I love how this is a dual biography of sorts. Even though biography and autobiography should be regarded with a watchful eye because there are so many different ways truth can be manipulated, that didn't really preoccupy me while reading 'Just Kids'. In the epilogue, Patti Smith says that there are 'many stories I could yet write about Robert, about us' and thus addresses the multiplicity of any form of narrative truth. This confirmed my feeling that this is a book written by a great intellectual and artistic mind, even though she does not busy herself to show you that, at all. Robert is allegedly the genius in the book, but I think it's wonderful how much of Patti's own genius shines through in their interaction and in the magical way she wrote this book.The sad bit in reading this was my annoyance at myself for being oblivious to the majority of the names she mentions and not remembering them fast/well enough. Much of Patti and Robert's stories are significant meetings through quick association, logical social connection in 60s/70s NYC, but the speed at which influential names came at me startled me a bit and I often had to flip back a couple of pages to refamiliarise myself with people.All in all, I thought this was a lovely (auto)biography and particularly interesting in terms of it being a combination of self-writing and writing about one's very close companion. Patti moved with Robert through various stages of his life in a very natural way and the picture she paints of him is, while inevitably subjective, many-sided and magical.
