Is Just Kids Worth Reading?
by Patti Smith
Ada’s Score
Patti Smith's memoir chronicles her deep, formative friendship and love affair with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in late 1960s and 1970s New York. Set against the bohemian world of the Chelsea Hotel and the downtown arts scene, the book is a love letter to artistic ambition and mutual devotion. Smith's prose carries the same incantatory quality as her music — beautiful, strange, and shot through with longing. Winner of the National Book Award, it remains one of the finest memoirs about becoming an artist.
Spotlight“A love story, an elegy, a portrait of an era. Smith writes about art and friendship like no one else alive.”
When Two Artists Became Each Other's Greatest Work
Patti Smith wrote Just Kids as a promise kept to Robert Mapplethorpe on his deathbed — and you feel the weight of that vow on every luminous page. This is a book about being young and hungry and magnetic in a New York City that no longer exists, but more than that, it's about the rare kind of friendship that shapes who you become as an artist and a person. Smith's prose doesn't just describe beauty; it creates it.
Ada Brief
AI reading intelligence“A love story, an elegy, a portrait of an era. Smith writes about art and friendship like no one else alive.”
When Two Artists Became Each Other's Greatest Work
Patti Smith wrote Just Kids as a promise kept to Robert Mapplethorpe on his deathbed — and you feel the weight of that vow on every luminous page. This is a book about being young and hungry and magnetic in a New York City that no longer exists, but more than that, it's about the rare kind of friendship that shapes who you become as an artist and a person. Smith's prose doesn't just describe beauty; it creates it.
Book Details
- Publisher
- Ecco
- Published
- January 1, 2010
- Pages
- 278
- Language
- ENG
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Affiliate linksISBN: 9780066211312
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Ada’s Score
4.6
Ada’s editorial score — not an aggregate of reader reviews.
Common Questions About Just Kids
- Is Just Kids worth reading?
- A love story, an elegy, a portrait of an era. Smith writes about art and friendship like no one else alive. Ada rates it 4.6 out of 5.
- How many pages is Just Kids?
- Just Kids is 278 pages long — around 5–6 hours at an average reading pace.
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