Author Bio - Patti Smith - Rock Legend and Poet Extraordinaire. And that's it. Look her up for yourself and listen to her songs. In absentia, the second author is Robert Mapplethorpe - again, look him up for yourself and immerse yourself in his imagery.
As soon as I finished this book, I started reading it again.
In essence, it's a memory of and for Robert Mapplethorpe by Patti Smith. She has created a poetic, touching and inspiring account of her life and more specifically her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe.
A few things stood out for me in this book. Firstly, Patti Smith knows how to put words together - which isn't news to the world - yet her prose in this book is highly understated and delicate. Some of her musical lyrics are not as subtle at times. She depicts their much of their life together in their 20s in the 1960s. They were discovering themselves, the world around them and both were learning how they were going to make their marks on the world.
Turns out these two kids met when they were both twenty. They had both vowed to dedicate themselves to art. Their dedication to each other and art resulted in a strong and passionate friendship that lasted until Robert's death.
It is very much her retelling of their relationship, as it can only be. It tells of their drive and single-mindedness in reaching their respective goals. I did find myself wondering at times, if Patti was such an 'innocent' as her writing portrays - she's no angel, but her apparent non-plussedness at meeting Jimi Hendrix, writing a song for Janis and just hanging with a million other 'names' is a little unbelievable. I'm not being cynical, I'm just a little dubious that one could spend so much time with household names - people who were changing Western culture and be so blase about it.
Anyway, it is incredible to me the way Patti and Robert got a room at the Chelsea and proceeded to make their mark on the world.
While this is a book Patti promised to write for Robert, he is highly elusive. While I completely have a feel for Patty and identify with her in so many ways, Robert's presence is far more cryptic. I feel that she almost deifies him and it has created a distance between the reader and Robert. I just don't have any insight onto his thoughts - even though we know there are times that he is troubled by his sexuality and his art, I found that it didn't bother me that much. Nowhere near as much as when Patti was going to get recorded.
However, it is an inspiring record of two extraordinary human beings and I thoroughly recommend this book, if not just for the name-dropping. Honestly, what girl in her 20's writes a song for Janis Joplin and gets to sing it to her??
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