert and Patti that rightly dominates. A very moving, life-affirming memoir, and highly recommended to anyone with even a..." Read more

"Incredibly open and moving about Patti and Robert’s relationship and live in NYC" Read more

"Had just read Ms Smith's lovely M Train - a pocket book stream of consciouness travelogue, and wasn't ready to stop the conversation...." Read more

"...rock star to most people, but Patti Smith writes beautifully and very movingly...." Read more

16 customers mention ‘Love story’16 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the love story in the book, describing it as beautiful and evocative.

"...For those wanting a glimmer of hope and inspiration; to see honesty, love, support; to be brought to simple beautiful moments in life and how we..." Read more

"...as an entity in its own right, and as such it's one of the finest love stories you will ever read - a mostly platonic story for sure, but no less..." Read more

"Such a beautiful relationship with a beautiful piece of writing! It makes you want to pursue your dreams and go with the flow...." Read more

"about a very beautiful , romantic , happy life..." Read more

15 customers mention ‘Memory retention’15 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate how the memoir makes them nostalgic for a time and provides good insight into the period, with one customer noting how the author recalls it so vividly.

"...; to see honesty, love, support; to be brought to simple beautiful moments in life and how we exercise our passions, motivations and each find a..." Read more

"...describes a place and a time that's seems both lost and yet strangely still relevant...." Read more

"...I found it intimate, sensitive and sweet. It is extremely well written - enlightening, funny and poignant in places...." Read more

"...Patti's early life is so fascinating and she recalls it so vividly that this memoir reads like a work of fiction...." Read more

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Kris Dudley
Inspirational, beautiful - I would recommend
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 August 2019
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What a wonderful and immersive read. I was captivated and totally immersed in their lives and culture from 50's/60's america through to how their lives progressed, developed, their creative processes, their struggles and triumphs, the people they met, the scenes and 'to be' stars of the age; the search for meaning and expression; a down to earth, honest living, emotive story which continues into today. It really made me realise that anyone can do anything if they put themselves to it.
Anyone who has an interest for art, music, relationships and culture, especially in/from 60's US and Paris onward will sure to be taken by this. For those wanting a glimmer of hope and inspiration; to see honesty, love, support; to be brought to simple beautiful moments in life and how we exercise our passions, motivations and each find a place to fit individually but also together. Would highly recommend.

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Dorian Gray
Hansel + Gretel : witches + demons
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 August 2018
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Patti Smith forged a formidable reputation from her performance on stage + in front of the camera whenever she gave interviews. But behind the Rebel Yell lay a person of incredible warmth , good humour + generosity of spirit.

As she grows up in the counter-culture we hear all about her adventures , encounters + formative influences. Rock fans will love her memories of chatting with Jimi Hendrix just days before his death or the night she spent consoling Janis Joplin when yet another man let her down. If you adore the beatnick writers then you'll be intrigued to learn one of them once mistook her for a pretty boy + tried to pick her up !

But if Just Kids has anything to teach us it is surely that Love comes in many different forms. And at that time the Love of her young Life was Robert Mapplethorpe. Only later did she discover he was homosexual + quite willing to sell his body to men for sex. But he then developed an interest in Bondage + Sadomasochism which he maintained was entirely artistic but poor Patti had her doubts. Yet the bond ( ! ) between them remained as strong as ever. Their Love had undergone a strange alchemical change : now they were like brother + sister . Even when Robert was dying from AIDS an older , more mature + now married Patti was still by his side. She'd had her first child with Fred Sonic Smith + her second was on its way...living within her as Robert lay dying...

As Patti so beautifully puts it : We were as Hansel + Gretel + we ventured out into the black forest of the world. There were temptations + witches + demons we never dreamed of + there was splendour we only partially imagined. No one could speak for these 2 young people nor tell any truths of their days + nights together. Only Robert + I could tell it. And , having gone , he left the task to me ...

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Dorian Gray

Hansel + Gretel : witches + demons

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 August 2018
Patti Smith forged a formidable reputation from her performance on stage + in front of the camera whenever she gave interviews. But behind the Rebel Yell lay a person of incredible warmth , good humour + generosity of spirit.

