Rating: 
Summary: great book. the movie ...
Review: Anyone who talks about the "good old days" has a faulty memory. The aketball diaries shows us how bad manhattan really was in the 1960's-pimps, prostitutes, trannies, drugs, pediphiles, teenage junkies. In this panoramic memoir we traverse the worst city at the side of a trinity school basketball star who is losing his talent to a growing heroin habit. I read this book at 16, right when the movie came out. When i later saw the film yhought it ... Dicaprio's performance was fine, but does no justice to the character, or what he stands for. One of the best things here is that Carrorl doesn't make any excuses for himself. he doesn't blame his addiction on anyone. but we can still get a good idea of his environment. This book is so atmospheric, you can almost smell the garbage in the streets. Try renting Taxi driver, the french connection, Taking of the pelham 123, mean streets, or tv shows like hil street blues and the equalizer. You will see how awfull this city was between 1960-1990. Remember, there were NO good old days!
Rating:
Summary: This book will make you HATE the movie
Review: I saw the movie before it came out and I liked it. I didn't know what I was missing. Now that I read the original source I know what a load of Disney-fied garbage I was watching. Instead of a tale about "the loss of innocence" this is a horrifying and hilarilious trip through Hell as Jim Carroll gets more and more into the hustling junkie lifestyle. While Catholic Boy is a great CD, Carroll would never write anything so raw and crazy again. Most of my perspective comes from the movie so bear with me. In the movie, Leonardo tries heroin as part of his downward spiral and it really turns the movie dark. In the book, he tries heroin almost at the beginning and complains because he always thought that pot got you high. In the movie Leonardo is hitching rides on buses at the beginning and turning to nastier crimes later on. In the book Carroll is describing the best methods for purse snatching. In the movie, Leonardo hustles for tricks as one of the last signs that he's fallen from grace. In the book, Carroll complains about the gay johns who make him go to baseball games or want him to whip cats to death ("unfortunately for him I was in a cat-loving mood that day and whipped him instead"). In the movie there is a helpful friend who tries to get him off of drugs. That guy is fortunately absent in the book. In the movie there is a long sequence about the best friend with cancer. In the book, he's creeped out by the corpse but that's about it. In essence, the movie serves up a rough-around-the-edges kid who gets into a bad situation that only gets worse. The book by contrast has Jim Carroll pure and malignant, snatching purses and shooting up without a care as to the consequences. He's a nasty little punk and he deserves most of what happens to him. This is probably why Carroll's later stuff isn't as popular. Much of what makes this book great is how repulsed and intrigued you are with the narrator. When Jim Carroll grew up, kicked the addiction and stopped being such a creep, it was great for him and anyone around him, but he lost the main voice and never replaced it with anything quite so compelling. After you read this book you should check out with Patti Smith's early book of poetry, Please Kill Me about the New York punk scene in which Carroll featured prominently and Catholic Boy. YOu might also want to watch the movie as it isn't bad by DiCaprio standards, although pretty awful by the standards of the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Almost a slam dunk
Review: As a loosely written account of a young man's coming of age this book has a lot going for it. It's got humour, sensitivity, satire, and wit. The book tells the story of a young Irish Catholic working class youth who gains self esteem and a sense of who he is by playing basketball. But he blows it all with heroin addiction. Though it's a good look at the dark side of the macho sports culture the book is not aging well and to a contemporary reader might come across as too linked to the Vietman era.
Rating:
Summary: Street Classics, Part 2
Review: The movie had NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with the book. Carroll's book is a hilarious and horrifying saga of his teenage years as an Irish-catholic high school basketball star(he even played against Lew Alcindor later to become Kareem Abdul-Jabbar)and full time heroin addict roaming the streets of 1960s New York hustling for money. It is also social satire of the most insightful and wicked kind, not only of a bygone era but of Americans in general. Just imagine, Carroll's entire reputation is based on what he wrote at 16 years of age! He's never been able to come close to matching the level of this little book in all the years since ('Forced Entries' is more of the same done not nearly as good).
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Summary: Perspectives Change
Review: This is one of my favorite books. I read it originally when I was 16, and rereading it at 35, I was struck at how different my perspective was. At 16, it didn't feel like a downward spiral - just a progression of growing up. I also highly recommend his book Forced Entries, which is a good continuation. I have to say I enjoy Carroll's prose a bit more than his poetry.
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Summary: The Nitty Gritty
Review: Disturbing and illuminating glimpse into Jim Carroll's early teen years in NYC in the 60's. Carroll lays out the nitty gritty of his sordid doings with a easy going, fresh voice. I was at once repulsed and drawn into his tales of his increasing heroin dependency and means of feeding his addiction. Unlike most drug tales, Carroll simply presents who he is and what happened instead of sitting in judgement one way or the other. Riveting and candid; I wish all books were as good as this one.
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Summary: Ths Game Comes Second.
Review: I have to study this novel on my Sports Literature course at The University of Sheffield, England. I found that some of the other texts were based around training and preparation for, and the playing of, the game. THIS IS NOT BASKETBALL DIARIES! I picked up the book thinking that, with heart throb Leo on the cover, it would be a rags to riches tale of poor boy made good in the world of the NBA, full of moving (or vomit endusing) moments, and All-American clean living. How wrong was I? The novel is excellent! The game is secondary to drugs, homosexuality, and pedophillia. It is a chilling novel, but a fantastic read. I would recomend this book to anyone, except those who want to read about basketball, or those who want to buy it because of Leonardo's roles in Titanic and The Beach.
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Summary: Dig It (in the words of Jim)
Review: A quick, hip read. I am a slow reader, and yet wrapped this up in 2 days, both because of its interesting subject matter and its ease of reading. Carroll is very slick, and certainly precocious, having done by age 14 the kinds of things that make grownups blush. This book is worth a read just for the language- Carroll has a fluid writing style that incorporates all kind of street parlance, making for a kind of underground city primer for the uninitiated square like me.
Rating:
Summary: Misguided Teenager
Review: A good book, very true real life situations. Jim Carrol growing up in the mean streets of New York. The situations were very real, and show what many teenagers have to go through today, even if they don't grow up in a large city. Violence and crime are spreading rapidly, and no teen is safe from it. I can't really understand why every person gave it five stars, to me five stars is a book that you read five times before reading another. Overall, the book is a very realistic and entertaining and I would recommend it to any teenager that is headed down the wrong path, it will most likely set them straight.
Rating:
Summary: This book rocks!
Review: This is an interesting, disturbing, and ultimately uplifting read. I am sure while reading it you will alternatly laugh, and be in tears. It documents a great singer, Jim Carroll's life between the ages of 13 and 15. It is a hard read, not in the fact that it is two complicatedly written(the slang can be a prob, but a good Internet site on Jim will give you the meanings) but in that Jim speaks of horendous things with such calculated nonchalanty. But trust me, get THIS book.
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