Patti Smith's memoir of a rock-poet

Nostalgia is never more suspect than when the person romantically harking back is too young to have experienced the era firsthand. But reading Patti Smith's memoir "Just Kids," a tender recollection of her coming of age as a singer-songwriter alongside her artistic soul mate, the late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, I couldn't help envying the cultural ferment of the late '60s, early '70s and wondering how we could recapture some of the dirty magic.

By Charles McNulty

August 22, 2010