I just finished Patti Smith's National Book Award-winning novel, Just Kids. And just as I was thrilled by M Train I was thrilled and pleased with this one.
First, from my review on my Goodreads account:
"I had previously read M Train, which Patti Smith said is the "death", whereas Just Kids is the "birth." And indeed it is. Just Kids tells the story of Smith's coming to New York with only the shirt on her back and, as if by destiny, meeting Robert Mapplethorpe. Smith would become a singer and writer, Robert would become a photographer, but this book isn't about who they would become. It's about who they were. The story begins at the bottoms and ends just as they are both becoming famous. It looks romantically, lovingly, and longingly at the time before when they struggled from apartment to apartment, job to job; and when fame is achieved, it is rushed through, glazed over, as if that was unimportant. And in the end the story is about what shaped them into who they became, all told in the very poetic prose of Patti Smith."
And that pretty much sums the novel up. Yes, some people criticized it for "name dropping", and indeed there are a lot of famous people mentioned (William Burroughs, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, to name just a few) but Smith actually addressed this in an interview, saying that at that time they were all "just kids." And as I mentioned, this book was more about young people becoming who they are meant to be; it is not as much focused on the lens of fame but as much on the development of the artist, finding their voice, achieving their goals, and rubbing elbows with everyone on the way up that ladder.
I applaud you, Patti Smith.
And now, onto The Name of the Rose. Something completely different.
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