Forced Entries: The Downtown Diaries: 1971-1973

After seeing the movie "The Basketball Diaries," I decided to pick up the book. It was excellent. Then I read "Forced Entries." I admire Jim for writing without barriers. He sees humor in things you wouldn't think of. I couldn't put this book down. Because of those two books, he is now my favorite author/poet. His poetry is worth reading also. Everything he writes is a personal, touching, and often a scary reality. When reading his stuff, you can picture yourself in his world for a day. You see through the drug-addict's and poet's eyes. To understand the lengths people with drug addiction go through, you have to read at least one of his books. However, you'll be craving to read more.

Taking smack, kicking smack, this book details it all. It is life in NYC on a habit and trying to beat the habit. Itis the message of what Basketball Diaries, the movie attempted (In my opinion that ruined the movie, but so what). Still there are some unforgetable scenes, with special guests Patty Smith and A. Ginsberg. Jim Carrol paints scenes so vivid in reality one can taste them. The scenes are real, gutty, and sometimes downright so unbelievable that they have to be based on truth. A bit of advice: Don't go to the movies and sit next to someone with an arm infection wearing a tight t-shirt.

I thought "The Basketball Diaries" was great, but this book surpassed even that. I laughed out loud several times and read parts over and over again. Carroll writes so beautifully that you almost forget the book is about life on drugs. His language is beautiful and clever, and his stories are funny and easy to imagine. This is one book I will be reading over and over again for along time. I wish he had a third diary out.

Jim Carroll is by and far one of America's most talented poets. He is also a supreme musician, diarist, and writer. In his second published diary, he picks up where The Basketball Diaries left off. He takes you with him into his head, on his trek for purity to California, and back to New York City, where it all began. The book is insightful, painfully funny, enlightening for anyone, and a must for all Jim Carroll fans. If nothing else, the language with which Jim writes is beautifully entertaining.

I love this book. Wickedly insightful. Metaphors that are razor sharp. Anyone who thinks the Basketball Diaries is better than this obviously has a lot of growing up to do...chronologically and aesthetically. I've read and re-read this book over and over..memorizing passages because they are so beautifully written... It's honest, halarious and sobering. Everyone should read this.