The Basketball Diaries

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Summary: Awsome!
Review: By age 15, Jim Carrol has lived more than most people ever experience in thier closed off, fearful lives. Wow!!!

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Summary: Pure writing talent: simple, raw and powerful
Review: Probably one of the most powerful collections of writing I have yet to read. Carrol's life in itself is amazing, and although his diaries may seem a bit self-indulgent, the flair and clarity of his writing are unbelievable. His frankness and imagery are awesome. I don't think it is a book of self-discovery, but more a book of the everyday banality and decripity of a young boy, and his point-blank and brutal accounts of what life is really like. Read it for it's ability to paint a no frills picture of what Carrol subjected himself to, and be amazed that he ever made it past the 1960s

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Summary: I think shows a true story of courage on the streets.
Review: I think that this book tells what it is like to live and grow up as Jim Carroll. It is a must read. It's easy to read and easy to understand. If you think the movie was good but the book is better. Even if you didn't like the movie, the book is that much better. Jim Carroll is a talented writer and musician. If you don't read this book you are missing a experiance of a life time. I must warn you though, it is graphic and does not sugar coat anything he did. Jim Carroll was no angel

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Summary: A glimpse into the mind of a creative and intelligent person
Review: The truth of an individuals character can only be realized when that individual is placed in the most difficult of positions. If you claim to be strong and honorable you will quickly know if this is true when you find your self in a state where only your wits can carry you to the next day. They call this natural selection? Maybe. The law of the land? Maybe. There is something to be said of Carroll's character after having lived the life he did especially during that time in a person's development. It is a joy to experience the growth of his writing parrallel his growth in life. A true insight into the soul of a creative individual

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Summary: an excellent read,that captures the spirit of '60's New York
Review: The Basketball Diaries documents the life of Jim Carroll during his turbulent coming of age in New York City. Starting at age 12, the book illustrates the life of the poet and basketball player, while trying to find himself. Perhaps what makes these chronicles so powerfull is the first hand account of Jim's addiction to Heroin, which lasteded until his early 20's. Constant conflicts with his parents, teachers, and sometimes even his friends,both on and off the basketball court painted a portait of a young man who tested the limits, played ball, and searched for something pure.

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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.


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Summary: The Basketball Diaries Review
Review: The book "The Basketball Diaries" by Jim Carroll is about the life of Jim Carroll as a High School basketball player and a heroin attic. The book takes place in New York City's Lower East Side of Manhattan. Jim Carroll, the main character records his games as a basketball star in his diaries.
He later becomes addicted to heroin and his life begins to change for the worse. He begins hustling, getting high and getting hooked. As Jim's life goes on so does his addiction to heroin. Jim also spends time in prison but, it still doesent set him straight.
I think this was a really good book because it is a great example of how drugs ruin lives. Jim was a perfectly good student but then he fell into a heroin addiction and gave up on sports, school and life. Those are my thoughts on The Basketbal Diaries by Jim Carroll.


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Summary: A complete arc of drug use
Review: This is a complete arc of drug use - from the narrator's first sniff of glue on a ferry as a thirteen year old to a late teenager in an apartment in one very bad state. At first humorous, the narrative increasingly becomes the story of a young adult's miserable descent into addiction. Though Carroll yearns to be pure and real, his writing is fluid from the first page through its deeply vivid, sensual and emotive descriptions. Frustration, fear, annoyance, contempt, and euphoria are all communicated through but a few phrases, and often the accounts require no commentary whatsoever.

Having seen and loved the film I was naturally comparing and contrasting the two throughout - unlike the film, however, there are no guardian angels in real life. Instead by the last pages of Basketball Diaries we see Carroll consciously having hit rock bottom. When I first saw the film I felt frustration because it seemed that to comment on the world of heroine-use one must be a heroine user. No other way seems to exist to enter that world deep enough and gain its inhabitant's trust. However, reading the book it became apparent that Carroll is simply one who likes looking into the things and people around him with more depth than most - and has the passion to put those insights onto paper.

In reading Basketball Diaries I developed enough contempt for Carroll to convince me never to follow the same path. His wit, intelligence and athleticism - all which he maintains while engaging various habits - meant however that I was also grudgingly admiring of him.

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Summary: Disapointed
Review: This book was definatley not what I was expecting. If you saw the movie and loved I would not recommend that you read it because doesn't have near as much of the detail that the movie contains. This book had its high points based on a few passages with exceptional writing but for the most part I felt the story was very impersonal and I felt that the narrator was hiding from what was below the surface. If you want a good book that tells about a lot of things included in this book, I would highly recommend Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude Brown.

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Summary: the basketball diaries
Review: The Basketball Diaries is an extraordinary book. It takes place in New York City during the mid 60's. The main character is Jim Carroll. He is a teenager who loves to play basketball and get wasted with his friends. As he grows older in the streets of New York, he becomes more and more of a junkie. I liked this book because it's so real. It made me laugh a lot, and at times I actually felt bad for Jim. His diaries were very well written and never left out any details. This book was definately one of the best books I've read so far, and I hope that after reading this review, many of you would pick up the book and see what all the fuss is about. I've read many books that just wasted my time and I just didn't enjoy, but The Basketball Diaries is one of the books that I absolutely DO NOT regret reading.