‘Just Kids,’ by Patti Smith, given out during World Book Night at Lester’s (Miami), gave me the opportunity to read an enjoyable, yet sad journey of love, life, and death.
The well crafted writing made it easy to read, going full steam through the lives of two people we have come to know fairly well, Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe. Personally, I was not that familiar with Smith as I don’t gravitate to punk rock one bit. However, her long efforts at writing have certainly paid off making me wonder what some of her other writings are like. Especially her poems.
Granted, the book was released a while back, but only having recently read it makes me want to share it. In addition, Smith has a new album released within the past week or two. What I heard on NPR sounded pretty good, although my musical preference leans heavily toward instrumental, as it always has and will continue that way.
Courtesy of Art & Commerce; © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation
Patti Smith in 1975, photographed by Robert Mapplethorpe.
Born weeks apart in 1946, Smith and Mapplethorpe played Mutt and Jeff from their first meeting in 1967 through his death from AIDS more than 20 years later. They were lovers as well until he came out of the closet with more anguish than anyone familiar with his bold later career as gay sexuality’s answer to Mathew Brady (and Jesse Helms’s N.E.A. nemesis) is likely to find credible. Yet his Catholic upbringing had been conservative enough that he and Smith had to fake being married for his parents’ sake during their liaison.
Excerpt: ‘Just Kids’ (harpercollins.com)
Books of The Times: ‘Just Kids’ by Patti Smith
(January 18, 2010)
