JUST KIDS

Rock musician Patti Smith, no stranger to the microphone, delivers her memoir of life with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe with guarded emotion. After a chance meeting on Smith's first day in New York in 1966, the two remained tightly bonded for the rest of his life. Smith unflinchingly bares their years together, giving equal weight to highs and lows. Despite bouts of homelessness and poverty, the couple was often in the right place to meet some of the greatest artists of their generation, including Andy Warhol, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Sam Shepard. Smith, however, is no name-dropper, never exaggerating her relationships and humbly keeping Mapplethorpe at the center of the story. Listeners are treated to one song, and Smith's tone becomes more authentic and personal in her epilogue. C.B.L. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2011]