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adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Suicide, Religious bigotry
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
A gift
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Grief
Moderate: Suicide
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
das geht gar nicht. das ist wie schlagzeugspielen - wenn man den einen beat auslässt, erzeugt man einen neuen.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use
Moderate: Eating disorder, Suicide
Minor: Abortion, Pregnancy
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Just Kids by Patti Smith - Review (🇬🇧 + 🇩🇪)
Smith writes about her life in the seventies and eighties as well as her shared experiences with Robert Mapplethorpe: two artists who were each others muses.
From lovers to friends with a sibling-like bond. From poor AF dreamers to acknowledged artists. Their story gives an open account on life itself and the art scene in New York City.
Starting this book the reader knows about the lack of a happy ending. But it’s rich in hopes, dreams, memories and the acceptance of a thing called being alive. It’s a great read for everyone who has a heart for modern art, rock music, poetry or an alternative NYC. Her writing impressed me a lot!
_____
🇩🇪 Just Kids von Patti Smith
Smith beschreibt ihren Lebensweg in den 70ern und 80ern, der untrennbar mit dem von Robert Mapplethorpe verbunden war: Zwei Kunstschaffende, die sich gegenseitig ihre Musen waren.
Von Liebenden zu Freunden mit geschwisterlicher Verbundenheit. Von bettelarmen Träumern zu anerkannten Künstlern. Ihre gemeinsame Geschichte lässt tief blicken in das Leben als solches und das Treiben in New York.
Von Seite 1 ist klar, dass es kein Happy End geben wird. Aber es ist reich an Hoffnung, Erinnerungen und der schlichten Akzeptanz des Seins. Sehr lesenswert für alle, die sich mit modernerer Kunst, Rock, Poesie oder dem alternativen New York irgendwie verbunden fühlen. Ich war von ihrer Art zu schreiben sehr beeindruckt!
Smith writes about her life in the seventies and eighties as well as her shared experiences with Robert Mapplethorpe: two artists who were each others muses.
From lovers to friends with a sibling-like bond. From poor AF dreamers to acknowledged artists. Their story gives an open account on life itself and the art scene in New York City.
Starting this book the reader knows about the lack of a happy ending. But it’s rich in hopes, dreams, memories and the acceptance of a thing called being alive. It’s a great read for everyone who has a heart for modern art, rock music, poetry or an alternative NYC. Her writing impressed me a lot!
_____
🇩🇪 Just Kids von Patti Smith
Smith beschreibt ihren Lebensweg in den 70ern und 80ern, der untrennbar mit dem von Robert Mapplethorpe verbunden war: Zwei Kunstschaffende, die sich gegenseitig ihre Musen waren.
Von Liebenden zu Freunden mit geschwisterlicher Verbundenheit. Von bettelarmen Träumern zu anerkannten Künstlern. Ihre gemeinsame Geschichte lässt tief blicken in das Leben als solches und das Treiben in New York.
Von Seite 1 ist klar, dass es kein Happy End geben wird. Aber es ist reich an Hoffnung, Erinnerungen und der schlichten Akzeptanz des Seins. Sehr lesenswert für alle, die sich mit modernerer Kunst, Rock, Poesie oder dem alternativen New York irgendwie verbunden fühlen. Ich war von ihrer Art zu schreiben sehr beeindruckt!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
"Why can't I write something that would awake the dead?" (279)
This may not be Smith's endeavor in Just Kids, having accepted that the immortality of art does not extend to its creators. She instead embarks on a Homeric elegy to her dearest friend and lover Robert Mapplethorpe as well as the New York City of their formative artistic years. However, I experienced a personal rebirth. I am renewed in my artistic aspirations, inspired by Smith's succinct candor towards embracing her weaknesses, inspirations, and varied experiences as a young woman. I identified with her and found the hindsight with which she speaks aspirational. When she falls into "trouble" as a teenager:
"I had relieved the boy of responsibility... It is impossibke to exaggerate the sudden calm I felt. An overwhleming sense of mission eclipsed my fears" (18)
or when contracting a venereal disease from her dearest friend. She is loving and loyal. Creatively subversive while adhering to binaries of good and evil, life and death, God and sin.
The only weakness is in the myriad of unexplained allusions to people in the scene, at some point, there are too many people whose eclectic influence on her life and not enough page. You have to accept the unknowing.
I am reminded of me and Jack. Of a love so deep I am not afraid of losing it. And when the love was young and ripe, I see me and Wes.
The only weakness is in the myriad of unexplained allusions to people in the scene, at some point, there are too many people whose eclectic influence on her life and not enough page. You have to accept the unknowing.
I am reminded of me and Jack. Of a love so deep I am not afraid of losing it. And when the love was young and ripe, I see me and Wes.
"I was there for these moments, but was so young and preoccupied with my own thoughts that I hardly recognized them as moments" (159).
This is in part my plague. I love my own thoughts to the point of idolization, may this never stop me from living. May I walk alongside them, knowing they are there as a constant companion.
"It seemed being an actor was like being a soldier: you had to sacrifice yourself to the greater good. You had to believe in the cause. I just couldn't surrender myself enough to be an actor" (165).
This is why I have always maintained that the actor does not create the art, they are the conduit. The brush. The paint. They must be a little stupid.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Terminal illness, Medical content
Minor: Suicide
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Beautiful book, fascinating story.
Content Warnings
Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Terminal illness, Abortion
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Toxic friendship
Minor: Homophobia, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Blood, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol
emotional
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
I was moved by how honest this is book is in its depiction of two young artists. Even with the love she has for Mapplethorpe and his memory, Patti Smith is willing to show them both at their best and worst.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse
Moderate: Death, Terminal illness
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Could all friends be like Patti and Robert, and all love stories as beautiful, deep and meaningful.
In this vivid and detailed account of their times together we are completely transported to the NY of the late 60’s and 70’s, to the arts and all its people, the muses and creators, the lovers, the dead, and the living.
The poetry of a time, of a love that went beyond death and now is elevated by Patti’s words.
Deeply moving.
In this vivid and detailed account of their times together we are completely transported to the NY of the late 60’s and 70’s, to the arts and all its people, the muses and creators, the lovers, the dead, and the living.
The poetry of a time, of a love that went beyond death and now is elevated by Patti’s words.
Deeply moving.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use
Moderate: Sexual content
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse
Minor: Self harm, Suicide