The Basketball Diaries
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{{about|the book|the film of the same name|The Basketball Diaries (film)}}
'''''The Basketball Diaries''''' is a [[1978 in literature|1978 book]] written by [[United States|American]] author and musician [[Jim Carroll]]. It is an edited collection of the diaries he kept between the ages of twelve and sixteen. Set in [[New York City]], they detail his daily life, sexual experiences, high school basketball career, [[Cold War]] paranoia, the counter-culture movement, and, especially, his addiction to [[heroin]], which began when he was 13.
Caroll begins using heroin "once in a moon," but, in the last entry, he talks about staying high for four days straight on a "ratty mattress," with his "two sets of gimmicks right alongside [him] in the slightly bloody water in the plastic cup on the crusty linoleum, probably used by every case of [[hepatitis]] in upper Manhattan by now."
The book is considered a classic piece of adolescent literature. Carroll later followed up his original memoirs with a sequel of sorts called ''[[The Downtown Diaries]]'' which follows his relocation to California and his continued addiction to heroin.
==Film adaptation==
The book was made into a [[The Basketball Diaries (film)|film]] in 1995 starring [[Leonardo DiCaprio]].
[[Category:1978 books]]
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[[fr:The Basketball Diaries]]