Just Kids Just Kids

Just Kids

An Autobiography

    • 4.4 • 997 Ratings
    • $11.99
    • $11.99

Publisher Description

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 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 Max’s 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.

GENRE
Biographies & Memoirs
RELEASED
2010
April 20
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
320
Pages
PUBLISHER
HarperCollins e-books
SELLER
HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS
SIZE
2.5
MB

Customer Reviews

CoolCoolBreeze ,

A natural writer

Patti employs a poetic economy with her words that drives the story along nicely.
Her memory for the details of that long ago era is remarkable, helped, no doubt by the diary that she kept all those years.
She is a true artist that never sold out for fame or money. Her performance of Because the Night with Bruce Springsteen this year at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was the highlight of an already stellar show.
Patti, please bring on Volume 2 when you are ready.

Ceceilcreeps ,

Patti Smith

I’m glad you guys enjoyed my book.

Daftpunkisplayingatmyhouse ,

Totally Captivated

I haven't read a book in a long time, maybe ever, that had such a profound effect on me as Just Kids did. I was completely immersed in the story of Patti Smith's life and hung on to every detail. She took romantic to an entirely new level. I am completely fascinated and deeply touched by the lifestyle of her and Robert Mappelthorpe. It's difficult to explain, but this book has made me appreciate life more and all of the wonderful things that are possible and the extent of human emotion. I appreciated Patti Smith's realness. She wasn't fueled by drugs, but rather by the beauty of life. The relationship that formed between Patti and Robert was truly inspiring. To witness first hand that soul mates do exist. It was sometimes hard to believe that I was reading about someone's real life because that is how interesting the events were. As far as portraying the times and the characters during which the events of the story unfolded, I couldn't imagine a better presentation. I was deeply moved by Just Kids and sad at the end, not only because of the tragic nature of the story, but that I had no more of the wonderful tale to read.

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