{"id":5883,"date":"2022-01-28T23:44:51","date_gmt":"2022-01-29T07:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/?page_id=5883"},"modified":"2022-01-28T23:44:51","modified_gmt":"2022-01-29T07:44:51","slug":"diaries-of-the-damned","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/book-reviews\/diaries-of-the-damned\/","title":{"rendered":"Diaries of the Damned"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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Diaries of the Damned<\/span>
\nThe editors pick at the writings of Jim Carroll
\n<\/span>Columbia Journal of American Studies<\/a><\/i>\u00a01:1 (1995)<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

CARROLL’S<\/span>\u00a0The Basketball Diaries<\/i>\u00a0(Penguin Books, 1987) is not about basketball. The game serves as an entry pass to realms that most red-headed white boys would get chased out of\u2014and a safe reference point for the reader who might not open a book entitled “Sick Shit Done and Observed by a Young Teenager in New York City During a Really Scummy Era.” Young Jim Carroll was a sensitive juvenile delinquent who didn’t allow his sensitivity to get in the way of adolescent sex, bad drugs and all manner of hustles.\u00a0<\/a>1<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By the second page of\u00a0The Basketball Diaries<\/i>, Jim and his buddies are trying to get high by sniffing Carbona cleaning fluid. Two pages later he’s purse-snatching on the Upper East Side, and making the reader privy to a picture of “a fat ugly bitch getting screwed on a table by, I swear, a donkey.” Carroll continues in this vein throughout the book, and he gets away with it. Words that might bore or disgust if spouted by a dirty old man sitting on your couch instead shock and amaze when uttered by a tender-aged youth in a pre-political-correctness era. His success comes in part from his writing style, which is lucid but simple enough to actually be a lightly-edited diary of a thirteen year-old boy. It’s also his tone, his panache, his joie de fuckin’ vivre, that wins over the reader.<\/p>\n

If most of Jim Carroll’s\u00a0The Basketball Diaries<\/i>\u00a0exploits are true, then he has proven himself to be the kind of genius who’s simply wired better than the rest of us. Not just mentally but physically\u2014it shows on the basketball court and in the shadows. He’s the guy who never has to wuss out on the chance for a thrill, which makes his street-level tales much more exciting than those of some formally educated writer who’s just slumming. His stamina allowed him to persevere as a poet and writer without a college education and to wage a successful(?) fight against the addictions that have grabbed him by the final passage of\u00a0The Basketball Diaries<\/i>.<\/p>\n

New Yorkers who’ve kept their ears to the ground and to the radio know that Carroll has done all right surfing the sordid scenes of postmodern New York.\u00a0The Basketball Diaries<\/i>\u00a0and its sequel,\u00a0Forced Entries: The Downtown Diaries<\/i>, have become cult classics, and Carroll has been on the road giving readings and mini-concerts for the last few years. A movie version of\u00a0The Basketball Diaries<\/i>\u00a0with Leonardo DiCaprio in the starring role will hit the screens shortly after the publication of this journal.<\/p>\n

Many people know Jim Carroll more for his music than his writing. “People Who Died,” his Velvet-Underground-ish hit about the fate of old friends, continues to sporadically depress the New York City airwaves.<\/p>\n

Readers of\u00a0The Basketball Diaries<\/i>\u00a0may wonder what kind of cleanup job the producers performed on the movie version. Hopefully they won’t even try to make Jim Carroll palatable to the PG-rated People magazine crowd. He’s probably suffered too much self-inflicted damage to become a superstar anyway, but if he does, plenty of funky characters will be able to say, “I knew Jim Carroll way back when…” The people who haven’t died, that is.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Dev Duckster lives!<\/i>\u2014Jim Carroll
\n(If you haven’t read the book, forget it.) <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Jim Carroll,\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/b>Forced Entries:<\/span>
\nThe Downtown Diaries, 1971-73<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/center> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

