Review: Just Kids by Patti Smith

5/5 stars

I don’t need to tell you this book is good. It won a National Book Award.

But you need to know how simply life-changing this book is.

Patti Smith is a famous rock singer, but she’s also a lyricist and a poet. Her prose reads that way — like edgy poetry.

The story, a memoir, follows a young Patti as she stumbles out of college before graduation to pursue a career as an “artist,” and whatever that means keeps changing between visual, written and performed art.

What doesn’t change is her struggle for money, identity and love.

Though the book is about Patti’s life, it’s mostly about her relationship with a man — the now-famous photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. But don’t cringe. It’s good.

This is a real story, so I don’t feel like it’s a spoiler: he’s gay, but they have the most riveting romantic relationship of a lifetime. It’s beautiful. It’s complicated. It makes a story about a boy so interesting and refreshing to read.

This book is monumental if you are in a moment of transition in your life. It proves that anything can happen to you at any time, and it’s invaluable to always be looking our for art and beauty.

I couldn’t resist marking the book up. It’s one of the only books I’ve read this summer that I will certainly read again.

Five stars, no question.