Jim Carroll's memoir draws on diaries he kept as a teenager in 1960s New York, between ages twelve and sixteen. He is a star basketball player at a Catholic school on the Upper West Side and also a heroin user, who steals, hustles and drifts around the city's streets. The entries run from pickup games and school trips to junkie scenes, sexual encounters and the slow loss of control as addiction takes over. Carroll's voice is raw, funny and poetic, and he tells it without moral commentary.
The book is for readers who like street memoir and punk-era literature, and for anyone curious about youth, addiction and the New York of that decade. It was adapted into a 1995 film, but the diary form gives the original its fast, restless energy.
Inward-looking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Empathetic Explorer. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1978
- Language
- EN