As she grows up in the counter-culture we hear all about her adventures , encounters + formative influences. Rock fans will love her memories of chatting with Jimi Hendrix just days before his death or the night she spent consoling Janis Joplin when yet another man let her down. If you adore the beatnick writers then you'll be intrigued to learn one of them once mistook her for a pretty boy + tried to pick her up !

But if Just Kids has anything to teach us it is surely that Love comes in many different forms. And at that time the Love of her young Life was Robert Mapplethorpe. Only later did she discover he was homosexual + quite willing to sell his body to men for sex. But he then developed an interest in Bondage + Sadomasochism which he maintained was entirely artistic but poor Patti had her doubts. Yet the bond ( ! ) between them remained as strong as ever. Their Love had undergone a strange alchemical change : now they were like brother + sister . Even when Robert was dying from AIDS an older , more mature + now married Patti was still by his side. She'd had her first child with Fred Sonic Smith + her second was on its way...living within her as Robert lay dying...

As Patti so beautifully puts it : We were as Hansel + Gretel + we ventured out into the black forest of the world. There were temptations + witches + demons we never dreamed of + there was splendour we only partially imagined. No one could speak for these 2 young people nor tell any truths of their days + nights together. Only Robert + I could tell it. And , having gone , he left the task to me ...

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16 people found this helpful

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John Fitzpatrick
"I preferred an artist who transformed his time, not mirrored it."
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 April 2011
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I was a great fan of Patti Smith in my younger days but as she has grown older she has become an example of the kind of New Age weirdness and political correctness that make my teeth grind.*

So it was with some trepidation that I picked her memoirs of her time with Robert Mapplethorpe, expecting peace and love-type psychobabble.

Instead, it was a well-written, disciplined account of her relationship with him and early life and mercifully free from her political opinions.

She also resisted the temptation to get over-emotional about some episodes in her life, such as giving away her baby daughter when she was 19, and her description of how she and Mapplethorpe went their separate ways is refreshingly sober.

Her obsession with French badboy poet Rimbaud becomes a bit tedious especially as she does not explain why he was so important to her.

Nor does she give any good reason why she and Mapplethorpe chose to live in a cramped room in the Chelsea Hotel next to the room where Dylan Thomas died.

The quality slips at times and name dropping abounds - Dylan (Bob, not the Welsh one), William Burroughs, Salvador Dali, Janis Joplin, Lou Reed and Alan Ginzburg** - but overall the book is low key, factual and fairly convincing.

There are also incisive barbs such as her comment comparing Mapplethorpe with Andy Warhol: "I preferred an artist who transformed his time, not mirrored it."

It's difficult to believe she was as innocent and naïve as she makes out.

Patti Smith obviously regards herself as a "writer, performer and visual artist". However, as far as I am concerned she is a rock singer and will be judged as such.

I`ll never forget the impact her first album had on me when I was a student in Edinburgh in the early/mid 1970s and life was founded on rock and roll and first love.

* Check out her site if you don't believe me. ** Who thought she was a boy the first time he met her.

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9 people found this helpful

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susan
Hreat
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 November 2024
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Good read

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Ms. Bernardi
An elegy for Maplethorpe
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 November 2010
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Simply written yet eloquent, Smith has honored her friend, soulmate and fellow muse with a wonderful book about their relationship and artistic development. The New York scene for "kids" was scrappy if you arrived with no money, job or place to live. The conditions in which they survived in the early stage of their relationship, the hustling for food,sleeping in Central Park, street living at its worst, was shocking. That both Smith and Maplethorpe were able to find influential people to support and believe in them despite the crude living conditions, demonstrates how much talent they must have exhibited early on. This is not a biography of Maplethorpe, nor of Smith, but essential for understanding how each contributed to the successful artistic maturation of the other. New York in the 60's and seventies is the third subject of this book. In the hands of Smith, modestly recounted (unlike a similar book by Edmund White in which he mostly honors himself, his sex life] and his intelligence!)[City Boy: My Life in New York During the 1960s and 1970s], one can only consider this an elegy to Maplethorpe and a gift to any reader or lover of Maplethorpe's art.

