Book Review: Just Kids by Patti Smith

I'm rounding out the season of summer reading with a series of memoirs.  This happened completely accidentally.  I reserved one from library and while I was on the site, I remembered that I wanted to read another.  Soon enough, my queue was filled with half a dozen memoirs.  And so there you go.

The one that started this tangent was Patti Smith's Just Kids.  It had been on my reading list for a while, it just took me this long to remember to reserve it.  One night I was out with my friend Elisa, who essentially suggested that I drop whatever else I was doing and find a copy of this book.  And I'm glad I took her advice.

Looking at her now, a mature artist with an iconic career, it's hard to imagine that Patti Smith was once young and dumb.  She was once 18, and make the decisions and mistakes that 18-year-old do.  She flew by the seat of her pants, took chances and saw the world with wonder.  This led her to meeting Robert Mapplethorpe.  Together, the two of them explored the city, immersed themselves in the bohemian scene erupting around them and experimented with their art. 

Just Kids is a beautiful tale of two young people coming into their own, falling in love with each other and the world.  Patti Smith has an absolutely poetic way of looking at the world.  Even through tough times of homelessness and poverty, she describes the time she spent with Mapplethorpe with tenderness and caring.  As life began to take the two of them on divergent paths, they managed to maintain their mutual support system, having their unique bond as a touch-stone.  Through the highs and lows, especially the lows, they were always there for each other. It's a reminder that within us all, we have a vulnerability and that we all start out as kids.