I tried my luck with this book a few years back, and it didn't work out between us. I hated the first pages and it made me more resigned in my belief that autobiographies are not my cup of tea. This year, I picked it from my bookshelf, started those first pages and I was hooked, I was finally in the right mood for it (people who pick any book at any times and read regardless of their mood impress me). Patti Smith's prose sounds like poetry (poetry is her thing) and she made the story of struggling artists slightly romanticized. The suffering, the homelessness, the starvation, the health problems and this constant belief in one's abilities and success...all became beautiful with her writing. The story evolves around her and Robert Mapplethorpe (first her lover, then her lifelong bff) and all the hardship they faced before she became high priestess of punk rock, as he was recognized for his genius in photography. Patti takes us on a trip through New York in the late 60's and 70's, where she gets to meet (as we do by extent) Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol etc and many other colorful characters.. it might sound like name dropping but the reader feels rather as an insider to the music and artistic scene of the era. Patti wrote this book after a promise she made to Robert to tell their story, and that's why this book feels intimate at all times. It's a book about kids who aspired to greatness and achieved it by always believing in their potential and never faltering in trying. You don't have to be a Patti Smith's fan to enjoy this (I'm moderately fond of her and I loved it) (yet you'll probably end up a fan of her work and of Mapplethorpe's after finishing it) (and you're gonna need a lot of googling while reading this just to check what they're talking about).