The Basketball Diaries: The Classic about Growing Up Hip on New York's Mean Streets

by Jim Carroll

Book Overview

The urban classic coming-of-age story about sex, drugs, and basketball

Jim Carroll grew up to become a renowned poet and punk rocker. But in this memoir of the mid-1960s, set during his coming-of-age from 12 to 15, he was a rebellious teenager making a place and a name for himself on the unforgiving streets of New York City. During these years, he chronicled his experiences, and the result is a diary of unparalleled candor that conveys...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140100180
• ISBN13: 9780140100181
• Release Date: July 1987
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.1" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Incredible prose

A deep connection to the darkest and most desperate places humanity can reach. My favorite story of struggle and the need to be seen in a world wearing blinders.

ordering used book

I wasn't sure about ordering a USED book online. I've ordered new books but not used. It was a success: looked like new and came in a few weeks. I am happy with it =)

This book will make you HATE the movie

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.

the basketball diaries ages 12-15

jim carrol's work brings you into his life of new york city and an addict's fragments of hell. his life story in the basketball diaries tells a tale very few writers could put to page in the way he has; it is a great book in which shows the raw truth on page and recommend to everyone.

two thumbs up best book i have ever read

in basket ball diaries jim carroll captures the unbearable truth of life as a heroin addict on the streets on new york city...i was completely taken away by the events he described...his word completely mesmorized me...i was captured by his writing....his words imspire the writer in me!!!!

A MUST READ

Every teen should read this book. I was 14 the first time I read it and it was the first book I ever actual read from cover to end. I could not put it down.