Just Kids by Patti Smith

When I had finally gotten around to visit the public library to pick up a nonfiction book, I had other books in mind. Just Kids wasn't even on my radar, though I'm not upset to say this was the book I found and ultimately got stuck with. Being a person who usually reads fictional books instead of nonfiction, it was slightly intimidating to start reading this book, even though it was fairly short. I'm glad that this is the book I ended up with.
I didn't know who Patti Smith was when I first picked up the book, but my father filled in for me that she was a well-known poet, singer, and visual artist. I found it easy to relate to Patti when she struggled with procrastination when creating some pieces of art. As a fellow artist, I know it's easy to get a finished piece of work in your mind and have it go all wrong by the time you've finally finished it. Patti obviously had more determination than I because she would try again, making several different drawings of the same thing at one point. I can say that I sometimes start a drawing and never finish it. With Patti, she had done that with her poetry. She would have many unfinished poems sprawled out on her floor as she worked on another never to be finished poem. Artists need inspiration and I am proud to say this book has in fact fueled me to finished one or two of my drawings.
Patti Smith had a friend named Robert who had gotten into photography closer to the end of the book. I enjoy photography myself, but I can't say I enjoy capturing the same images as Robert. Although he was into some pretty heavy and artistic photographs, he also liked to take modest portraits of people. He would photograph Patti for her book covers. One of the fun things about this book is it includes some of the images mentioned in the book; there are several photographs, drawings, and even a tie rack. It's cool to be able to actually see what Patti was seeing, it makes it more personal.
I'd say the worst aspect to the book is Patti Smith did a large amount of name dropping. At many points in the book, she would just list off a bunch of names that I did not recognize, and sometimes they weren't relevant and never came up again in the book. I did recognize a few famous people such as Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, and Janis Joplin. I was just a little surprised that Susan Sontag was mentioned. I believe she was present at a poetry reading that Patti and her friend were preforming at. Susan Sontag was one of the authors of the articles we read, if you recall, she wrote a piece about 9/11. Unfortunately, Sontag's piece hadn't left a good impression in my mind. Though I did search her up on Wikipedia and she was known for writing about photography and culture, so her being present at a poetry reading isn't very shocking. The connections one makes from reading is pretty neat.
The main reason that this book was difficult to get through was the vocabulary. It wasn't difficult for me to find all 40 vocabulary words, but it was a pain to have to stop what I'm doing to write down an unknown word and then look it up. Having little patience with my on-the-fritz-phone, I used a real dictionary to look up the words. At the time I realized that I had more than enough words, I just ditched the notecards and dictionary to enjoy the last of the book without the distraction. Although it sort of got in the way of my concentration, it is still good to widen my vocabulary, mostly because mine is fairly small. I don't mean to mentally belittle myself because of this, but I could definitely get better. The other reason it was difficult to get through was that I was reading other books at the same time.
I mentioned a confusing character earlier: Robert Mapplethorpe. When Patti first met Robert, they had been lovers. At one point, Robert cheated on Patti and he turned out to be homosexual. Patti was totally okay with this, she didn't even seem to care. Robert and Patti had continued to be close friends, looking out for each other throughout the rest of the book. At the very beginning of the book, there was a part that was also in the end of the book -- Patti mourning after Robert's death.  From the very start readers had known that Robert would die, but wouldn't know his exact relationship with Patti. I honestly still don't understand what went down with those two. Patti ended up getting married and moved away from Robert. Near the end of the book, both of them had reached the point of fame that they had been striving for during the times they had been together, as lovers and as friends. Patti visited Robert often when he was bedridden. When Robert died, Patti knew, even though she wasn't there with him when it had happened. The saddest and sweetest part about Robert's passing was that Patti was at peace with it. She knew that she had been with Robert as a close friend for many important things that had happened in his life. She viewed his death as just another milestone that they had shared together.
This book Just Kids is an interesting tale of a young adventurous girl who grew up chasing her dreams and succeeded. If that's not an inspirational true story, I don't know what is. Overall, I would give it a solid 8.5 out of 10. Good job, Patti Smith.