The Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll
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Book Reviews of The Basketball Diaries
Book Review: Great read!
Summary: 5 Stars
A very entertaining tale of life as a youth on the streets of New York. The birth of a very talented author.Book Review: THE BASKETBALL DIARIES (TOMBOUCTOU BOOKS/1978)
Summary: 4 Stars
REVIEW: Before he became a well-respected, well-published poet; author Jim Carroll lived like a street rat: stealing purses from old ladies, hot-wiring cars, sleeping around with girls, getting high on anything and everything he could find, copping a viscious heroin habit, holding up people for their money, dealing drugs in his own high school, and doing time on Riker's Island as a juvenile delinquent. But what's remarkable is that while he was living (and spiraling down into) his own self-destructive hell: he chronicled his adventures in a diary that he kept from the time he was twelve years old till the time he was fifteen. As such the audience gets to experience the kid's own day-to-day mischief as if they were right there with him. Unfortunately the life that we get such an intimate peak into is one that is unbearably horrendous, vulgar, empty, and morally corrupt. At times you wish you could reach into the story and shake some sense into the boy (all the while asking: "Why don't his parents wake up and do something about their child before he ends up killing himself?"). What makes the book even more tragic is that the kid has so much potential: a talent for basketball (for which he gets a scholarship to a private school) that he continuously brags about and then throws down the toilet because of his drug abuse, and a talent for writing that is so readily apparant in his poetry and in this book. Never has there been such a testimonial for what NOT to do if you are really going to succeed as a human being rather than let your flesh overrule the desires and needs of your soul. Time and time again Jim writes about "wanting to be pure" and complaining about his "innocence" being taken from him, but never does he even TRY to get spiritual or moral help. In fact, he scoffs at religion and "straights": all the while candidly turning "tricks" for money and getting turned on by a sexual encounter with a guy in the men's room at a porno movie theater (former Village Voice critic Robert Christgau once called Jim a "moral weakling": and on the basis of this book he is absolutely right). So it's very hard to sympathize with Carroll at times because he has such a know-it-all/rebellious/cynical/self-destructive attitude that makes you shake your head in wonder at how stubborn and flat-out stupid some kids can be. But aside from his moral degeneracy: the dude actually thinks he has a leg to stand on when it comes to larger-than-life issues like Vietnam, capitalism, and religion. As a result his "insights" seem particularly superficial, typically liberal, and absolutely laughable in light of any serious discussion of such topics. But no one is going to read "THE BASKETBALL DIARIES" for Jim Carroll's political/social analysis: they're going to read it like a coming-of-age reality T.V. show. And as such the book succeeds immeasurably well even though (at times) the guy doing the talking sounds like a spoiled, self-indulgent, emotionally screwed up jerk.Book Review: A teen's life justified as if you were him.
Summary: 4 Stars
John Carroll showed life through a teen's eyes while growing up in the nineties. So when you read this book, you should not expect any less then what you see a teenager being capable of doing. In Basketball Diaries, The extensive usage of vulger language, sexual conduct, and drugs was described to us in the step-by-step procedures taken as if you were him. I feel that John Carroll wanted to show the readers that how easily a boy or girl, in the society today, could be placed in these events. But as John Carroll had provided us with this information he had lost track of the title of this book. He wrote too much on how the teenager had been committing unmoral actions then he had been involved with basketball. If this was his intentions in the first place I feel that the title should have been changed to fit the contents or provide some involvement of basketball within the actions that had occured. But if you are just looking for a good book to keep your interest in, then I would recommend this book to anyone that is of 15 years or older for the reasons of maturity. Someone has to have a developed mind on understanding information that you would be reading. This book kept my attention for the time period that I was reading but you have to understand that some parts are not as interesting as others. Finally, I would like to state that John Carroll did do an excellent job in writing this piece of literature but I don't think that I could classify this book as being good enough for the superior rating of five stars.Book Review: Excellent day by day depiction of growing up in NYC
Summary: 4 Stars
The Basketball Diaries was an extremely fun book to read. Beyond the gross overuse of swear words, sexual content, and excessive drug use the book really does say something. It's interesting to see how Jim Carroll's drug use rapidly increases over the years. He slowly turns from recreational user to stone cold heroin junkie. The people and incidents he encounters are very fascinating. This book is probably not good for people who are into drugs and sex a lot. It will make you fiend for both of them really bad. My sex drive was boosted dramatically the week I was reading the book. This was bad because I read the entire book in school. I had one complaint about the story though; Jim Carroll became a poet and a rock and roller but throughout the book they made minimal reference to his future career. Most of the story focused on radical overuse of substance and sex. Only towards the end did the real meaning of the book come true, and the revelation of that truth was really faint and short lived. Overall The Basketball Diaries has great stories of sex and drugs but most of us could easily have the same or similar stories in our own lives. All we have to do is keep track of them in a diary, publish them, and make a bunch of money off curious kids.Book Review: This book rocks!
Summary: 4 Stars
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.