Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Just Kids by Patti Smith

28 reviews

emabled's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

4.75

i never read non fiction. i picked this book up purely because a single person said it was good. instinct drove me to read it and i'm very glad i did.

what a beautiful book. a love letter to art, and even more so a literal love letter from patti to robert. their story is rich and encompassing. you feel the need to pay attention while reading, you feel the eminence of robert and patti's significance.

i will say that the countless names, of famous musicians, poets, photographers, producers, etc. was what took me out of the story a bit. i am not well read in hollywood or adjacent culture, especially not that of the 60s-90s, so this had me very confused. there was, most of the time, apt description of these celebrities so i would have enough context to continue, but sometimes it was like i was expected to know these names and histories.

anyway, the prose was gorgeous. patti smith has poetry in her veins. her storytelling is captivating and gorgeous simultaneously, her love for others and theirs for hers so present in her recollections. i did just talk negatively about the constant name dropping, but i will say that it also creates a lovely metaphor: we are who we meet. we are mosaics of everyone we interact with. patti depicts that like a true artist.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Suicide, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Body horror and Sexual content

Minor: Addiction

pernillelsk's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Addiction, Grief, and Pregnancy

Minor: Suicide

amelody's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Grief, and Alcohol

michaelion's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny informative medium-paced

3.5

The title is so perfect. They were just kids! Living life! Going wherever the wind took them! Having fun! Living laughing loving! It's heart breaking and so sweet at the same time!

I don't know these people so I don't know why it was in my TBR for so long, but if I was a stan I probably would've given it a higher rating. And many of the photos were very lovely. They met by accident and it was a once in a lifetime love story! And they were just kids!!! Rolls credits!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Grief

Moderate: Drug use and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Outing, Cultural appropriation, and Dysphoria

page_28's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

A gift

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Suicide

thmei's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Terminal illness

Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, and Grief

Minor: Pregnancy

for the addiction & drug use tags: she & especially robert use drugs casually, mostly hallucinogens and later weed, and if i remember correctly they befriend some alcoholics but nothing particularly distressing or graphic is described, it’s just frequently mentioned. they have some bad trips but mostly lots of fun and creativity. for the pregnancy tag:

patti is briefly pregnant at 19 towards the beginning of the book and describes being treated badly during labor and the bittersweet sadness of giving up a child. she is also pregnant again as a married adult during the last chapter.

nothing is graphic at all. for the grief and death tags: robert’s death

from aids, as well as the death of his partner sam wagstaff,

is the primary focus of the last two chapters. you know from the prologue that he will die. these chapters are quite short and i personally didn’t find them overwhelming, but they are sad and the hopefulness at the beginning of this ordeal is very sad to the reader, who knows what will inevitably happen. it’s also quite easy to predict what will occur given the events of the book and any knowledge of the era, even with no knowledge of patti smith’s life. it is still extremely upsetting.

eunicaa's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

Felt like I was holding Patti and Robert’s hands across the years. While some parts toes the line of myth-making, there is always an undercurrent of tenderness. And what a whirlwind to experience the gritty New York that birthed so many artists.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness and Grief

bugcollector's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-paced

2.0

just wasn't interesting or written in a captivating way

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Grief

andrewhatesham's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Homophobia, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Blood, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, and Alcohol

rzh's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.75

ohh this was just gorgeous. paints a beautiful, evocative picture of the new york scene in the chelsea in the 60s and 70s: i love reading books set/talking about this time period as it seems like such a far off country now. patti smith really transports you there. i love books with deep descriptions of physical detritus, of belongings and collections which make up a person's surroundings in different stages of their life, and this is one of those: patti and robert are both real magpies (as they were both visual artists this make sense) and the description of their art and belongings really builds a picture of their homes and studios over the years. i've seen a couple of reviews talking about how this book doesn't have much of a plot and whilst this is true, it is a memoir, not a novel, so it doesn't have a plot as much as life doesn't have a plot. a beautiful ode to robert mapplethorpe and a really touching insight to the beautiful relationship between him and patti smith. loved it and would definitely read again !!! 4.75 stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use and Terminal illness

Moderate: Grief, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Suicide