OntheWilderSide

Maybe I am not the most objective observer.  I love Patti Smith‘s music, and I love her politics.  And now I have to say I love her writing in Just Kids.  Her book was an addictive read.  I usually sit with a book for months.  I finished this book in a week.   Her style of writing in short vignettes, and her straight-forward writing style, makes it easy to move through the book quickly.

The primary thesis of the book is to document her relationship with her friend, lover, muse and subject Robert Mapplethorpe.  She gives the reader entree into the difficult path two young artists forged in order to find their very original voices.  Along the way, they meet, interact with,  and befriend the artists, poets, and musicians that defined the early 1970′s.  The book is a portrait of two emerging artists within a cultural history.

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• Patti Smith at Poetry Project 1/1/08
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Filed under: Art, Books, music, News, poetry Tagged: | Just Kids, Mapplethorpe, PattiSmith, photography, punk