Rating: 
Summary: Stunning Realism
Review: The movie inspired me to read the book. Many people were reluctant to see the movie because they didn't think Leo DiCaprio would play a good part. He did a great job! For those who still won't see the movie, you have to at least read this incredible book. It's unforgettable...and that says a lot considering the hundreds of books I have read. This book has made me a big Jim Carroll fan. This book is based on his life. However, instead of getting stuffy background information and dates easily forgettable, you get a simple "this is how it was." Since he is a poet, the book has a beautiful flow of words and vivid detail. A must read!
Rating:
Summary: A Great Urban Classic.
Review: I was refered to this book after reading THE LOSERS' CLUB by Richard Perez. That other book was also set in New York City, and was gritty and dark -- while being a fast, fun read. THE BASKETBALL DIARIES is a darker book than THE LOSERS' CLUB in many ways. While the main character of THE LOSERS' CLUB is addicted to the Village Voice personal ads, the protagonist of this novel is addicted to heroin. Big difference. THE BASKETBALL DIARIES is an amazingly tough book, and the junkie it depicts stays a junkie at the end -- unlike the bogus, "uplifting" ending of the movie with Leonardo DiCaprio. The addiction in THE BASKETBALL DIARIES is a true-life drug addiction, without character arcs and any real redemption. The character starts off in limbo and stays there, because in fact he's damned. This is a very tightly written book, wholly unsentimental. A true urban classic, worth its great reputation. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Not really for kids. Not so much about Basketball.
Review: I find it a bit disturbing to see a cutesy picture of Leonardo DiCaprio on the cover of this book. It's not the sort of things most suburban thirteen year old girls would enjoy. This is a sharp, funny, and undeniably exciting account of a guy who lived life like there was no tomorrow in NYC in the early 60's. Basically it's all sex, drugs, and rock and roll with some basketball thrown in idiosyncratically to demonstrate the straight life young Jim Carroll is throwing away. What makes it so good is the vividness of the descriptions. I think it would be harder for an older person to write so honestly and fearlessly as Carroll does here. Most of us have only occasional glimpses of the harsh clarity that pervades this entire book. I'm most reminded of Henry Miller, and to a leser extent William S. Burroughs. I'd happily give it 5 stars if it didn't make me so queasy.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: What can I say? THE BASKETBALL DIARIES instantly became one of my favorite books when I read it three years ago. I've read it five times since--Jim's articulately and beautifully expressed observations changed the way I see things.the audiobook is on a plane of its own. To hear the voice of this fascinating personality reading his own diaries was spellbinding--I am overwhelmed by this book again and again, every time I read it.
Rating:
Summary: This book kept me from doing drugs.
Review: I read this book back in 1986 when I was 16 years old and ever since then I never had the urge to even consider expirementing with hard drugs. Jim Carroll Takes you down the downward spiral with him in this book. Just when you think it can't get any worse you turn the page and it does. this book is based on real events and there is no happy ending. you really get to see how far a junkie will will go for a fix. it shows you the dark, ugly, and oh so real side of drug addiction. I personally think every high school child in America should read this book then we might just win the so called war on drugs.
Rating:
Summary: IS THIS REAL !!
Review: To have been written by a middle aged man this would have been a really well written piece of work, considering that Jim was only a teen, WOW. To see all the things he went up against, and that he is still ALIVE, just makes you ask how? Very well written (as well as all other books/ poems by Jim). I would highly recommend this title, as well as "Forced entries" which is a great follow-up.
Rating:
Summary: I Just Want to be PURE
Review: During the 1960s period, Jim Carroll was a young and rising star in the dark streets of New York City. This book records his experieces and chronicles his feelings of the ever-present city. As a poet, Carroll moves his way through life in the litural sense. He created himself through liturature. I read this book when I first saw the movie. I loved the movie and ordered the book. I started skimming through it a couple times, like the entries that happened in the movie. I read after that and when I finished, I let out a huge sigh and felt something come into me. I was hooked. I loved this book so much I now have all of his books. Many people will say that this book is dark, vulgar, and indescent. It is. I know. That's not how people should look at it. In the end of the book, when he gets out of jail and is sitting in the headquarters where junkies hung out, he wrote, "I can feel the window light hurting my eyes. I got to go in and puke. I just want to be PURE." I loved this book, and if you read this, you'll see that he is a boy lost and looking for something PURE.
Rating:
Summary: Has presence like a cheetah instead of like a chimp
Review: Jim Carroll rocks in his diaries about growing up in NYC and getting a basketball scholarship -- he does a lot of drugs and runs into a lot of crazy 'scenes', to use one of his terms. So if you are squeamish about reading about all sorts of head trips, this is not the book for you. Jim has a lyrical way about writing about himself at ages 13-16 and all of his friends, whom he says have "just mastered the life of doing nothing, which when you think about it, may be the hardest thing of all to do." Jim's "doing nothing" are funny at times -- like when his shorts rip during a basketball game so it looks like he's wearing a skirt and the audience gives him a mock standing ovation, or when they call a fake noise complaint to the cops so they bust up a 3-year-old's birthday party. But it is all told with a raw edge (lots of cussin', by the way) that takes you to the streets of NYC, especially if you have already been there and know the places he's talking about, this really all brings it home on what it was like during the 1960s for one guy and his various friends.
Rating:
Summary: "Those are people who died!"
Review: I named this review after a favorite song of mine by the Jim Carroll band. While I was quite familiar with who Carroll was from the book _Please_Kill_Me_, I just now got around to read The Basketball Diaries. I have to say I have mixed feelings. Carroll's writing impressed me not so much for his style (although it serves him quite well) as for the sometimes gruesome honesty he has in describing his teenage years. To be sure, this is not for the faint of heart; to his credit, Carroll doesn't pull back from any subject--jail, dope, basketball, gay hustling, brutal crime. However, the upsetting thing about the book is that all this living on the edge left me feeling quite numb. Still, this is probably for the best; you take away from a story like this when you start to moralize. While reading this, I kept thinking about a supposedly anonymous autobiography called Go Ask Alice, which was a very heavy-handed (and probably fictional) description of a teenage girl's descent into drug addiction. Ironically, both this book and The Basketball Diaries describe roughly the same time period. What makes Carroll's book superior is that he doesn't offer up tired admonitions such as "Just Say No"; he doesn't even solicit your pity when he occasionally ends up in jail. Instead, he let's you make your own judgements, like he himself does when he concludes that when you get right down to it, being a junkie is a nine-to-five job, just like anything else. For those who can handle some disturbing scenes and subject matter, this is as realistic a look at youth, drugs, and sex, as you're going to find.
Rating:
Summary: EVER SINCE E.T.
Review: Ever since i first heard jim carroll during one of the opening scenes of the movie E.T. i have been a fan. When i found out he was a writer as well as a musician, i became very interested in reading his work. Reading THE BASKETBALL DIARIES, you will find the inspiration for many of his songs from the album CATHOLIC BOY, which i also recommend highly. Read any of his books and listen to any of his songs for a gritty and realistic view of his life.
|
