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

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The diaries start in the fall of ’63. JFK is not yet dead. Nuclear holocaust is on everyone’s minds. But to Jim Carrol the only pressing matter is basketball and girls. As a white kid, Carrol is an unusual basketball standout in New York City. He is rated as one of the top twenty prep players in the nation…the world is his oyster. Then, Carrol experiences his first big party. Girls and drugs abound. His life has entered into a phase were the inhabitants of Sodom might be jealous. It is also during this time that Carrol finds his voice. The entries during this time are slowly built upon, giving the reader a unique insight into the vast array of New York City. Critics argue that such provocative literature glamorizes negative behaviors and does not provide a constructive lesson for young people.

I don't really remember a thing about this book except that I really did like it at the time that I read it, around age fourteen. When the movie came out I cut school and drank some cough syrup or something and went to go see the matinee by myself. This was in Leonardo DiCaprio's fleeting, long-past early-nineties moment of hotness, and in the movie -- which was bad -- he looked gorgeous and lanky leaping around on the basketball court in his Catholic schoolboy uniform -- dammmmmmn. Whew! Leo, oh, Leo.... where did you go wrong? But I do remember his junkie scenes being really corny and dumb. And that's about all I remember, oh and then something about swimming in the East River, which is gross.... well in retrospect, maybe it's the Hudson? I also remember that when they want to get codeine cough syrup, they have to sign for it at the pharmacy, but they don't need a prescription or anything like that, they write fake names and the guy just gives it to them, even though they're only like thirteen or whatever. Young Jessica was like, "GOD, was I born too late....!" a b c Mallon, Thomas (December 6, 2010). "Off the Rim: Jim Carroll's "The Petting Zoo" ". The New Yorker. New York City: Condé Nast. pp.90–93 . Retrieved December 27, 2010.At thirteen, Carroll’s life began to unravel as he became increasingly drawn to a life of petty crime to support his drug addiction, including heroin. The book is a compilation of the diary entries he wrote during a tumultuous four-year period between the ages of 12 and 16. The Basketball Diaries is an autobiographical work by Jim Carroll documenting his 1960s New York City adolescence. The story outlines his journey as a talented young basketball player and student at an elite Manhattan private school.

I don't think of Jim Carroll when I consider those two writers. Because I don't think of Jim Carroll as a writer.When they first told me it was gonna be Leo, I didn't know who he was," Carroll told The Los Angeles Times. "If they'd said the kid from Growing Pains, I would have known, because when I first saw that kid, I said, 'This kid has a lot of presence.' I said, 'That kid is very pretty. He's gonna do well.'" 5. MARK WAHLBERG HAD TO READ FOR THE PART SIX TIMES BECAUSE DICAPRIO DIDN'T WANT HIM IN IT. After working as a musician, Carroll returned to writing full-time in the mid-1980s and began to appear regularly on the spoken-word circuit. Starting in 1991, Carroll performed readings from his then-in-progress first novel, The Petting Zoo. [12] Our discussion will journey through cultural contexts, societal responses, and the ongoing debate about freedom of expression and safeguarding youth.