Éramos Unos Niños / Just Kids

Fue el verano en que muri?Coltrane. [ ] Los hippies alzaron sus brazos vac甐s y China hizo detonar la bomba de hidr鏬eno. Jimi Hendrix prendi?fuego a su guitarra en Monterrey. [...] Fue el verano del amor. Y en aquel clima cambiante e inh鏀pito, un encuentro casual cambi?el curso de mi vida. Fue el verano en que conoc?a Robert Mapplethorpe.

Sucedi?en el mes de julio de 1967 y eran unos ni隳s, pero a partir de entonces Patti Smith y Robert Mapplethorpe sellaron una amistad que solo acabar燰 con la muerte del gran fot鏬rafo, en 1989. De eso habla este espl幯dido libro de memorias, ganador del National Book Award, de la vida en com de dos artistas, los dos entusiastas y apasionados, que cruzaron a grandes pasos la periferia de Nueva York para llegar hasta el centro neur嫮gico del nuevo arte. Fue as?como acabaron instal嫕dose en el hotel Chelsea y se convirtieron en los protagonistas de un mundo hoy ya desaparecido donde reinaban Allen Ginsberg, Andy Warhol y sus chicos, y se creaban las grandes bandas de mica que marcaron los timos a隳s del siglo XX, mientras el sida hac燰 estragos.

Lejos de ser un libro triste y nost嫮gico, 宁amos unos ni隳s constituye un homenaje a la amistad sin trabas, y sus p墔inas, cargadas de vitalidad y humor, nos devuelven el sabor de esa gran ciudad donde hubo un tiempo en que casi todo era posible.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

"Reading rocker Smith's account of her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, it's hard not to believe in fate. How else to explain the chance encounter that threw them together, allowing both to blossom? Quirky and spellbinding." -- People

It was the summer Coltrane died, the summer of love and riots, and the summer when a chance encounter in Brooklyn led two young people on a path of art, devotion, and initiation.

Patti Smith would evolve as a poet and performer, and Robert Mapplethorpe would direct his highly provocative style toward photography. Bound in innocence and enthusiasm, they traversed the city from Coney Island to Forty-Second Street, and eventually to the celebrated round table of Max's Kansas City, where the Andy Warhol contingent held court. In 1969, the pair set up camp at the Hotel Chelsea and soon entered a community of the famous and infamous, the influential artists of the day and the colorful fringe. It was a time of heightened awareness, when the worlds of poetry, rock and roll, art, and sexual politics were colliding and exploding. In this milieu, two kids made a pact to take care of each other. Scrappy, romantic, committed to create, and fueled by their mutual dreams and drives, they would prod and provide for one another during the hungry years.

Just Kids begins as a love story and ends as an elegy. It serves as a salute to New York City during the late sixties and seventies and to its rich and poor, its hustlers and hellions. A true fable, it is a portrait of two young artists' ascent, a prelude to fame.