JIM<\/span>\u00a0CARROLL<\/span>\u00a0is one of the lesser-known chroniclers of culture and life in the United States, circa 1968-73. Like his peers Hunter S. Thompson in\u00a0Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72<\/i>\u00a0and Tom Wolfe in\u00a0The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test<\/i>, Carroll juggles himself in the roles of observer and participant, although his accounts are in loose diary form rather than Thompson and Wolfe’s magazine-driven New Journalism.<\/p>\n

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Forced Entries<\/i>\u00a0(Penguin Books, 1987), Carroll’s continuation of\u00a0The Basketball Diaries<\/i>, which covered 1963-66, extends the themes introduced in the earlier collection: drug use and abuse, casual relationships, and sexual experimentation. Above all, Carroll takes as his inspiration a topic which will probably never be exhausted\u2014New York City and its ever motley crew of characters. New York is to Jim Carroll what Paris was to George Orwell, Dublin to James Joyce, and Ohio to Sherwood Anderson and James Thurber: a sold-out arena of humor, humanity and experience which supplies the raw material of great writing.<\/p>\n

Carroll operates out of early 1970s New York, with its luminaries (Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg, Andy Warhol, Senator Jacob Javits), transvestites, junkies, hunchbacks, perverts, and artists. He is at all times involved in the scenes he narrates.\u00a0Forced Entries<\/i>\u00a0has a picaresque feel to it\u2014Carroll dancing at Max’s Kansas City, attending the New York City Ballet, following a conceptual artist’s laser labyrinth around lower Manhattan, buying dope from Puerto Rican drag queens, under gas at the dentist’s office, escaping to Bolinas, California to detox, and finally returning to New York to test his newly forged abstinence. Carroll is his own best character, a better leading man than most, and he knows it.<\/p>\n

Forced Entries<\/i>‘ tone and style are amazingly balanced. Sinewy lyricism counters deadpan sarcasm, self-mocking humor tempers moody introspection. As a collection of life slices,\u00a0Forced Entries<\/i>\u00a0strikes a rhythm and feel compatible with its decadent and endlessly varied backdrop of New York City. Describing a prostitute he once tailed for several Times Square blocks, Carroll’s style and gift for metaphor reaches one of its luminescent heights:<\/p>\n

\n

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The whole effect…was as if someone had placed a Rubens portrait at the bottom of a cesspool, and after centuries of strangeness and decay among the stillness of vile things and vile notions, some chance lightning hit…and out of it she was risen…delivered onto these streets in a pink Cadillac. And she walks and walks, because there is nobody who can make her price.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Carroll’s deft touch for humor is also evident throughout\u00a0Forced Entries<\/i>, particularly in the sequences “Tiny Tortures,” where he recalls his sole experience in the realm of performance art, and “Christmas with D.M.Z.” where he assists his “famed painter friend” in preparations for Christmas which include a failed attempt to assemble a jungle gym for the painter’s daughters and a mistaken hauling to the local police station in which D.M.Z.’s classic ace-up-the-sleeve maneuver seals the stoned pair’s escape from clean and sober justice.<\/p>\n

At first glance, Carroll and his fellow travelers’ lifestyle seems as outmoded as the velvet bell-bottom trousers he wears and the heroin he shoots. Then, we remember the glib 70s-style clothes which have recently dominated fashion shows, city streets and, yes, shopping malls; not to mention the reckless hard drug use which seems to be taking its toll on a generation which has already lost River Phoenix and Kurt Cobain.<\/p>\n

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<\/b>Midnight<\/span><\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The ambulance passes
\nwe sit up<\/p>\n

pinned eyes of nuns that genuflect between stars
\nambassadors on marble staircases in steam tropics<\/p>\n

and the cracked fingers of sculptured virgins
\nreaching out…<\/p>\n

I sit cross-legged on dead trees
\nthat float like a saint’s ghost I<\/p>\n

watch genius natives grow insane by night
\njuggle fire out from their veins as babies<\/p>\n

play astral chords on water stones, breathe
\nlovely notes lightly, make animals dream, I fade<\/p>\n