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Jadson
Just loved it
Reviewed in Brazil on 12 July 2020
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Not being a connoisseur of Patti Smith's songs I've always read about her and I've being well aware of her prominence in the world of arts. I knew she's always been in love with Robert, but this book brought me the real history of their relationship as well as the early Patti's biography as well. A nice read and I'll start reading more of her books and listening to her songs.

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Innamorata
Reviewed in Italy on 5 February 2025
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Un libro stupendo, una scrittura super piacevole. Lo leggerei mille volte.

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Alex
Tolles Buch
Reviewed in Germany on 3 March 2025
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Tolles Buch, hab es mit Freude gelesen

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Alex
de 10
Reviewed in Spain on 3 January 2022
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Patti Smith forjó una reputación formidable gracias a su actuación en el escenario + frente a la cámara cada vez que daba entrevistas. Pero detrás del grito rebelde yacía una persona de increíble calidez, buen humor + generosidad de espíritu.

A medida que crece en la "contracultura" escuchamos todo sobre sus aventuras, encuentros + influencias formativas. A los fanáticos del rock les encantará sus recuerdos de charlar con Jimi Hendrix pocos días antes de su muerte o la noche que pasó consolando a Janis Joplin cuando otro hombre la decepcionó. Si adoras a los escritores beatnick entonces te intriga aprender que uno de ellos una vez la confundió con un niño "bonito" + trató de recogerla!

Pero si Just Kids tiene algo que enseñarnos es seguramente que el Amor viene en muchas formas diferentes. Y en ese momento el Amor de su joven Vida era Robert Mapplethorpe. Sólo más tarde descubrió que era homosexual+ muy dispuesto a vender su cuerpo a hombres por sexo. Pero luego desarrolló un interés en Bondage + sadomasoquismo que él sostuvo que era totalmente artístico, pero la pobre Patti tenía sus dudas. Sin embargo, el vínculo (! ) entre ellos permaneció tan fuerte como siempre. Su Amor había sufrido un extraño cambio alquímico: ahora eran como hermano + hermana. Incluso cuando Robert estaba muriendo de SIDA un mayor, más maduro + ahora casado Patti seguía a su lado. Ella había tenido su primer hijo con Fred Sonic Smith y su segundo estaba en camino... viviendo dentro de ella mientras Robert yacía muriendo...

Como Patti tan bellamente lo dice: «Estábamos como Hansel + Gretel + nos aventuramos a la selva negra del mundo. Hubo tentaciones +brujas + demonios con los que nunca soñamos + había esplendor que sólo imaginamos parcialmente. Nadie podía hablar por estos 2 jóvenes ni contar verdades de sus días y noches juntos. Sólo Robert + podía decirlo. Y, habiendo ido, me dejó la tarea a mí...

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hessa
wowie
Reviewed in the United Arab Emirates on 22 October 2021
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so so so so good

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Just Kids: the National Book Award-winning memoir (Bloomsbury Paperbacks) Paperback – 4 Jan. 2011

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Hansel + Gretel : witches + demons

Top reviews from United Kingdom

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5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational, beautiful - I would recommend

5.0 out of 5 stars Hansel + Gretel : witches + demons

Hansel + Gretel : witches + demons

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4.0 out of 5 stars "I preferred an artist who transformed his time, not mirrored it."

5.0 out of 5 stars Hreat

5.0 out of 5 stars An elegy for Maplethorpe

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5.0 out of 5 stars Just loved it

5.0 out of 5 stars Innamorata

5.0 out of 5 stars Tolles Buch

5.0 out of 5 stars de 10

5.0 out of 5 stars wowie

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Inspirational, beautiful - I would recommend

Hansel + Gretel : witches + demons

"I preferred an artist who transformed his time, not mirrored it."

Hreat

An elegy for Maplethorpe

Just loved it

Innamorata

Tolles Buch

de 10

wowie