RaveLambda LiterarySmith wonderfully evokes the excitement, beauty, and innocence of the downtown scene in late ‘60s New York, still in the thrall of the free and casual ‘hippie lifestyle,’ where chance encounters with strangers led more often to adventures than danger. Just Kids often veers into full Scenes de la Vie de Boheme mode as familiar figures from the art, literary, and music worlds float across its pages ... Smith, however, can also be quite honest about harsh reality of that too-often romanticized life as well ... Patti Smith...shows herself to be a writer of compelling and highly readable prose ... Touching, lyrical, often humorous, and interspersed with Smith’s previously unseen, personal photographs, Just Kids is a remarkable and evocative portrait of a complex friendship, and the story of the early development of two provocative artists.