–Jim Carroll, from\u00a0Living at the Movies<\/i>, (Penguin Books, 1981)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\n
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Columbia Journal of American Studies. 1:1 (1995)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Diaries of the Damned The editors pick at the writings of Jim Carroll Columbia Journal of American Studies\u00a01:1 (1995) CARROLL’S\u00a0The Basketball Diaries\u00a0(Penguin Books, 1987) is not about basketball. The game serves as an entry pass to realms that most red-headed white boys would get chased out of\u2014and a safe reference point for the reader who … Continue reading Diaries of the Damned<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":3988,"menu_order":1,"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":[41],"class_list":["post-5883","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P9VlUH-1wT","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3988,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/book-reviews\/","url_meta":{"origin":5883,"position":0},"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":[]},{"id":4003,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/works\/literary-works\/diaries-and-fiction-by-jim-carroll\/","url_meta":{"origin":5883,"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":8651,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/works\/literary-works\/diaries-and-fiction-by-jim-carroll\/the-basketball-diaries\/the-basketball-diaries-bantam-edition\/","url_meta":{"origin":5883,"position":2},"title":"The Basketball Diaries (Bantam Edition)","author":"Cassie Carter","date":"March 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Basketball DiariesSecond EditionBy: Jim CarrollPublished: 1980Publisher: BantamFormat: PaperbackCover photograph: Michael Zagaris The Bantam edition was released alongside the Jim Carroll Band's first album,\u00a0Catholic Boy, and features a cover blurb by Frank Zappa. The jacket photo is from the same photo session as the cover photos on the\u00a01998 edition\u00a0and\u00a0audiobook\u00a0of\u00a0The Basketball\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\/bd_bantam.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3993,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/works\/literary-works\/diaries-and-fiction-by-jim-carroll\/the-basketball-diaries\/the-basketball-diaries-5th-ed\/","url_meta":{"origin":5883,"position":3},"title":"The Basketball Diaries (5th Edition)","author":"Cassie Carter","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Basketball Diaries5th EditionBy:\u00a0Jim CarrollPublished:\u00a01998Publisher:\u00a0PenguinFormat:\u00a0PaperbackCover photo:\u00a0Michael ZagarisCover design:\u00a0Edward ODowd The fifth edition of\u00a0The Basketball Diaries\u00a0uses a blue-tinted, closeup version of the same photo used on the\u00a0audiobook\u00a0version, and from the same photo session as the\u00a01980 Bantam (2nd) edition. This edition was issued simultaneously with the\u00a0second edition of Forced Entries. See Also\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Cover Art: The Basketball Diaries (1998 edition) - By Jim Carroll","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/bd5.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8855,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/works\/jim-carroll-music-and-spoken-word\/spoken-word-lecture-recordings-by-jim-carroll\/basketball-diaries-audio-literature\/","url_meta":{"origin":5883,"position":4},"title":"The Basketball Diaries (Audio Literature)","author":"Cassie Carter","date":"March 7, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Cover Art: The Basketball Diaries Audiobook The Basketball DiariesBy:\u00a0Jim CarrollRead by:\u00a0Jim CarrollPublished:\u00a01995Publisher:\u00a0Audio LiteratureFormat:\u00a0audio cassetteCover photo:\u00a0Michael ZagarisMusic by:\u00a0Lenny Kaye In this Audio Literature presentation, consisting of two audiotapes, Jim Carroll reads his cult classic book\u00a0The Basketball Diaries, which he wrote between the ages of 12 and 16, from 1962 to 1966.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Cover Art: The Basketball Diaries Audiobook","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/bdaudio.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"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":5883,"position":5},"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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5883","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=5883"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5884,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5883\/revisions\/5884"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/folder?post=5883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}