The book “Just Kids” about Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe sums up the American dream of any true artist: two young artists struggle through hunger and hard work. They never give up and end up achieving both success and fame.
By Nadine Lensborn
“Just Kids” is an enchanting “coming of age” story about two unique artists. Patti Smith was born in Chicago and as a teenager she grew up in the suburbs of New Jersey, which most of all is described as grey and cheerless.
Patti´s father takes Patti and her siblings on their first trip to a museum in Philadelphia and the artwork of Picasso totally knocks Patti off her young feet.
“I had no proof that I even had substance in me to become an artist, but I wanted it intensely. ” , Patti writes. The fire is lit in the young Patti.
The possibilities are limited in New Jersey for Patti, who ends up working on the assembly line at the local factory (she later wrote a poem about the dull working years, put into a song called “Piss Factory”). After she goes through a pregnancy and ends up giving the child up for adoption , she decides to take fate into her own hands and jumps on a Greyhound bus to the metropolis for any dreamer who wants to become an artist: New York.
The rest of the story unfolds the real American dream: At first Patti struggles through life as a homeless person, sleeping on benches in the park. She manages to get a job however, and quickly afterwards, almost literally runs into the arms of Robert Mapplethorpe. The reader then follows them through their blooming love relationship and daily struggles as poor artists, where Patti herself is toying with drawing, theatre and poetry, until she finally gets her breakthrough as the rock singer, she is mostly known as today.
The largest chapter in the book is dedicated to the city of New York and is entitled “Chelsea Hotel”. The Chelsea Hotel and art `as a political megaphone´ is the theme for a large part of the story. Patti and Robert end up living at the hotel, as they are broke and homeless, and rumour has it, that they could pay for their lodging with pieces of art. At the time the Chelsea Hotel housed several (then still unknown) artists, so the book also gives a fascinating and quite unique insight into a time and historic era for both art and music in New York in the 1960´s and 1970´s.
“Just Kids” can be read without any knowledge of Patti Smith or her music. The love story of Patti and Robert is the touching driving force through most pages of the book. Intimately, though never invading private space, Patti gives the reader a loving, sober, humorous and genuinely warmhearted insight into the life and years she shared with Robert. It´s hard to doubt the authenticity of the love binding the two of them together – not even when Robert´s homosexuality is suggested, and soon blossoms in full. Most of all “Just Kids” burns through the readers hearts as the story of a strong friendship between two people who are committed to eachother for better or worse.
“Why can´t I write something, that can wake the dead!” asks Patti at the end of the book. I am close to claiming that this is exactly what “Just Kids” manages to do. The streets of New York, the Chelsea hotel and its changing visitors, and all the people Patti meets through the pages; people like Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, Andy Warhol – and most of all Robert Mapplethorpe (with help of great pictures in the book) – They all shine alive before one´s inner eyes throughout and after the reading.
Today, so many years afterwards, we still have the beautiful and well known photography artwork by Robert Mapplethorpe to enjoy. And Patti, as “Just Kids” shows, did not only become a great singer. She can also put “book author” with great pride on her artist business card.
Patti Smith “Just Kids”
A memoir, 2010.
Photos: Nadine Lensborn