I love memoirs, and this is a good one. How can it not be, as penned by punk rocker and poet Patti Smith?
This is the story of her early years in New York City, specifically 1967 to 1973. She arrived broke and hopeful, having dropped out of college, with the resolve that "I would do my duty and stay strong and healthy. I would never look back. I would not return to the factory or the teachers college. I would be an artist. I would prove my worth..."
Shortly after her arrival she met a young man, Robert Mapplethorpe, and he became tremendously important to her. They shared with each other their mutual commitment to art and while they explored the world of New York and their inner lives as artists and went hungry together, they gave generously to each other. If she faltered, he was there with words of encouragement, and she provided the same for him. "Patti, no one sees as we do," he would tell her.
She encouraged him to use a camera, he encouraged her to write her poetry. They were lovers and best friends, and when they finally go their separate ways together, you will not want to leave their rarified world. In prose that is loving and poetic, Smith writes tenderly and compassionately of her youth and her muse.
