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Review

Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe always thought that they would be famous one day. When they found each other in the late 1960's, each was on his own path but determined and somewhat on an identity quest. They became such good friends that they kept each other on track until they found themselves and the world was ready for them. They began as lovers but when Mapplethorpe realized that he was gay, they split their resources but not their lives. Mapplethorpe found his place first with a camera but Smith found fame before he did and she became a rock star. Later Mapplethorpe gained his fame before he became an AIDS victim in 1989. Just Kids is Patti Smith's memoir of their friendship and it is loving and tender.

Smith takes us the halcyon days of New York and we hear about William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Winter and Janis Joplin. We go to the Hotel Chelsea where she and Mapplethorpe lived and to Max's Kansas City where they ate. But what we really get here is her deep love for Mapplethorpe and we learn how she believed in him. We get a look of funky and chic New York that is just beautifully written. The book is a love story that ends as an elegy and it is a true fable of how two young artists became famous. Patti Smith bares it all for us and we really see how she and Mapplethorpe became who they became. If I have a complaint it is that I want more. Smith has whetted my appetite and I am sure she has many more stories to tell. We are reminded that everyone has to start somewhere and that success is not easy to find. Smith's New York is one that has faded into memory as a time and place where "just kids" learn who they are. It is a New York that is no more and for that alone this is a great read but add to that the beautiful prose of Patti Smith and you really have something. Here is a story of unconditional love, total loyalty and spirituality that has no bounds.

 -- Amos Lassen