Her Story Of His

"Just Kids" is one of the most successful books of 2010, both commercially and artistically.  It stayed for 37 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, and it won the 2010 National Book Award for non-fiction. This has been on my TBR pile for so long, definitely for more than a year now. I just finished the book literally minutes ago and it is definitely well-written. Smith definitely has a way with words, but we all knew that for she is a celebrated poet and a songwriter. The last chapters are heartbreaking, when she describes her last encounters with Robert Mapplethorpe, of whose life this book is a celebration of. I wish I related to it more, or was more interested in this time line for artists, spanning the late 60s, all the way to the 70s. I was mildly interested in The Chelsea Hotel when it was an artists' colony, because I have passed by that building hundreds of thousands of times because that area is very close to my heart. A lot of times the book seems to be constantly name-dropping, but it never sounded put on. I wish there were more "story" to their story, and some people have commented that her version is a bit white-washed. I have to admit that I was more interested in his part of the story than hers, and how his art was created more than how she hers. Truth be told, while reading the book wasn't boring, it took me a longer time than usual to finish it, but I was glad to read it, and it gave me a glimpse of the city I know and love right before I met it. 

BC-21