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  • Just Kids

  • Written by: Patti Smith
  • Narrated by: Patti Smith
  • Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (161 ratings)

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Just Kids cover art

Just Kids

Written by: Patti Smith
Narrated by: Patti Smith
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Publisher's Summary

National Book Award, Nonfiction, 2010

It was the summer Coltrane died, the summer of love and riots, and the summer when a chance encounter in Brooklyn led two young people on a path of art, devotion, and initiation.

Patti Smith would evolve as a poet and performer, and Robert Mapplethorpe would direct his highly provocative style toward photography. Bound in innocence and enthusiasm, they traversed the city from Coney Island to 42nd Street, and eventually to the celebrated round table of Max's Kansas City, where the Andy Warhol contingent held court. In 1969, the pair set up camp at the Hotel Chelsea and soon entered a community of the famous and infamous - the influential artists of the day and the colorful fringe. It was a time of heightened awareness, when the worlds of poetry, rock and roll, art, and sexual politics were colliding and exploding. In this milieu, two kids made a pact to take care of each other. Scrappy, romantic, committed to create, and fueled by their mutual dreams and drives, they would prod and provide for one another during the hungry years.

Just Kids begins as a love story and ends as an elegy. It serves as a salute to New York City during the late 60s and 70s and to its rich and poor, its hustlers and hellions. A true fable, it is a portrait of two young artists' ascent, a prelude to fame.

©2010 Patti Smith (P)2011 Patti Smith

What the critics say

“Smith’s beautifully crafted love letter to her friend Robert Mapplethorpe functions as a memento mori of a relationship fueled by passion for art and writing. Her elegant eulogy lays bare the chaos and the creativity so embedded in that earlier time and in Mapplethorpe’s life and work.” ( Publishers Weekly, Top Ten Books of the Year)
“The most enchantingly evocative memoir of funky-but-chic New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s that any alumnus has yet committed to print.” (Janet Maslin's top 10 books of 2010, New York Times)
“Reading rocker Smith’s account of her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, it’s hard not to believe in fate. How else to explain the chance encounter that threw them together, allowing both to blossom? Quirky and spellbinding.” ( People, Top 10 Books of 2010)

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What listeners say about Just Kids

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Absolutely fantastic

I adore Patti Smith so reading this awesome story about an important part of her life was a treat, interesting and sad all at once. She is a very talented writer and I loved her narration of it. Thanks for everything Patti!

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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Dull zzzz

Made me want to poke out my eardrums

Void of any emotion
Layers of boring detail
Could not finish it
I really tried

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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A Beautiful, creative experience

hearing her read her story and her poems and one of her early songs was breathtaking :)

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing Journey

The only complaint I have is that it wasn't long enough as I could listen Patti Smith tell her story for days on end.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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A love story

An engrossing love story of two beautiful friends who inhabited and changed the world of art and music at a prolific and crazy time.
Patti with her Jersey dialect pulls you effortlessly into her and Robert’s story, peppered with poets, artists, and musicians of a magical time.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Best Bedtime/Daytime/Lifetime Book Ever

Just Kids swept me away, made me feel like I was sitting around the fire listening to an unimaginable yarn, filled with all the things that make life really meaningful. A beautiful story of friendship.

I was not a fan and had no more than a working knowledge of Horses. I am a now a convert, forever admirer and appreciator of all art by Robert and Patti. One of the best books of all time-a truly delicious dish. Thank you Patti!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Privileged to have a glance

As someone who has also been blessed by an extraordinary friend they would go on to lose, I knew I would enjoy this read. Smith is an incredible writer and I feel lucky to have listened to her tell this story.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Thanks

Thank you so much for sharing yours and Robert's lives with us. I was a huge Mapplethorpe fan and now I'm an equal Patti Smith fan.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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A beautiful and entrancing story

I loved listening to this story. Hearing Patti Smith herself tell it was so moving. The story is incredibly touching and captures a time in history while telling a timeless story.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book!

I am a big Patti Smith fan to start with but to hear her narrate her time in the 70's and her life with Robert Maplethorpe was so intriguing and interesting to hear. I want to listen to it again so I get any details I may have missed!

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