Happy New Year's Resolution to write book reviews
Just Kids, Patti Smith
The Facts: This is a memoir by singer/poet Patti Smith, describing her early years, her move to New York, and her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.
Is it good? Hell yes. Smith has a wonderful gift for storytelling, not just engaging the reader in her tales of childhood antics and her early years of becoming an artist, but charming the reader as well, drawing us into her world with fellow artist Robert Mapplethorpe, bringing us the streets of New York as they were in the late 60s and early 70s.
My musical life started the generation after Patti Smith, and so I did not grow up listening to her music or being influenced by her work except through the artists who were inspired by her. She stands as a distant figure, someone to admire, someone on my list to check out, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. This was a book that I picked up in the library, curious because I had heard so many positive reviews of it, meaning only to read a few sentences to get the gist of her voice. It was immediately engrossing, her descriptions of her early years in Philly are so vivid and heartbreaking and wonderful, that one instantly feels to be in the hands of a master.
Robert Mapplethorpe first came to my attention in 1990. There was an exhibition of his work slated to show at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, and as usual, Boston was a-roil in controversy about whether or not showing his photos would send the town straight to hell on the taxpayers' dime. Mapplethorpe's work was looked at through the lens of AIDS, his photos exposed the underground of the underground - images of S&M, B&D in stark black and white and vivid color, oddly paired with staid portraiture of celebrities and artists. Boston eventually got over itself enough to let the ICA run the exhibit, with extremist Christian protest groups picking up the tab for advertising the show. I remember only a few images from the tiny display - a naked body with a whip laid over the torso, the smooth features of the man himself, shirtless and seated. It was impossible to look at the photos without looking at the plague that killed the artist, a curious experience for the viewer.
Smith tells the story of the Mapplethorpe that lead up to those images - the struggles of the young artist, and the conflicts of a man coming to terms with his sexuality. Her own struggles and sacrifices for poetry and music weave in and out of the story of their relationship, young artists discovering themselves in each other.
Favorite part: There is a story Patti tells from her childhood, that overlaps with the early days of her relationship with Robert that is just astonishing. Huddled under blankets trying to keep warm, she tells Robert of how she stole a skating pin from a dying friend, while he protests "Patti, no!" - this is the moment I put the book down to take a breath and realize that I was reading something extraordinary.
