Memoir · Book club
Just Kids book club questions
Here are 11 book club questions for Just Kids by Patti Smith, ordered to open easily and end somewhere worth arguing about. Copy them, print them, or bring them up one at a time.
Just Kids is Patti Smith's National Book Award-winning memoir of her relationship with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, from their first meeting in New York in 1967 through their years of shared poverty, artistic development, and eventual celebrity, to Mapplethorpe's death from AIDS in 1989.
Patti Smith · 2010 · 6h 40m
Full summary and key takeaways →The 11 questions
- 1.
Smith and Mapplethorpe's relationship evolved from romantic to something harder to name. What word would you use for what they were to each other by the end?
- 2.
The book won the National Book Award. What do you think the judges were responding to? Is it primarily a literary achievement or a biographical one?
- 3.
Smith describes her certainty that she was 'meant' for something before she knew what that something was. Do you find that conviction admirable, delusional, or both?
- 4.
The Chelsea Hotel community she describes sounds almost utopian. How much of that impression is nostalgia, and how much is documented history?
- 5.
Mapplethorpe's later work — the explicit photographs of gay S&M culture — was among the most controversial art of the late 1980s. How does the memoir prepare you for or avoid that controversy?
- 6.
Smith promised Mapplethorpe she would tell their story. Does that obligation shape the book? Is there anything it prevents her from saying?
- 7.
What does the memoir suggest about the role of sustained mutual influence in artistic development? Do you have relationships in your own life that function this way?
- 8.
The book's prose has a specific lyrical quality that reflects Smith's poetry. Does the literary style enhance or complicate the memoir's emotional honesty?
- 9.
Poverty in the early chapters is rendered with a kind of romance. Does that romance feel earned, or does the knowledge that Smith eventually became successful distort the representation?
- 10.
The memoir is dedicated to Mapplethorpe and is explicitly an act of mourning. How does that funerary purpose shape what is included and what is omitted?
- 11.
Smith names many of the famous figures she encountered in passing — Warhol, Hendrix, Ginsberg. Does that name-dropping serve a purpose, or does it occasionally feel like credential-collecting?
How to run the discussion
- Pick six to eight, not all of them. An hour of real discussion covers fewer questions than anyone expects, and racing the list is what makes a book club feel like homework.
- Open with what people noticed, not what they concluded. Asking for a verdict first hardens opinions before anyone has heard each other.
- Let the disagreement run. The questions below that split a room are the ones worth the time; the ones everyone answers the same way can be skipped.
- Ask the quiet person a specific question. A direct, narrow question is far easier to answer than an open invitation to contribute.
Themes worth steering toward
If the conversation stalls, these are the threads that usually restart it.
Common questions
What are good book club questions for Just Kids?
Here are 11 book club questions for Just Kids by Patti Smith, ordered to open easily and end somewhere worth arguing about. The strongest openers ask what each reader noticed rather than what they concluded, and the discussion usually turns on friendship, art, new york.
How long should a book club discussion of Just Kids last?
Most groups run 60 to 90 minutes of actual discussion. That is roughly six to eight questions, not all of them, so pick the ones that suit your group rather than working down the list in order.
What are the main themes in Just Kids?
Friendship, Art, New York, Coming of age, Loss. Those are the threads most likely to divide a room, which makes them the useful places to steer a discussion that has gone quiet.
Picking the next one? See books like Just Kids or questions for other book club picks.
