{"id":4152,"date":"2022-01-10T22:17:48","date_gmt":"2022-01-10T22:17:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8000\/?page_id=4152"},"modified":"2025-06-11T23:12:33","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T06:12:33","slug":"jim-carroll-at-the-back-door","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/performance-reviews\/jim-carroll-at-the-back-door\/","title":{"rendered":"Jim Carroll at The Back Door"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Review by Cassie Carter<\/strong>
San Diego, CA, 13 November 1987<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the first piece I wrote about Jim Carroll. —Webmaster<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jim Carroll captured my heart in the fall of 1987, when I read The Basketball Diaries<\/em> for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judging from the title, I expected the diary to be a boring boys’ book about basketball; once I had read the first few pages, however, I realized my assumption was wrong, to say the least. This 13 year-old kid was living in a nightmare world of pedophiliac coaches and priests, gang wars, racism, and poverty; he was a star basketball player hooked on heroin, sampling every drug he could get his hands on, mugging people in Central Park, and hustling gay men for money. But he was doing more than surviving. On the basketball court, he moved with the grace of a cheetah; each basket, each slick pass, transformed him into something greater than himself. And he described his nightmare world even more elegantly, in street lingo and metaphors and sly jokes, somehow making this nightmare beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time I reached the middle of the book, I was hopelessly entranced, crawling along New York City’s dirty underbelly alongside Carroll. As fate would have it, I discovered he would be appearing at SDSU’s Backdoor nightclub and, needless to say, I bought my ticket on the spot. Then I waited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday, November 13, 1987, the day of Carroll’s reading, thinking that multitudes of avid fans would have camped overnight, I arrived at the Backdoor two hours early. No one was there. With nothing else to do, I sat in a wire-mesh chair outside the door, pulled my copy of The Basketball Diaries<\/em> out of my purse and started reading. I sat there, immersed in the book, for at least an hour, until a strange feeling began creeping up my spine. I heard voices behind me, and one of those voices kept slipping into the pages of
my book. The sensation was so strange that I was almost afraid to turn around; I finally did, though very cautiously.Jim Carroll was sitting directly behind me, in a wire-mesh chair just like mine. It was unmistakably him: the long red hair, the pale white skin, and the thin, athletic body; his voice, with its pronounced New York accent, was the one that had crept into my book. He was talking animatedly about an upcoming film version of The Basketball Diaries<\/em>, obviously excited about it.My god! A character had suddenly jumped out of the book I was reading!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was so stunned and scared that I couldn’t think of a thing to say to him. A thousand ,words raced through my mind; I rehearsed and revised all the brilliant things I might say, developing entire conversations in my mind. Then I abruptly realized that he was walking away. I heard him ask his friend, “Well, think we awta head ova to the aw-cade faw awhile?” I watched his lanky body disappear into the arcade, duffel bag in hand.By the time I recovered, a long line had formed at the door, and Carroll strolled straight to the front of the line, to the locked sliding-glass doors of the Backdoor. Apparently I wasn’t the only one there left speechless: while Carroll struggled to open the doors, no one said a word; not even, “Hey Jim! No cuts!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the reading finally began, I had a front row seat. Carroll strode onto the stage, eyes glued to the floor, and attempted, almost unsuccessfully, to untangle the microphone. That taken care of, he began reading “A Day at the Races,” from Forced Entries<\/em>. His manner was amazing: here he was, reading a story about pubic lice and laughing at his own jokes. He read with a sort of insecure cockiness, as if to say, “Okay, I’m going to read this thing about crabs now. I kinda like this thing, so here I go.” He was so cool about it, and the piece was so beautiful and funny, he had the audience nearly rolling in the aisles with laughter. I was mesmerized by this guy . . . this wonderful, scraggly, nervous-looking guy with long red hair, white white skin, handsxmoving constantly, dressed in black with his shoes untied. It took awhile for the quiver to leave his voice. I hadn’t really noticed it until it started to fade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His art grew with each selection he read, towering over us with him on top, cracking a crazy smile. He peered over our heads from underneath that red hair, watched his hands, or focused on a face floating six feet above us.Then came the song lyrics; a request, he said. He held the mic in his hands like a prayer and paced across the stage like a cheetah, back and forth, hypnotizing. There was no band, but there was music–invisible music. His words struck like heartbeats, and he handled them like explosives:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

I want the angel that knows the sky
She got virtue, got the parallel light in her eye<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want the angel that’s partly lame
