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The Basketball Diaries

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The Basketball Diaries

By: Jim Carroll
Narrated by: Jim Carroll
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About this listen

 In his teens, Jim Carroll roamed the streets of New York, shooting baskets with some of New York's best "playground" stars, and shooting heroin with some of the city's most memorable street characters. The Basketball Diaries is his chronicle of those years. Written while in his teens, it is a literary tour-de-force and a stunning portrait of contemporary urban street life. The characters and incidents are moving and funny and sad, but always very real.©1963 -1978 by Jim Carroll (P)1994 by Audio Literature Politicians Politics & Activism Funny

Critic Reviews

"At thirteen, Jim Carroll writes better prose than 89 percent of the novelists working today." (Jack Kerouac)
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Narrated by Jim Carroll himself I loved it..
completely different backgrounds and decades of growing up yet it is so relatable to me.. I love this story.. recommend 100%

Relatable

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A harrowing juxtaposition. Both an innocent coming of age story and a dark street tale of drugs, sex and crime. New York City and the 1960s social and political climate serving as the perfect backdrop.

A Bare Bones Coming of Age Story in NY Streets

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Great to hear from the horse's mouth and he reads well. But it feels like scattered pages read one after another with no closing. It just stops like as if pages are missing at the end. I'm sure there's a reason for it but it's still too foreign to me.

Not a bad book

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this is living proof that the writer shouldn't always narrate the book, not only is it read poorly, it's seems like it was really poorly recorded too. it's hard to know if it's poorly written cos it's just so bad. I would have returned it but it sat in my library for ages before I listened and I wasn't able to return or something like that, hard to remember but what is straight fact is, this is trash. don't do it!!

poorly narrated

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