'Just Kids' by Patti Smith: On Love, Friendship, Youth, and Art

"'Patti, did art get us?' 

Perhaps it did, but no one could regret that.

Only a fool would regret being had by art; or a saint.”

What does it truly mean to create art? To love it, to live for it? Who are we, really - as artists and, more importantly, as lovers?

Just Kids is the story of Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe as they try to find the answers to these questions. They maneuver the streets of New York, the art world of the 60s-70s, and with it, their own creative processes. They starve, move from house to house, take up odd jobs to earn a living (as rock and roll as it gets), and yet, give all they have to art. And at the crux of the novel lies the relationship between the two - the inexplicably beautiful, unconventional, and unbreakable friendship of a lifetime.

“Yet you could feel a vibration in the air, a sense of hastening. It had started with the moon, inaccessible poem that it was. Now men had walked upon it, rubber treads on a pearl of the gods. Perhaps it was an awareness of time passing, the last summer of the decade. 

Sometimes I just wanted to raise my hands and stop. But stop what? Maybe just growing up.”

I was in tears by the end, sniffling, overwhelmed. And after I was done, I began to miss the novel immensely, wishing I had drawn it out longer.

Patti Smith’s writing is genuine, never too ‘literary’ as to be overbearing, but so simply beautiful all the same. The novel takes us through the work of these two artists (and many more), and in such a way, gives a very honest insight into the way art is created. 

“What will happen to us?" I asked. "There will always be us," he answered.”

With such a genuine portrait of their friendship, the author makes you fall in love with the whole idea of creating and consuming art, especially alongside another artist, a best friend, a muse - the lines blurring between all the three. I absolutely loved the rock and roll vibe underlining the novel, which only accentuates the plot and the characters - the feeling of being young, of knowing nothing, of being hopelessly lost in a world where you don’t know how you can ever make a name for yourself. And yet, you find someone to hold your hand, to starve with you, laugh with you, to discuss art with you, to fail and succeed and grow with you, and suddenly, it’s not so difficult anymore. And that's exactly what Patti and Robert had.

And that’s why this story is so important for artists everywhere. Because when you suddenly remember that this is a true story, that this really happened, that Patti and Robert found not just each other, but love and success too, it restores your hope and faith in choosing a life of art. 

Just Kids is thus also about the sheer power of being young - the grit and ambition, the head full of ideas, the longing for more while having very little. The book takes you back to leather jackets and ‘60s records and cheap New York apartments and bars. But one thing stays the same between our time and theirs, the one thing that ties us all together across generations, the one thing we need no matter where we are - art. 

It’s daring. It’s passionate. It’s poetry and rock ‘n’ roll. 

Every artist must read this book, and perhaps read it young, as I did - because it will remind you of the point of it all, of the reason why we choose art over and over. 

“Where does it all lead? What will become of us? These were our young questions, and young answers were revealed. It leads to each other. We become ourselves.”