She filters clarity from her desperate shame<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want the angel that knows rejection
She’s like a whore in love with her own reflection<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want the angel whose touch don’t miss
When the blood comes through the dropper
Like a thick red kiss<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And he walked back and forth across that stage, wrapped up in those words as if he were somewhere else, as if the words were speaking through him, forcing themselves out of his body through a too-small mouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a9 Cassie Carter 1987<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Review by Cassie CarterSan Diego, CA, 13 November 1987 This is the first piece I wrote about Jim Carroll. —Webmaster Jim Carroll captured my heart in the fall of 1987, when I read The Basketball Diaries for the first time. Judging from the title, I expected the diary to be a boring boys’ book about … Continue reading Jim Carroll at The Back Door<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":3985,"menu_order":14,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"folder":[38],"class_list":["post-4152","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P9VlUH-14Y","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8653,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/works\/literary-works\/diaries-and-fiction-by-jim-carroll\/the-basketball-diaries\/the-basketball-diaries-1987-penguin-edition\/","url_meta":{"origin":4152,"position":0},"title":"The Basketball Diaries (1987 Penguin Edition)","author":"Cassie Carter","date":"March 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Basketball DiariesThird EditionBy: Jim CarrollRepublished: 1987Publisher: PenguinFormat: PaperbackCover photograph: Rosemary CarrollCover design:\u00a0Melissa JacobyHand-coloring:\u00a0Neil Stuart The Penguin (third) edition of\u00a0The Basketball Diaries\u00a0uses Rosemary Klemfuss\/Carroll's photograph of Carroll--the same photograph used for the first edition--but the art direction is different and the photo background is \"colorized.\" It has no blurbs. See\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/bd3cov.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4003,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/works\/literary-works\/diaries-and-fiction-by-jim-carroll\/","url_meta":{"origin":4152,"position":1},"title":"Diaries and Fiction by Jim Carroll","author":"catholicboy.com","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Petting Zoo: A NovelPublished:\u00a0November 8, 2010By:\u00a0Jim CarrollPublisher:\u00a0VikingCarroll was putting the finishing touches on his first novel,\u00a0The Petting Zoo, when he passed away in 2009. Protagonist Billy Wolfram, a hot young artist in late 1980s NYC, suffers a psychological and spiritual breakdown while viewing the Met's Velasquez retrospective and desperately\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/PettingZooLarge.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":576,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/works\/literary-works\/diaries-and-fiction-by-jim-carroll\/the-basketball-diaries\/","url_meta":{"origin":4152,"position":2},"title":"The Basketball Diaries: Editions","author":"Cassie Carter","date":"August 15, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Carroll wrote his autobiographical tales of \"growing up hip\" on New York's mean streets\" between the ages of 12 and 16, from 1962 to 1966. Carroll earned a scholarship to a posh private school (see\u00a0Trinity Yearbook page) and spent his time playing basketball, stealing, hustling gay men to support his\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/bd1cov.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8655,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/works\/literary-works\/diaries-and-fiction-by-jim-carroll\/the-basketball-diaries\/the-basketball-diaries-and-the-book-of-nods-1987\/","url_meta":{"origin":4152,"position":3},"title":"The Basketball Diaries and The Book of Nods (1987)","author":"Cassie Carter","date":"March 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3998,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/jim-carroll-bibliographies\/jim-carroll-a-secondary-bibliography-1969-1996\/","url_meta":{"origin":4152,"position":4},"title":"Jim Carroll: A Secondary Bibliography, 1969-1996","author":"Cassie Carter","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Home > Research > Bibliographies > Jim Carroll: A Secondary Bibliography, 1969-1996 Jim Carroll: A Secondary Bibliography, 1969-1996 By Cassie Carter Updated 7 June 1997 My original, annotated bibliography appeared in Bulletin of Bibliography 47.2 (1990). I occasionally update the secondary works section (works ABOUT Jim Carroll) via this page,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3988,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/book-reviews\/","url_meta":{"origin":4152,"position":5},"title":"Book Reviews","author":"catholicboy.com","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Here you will find a few of the many reviews of Jim Carroll's books. Eventually I will add more, but for now you can check out the Bibliographies page for many others I have not yet added to the website. Reviews of The Petting Zoo (2010) View reader comments on\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4152"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10463,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4152\/revisions\/10463"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/folder?post=4152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}