Book Reviews

Updated 31 December 2010

Here you will find a few of the many reviews of Jim Carroll’s books. Check out the Bibliographies page for more.

Reviews of The Petting Zoo (2010)

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Nancy Rommelmann, Review of The Petting Zoo. OregonLive.com 18 Dec. 2010.
In a thoughtful review, Rommelmann says she “imagined [Carroll] in a train yard, at night, for 20 years,
coupling and uncoupling the cars, laying and tearing up the track, in order to build a path of transcendence
for us.” Download PDF

Susanna Sonnenberg, Review of The Petting Zoo. SFGate.com 26 Dec. 2010.
While Sonnenberg feels the “novel has its discrete pleasures,” she is disappointed that the plot repeatedly “stalls out.”

Ed Voves, “Critics’ Picks: Best Books of 2010.” Review of The Petting Zoo. California Literary Review 18 Dec. 2010.
Volves describes The Petting Zoo as “one of the most noteworthy novels of 2010” by virtue of its being the “‘alpha and omega’ of Carroll’s work as a writer of fiction.” Download PDF

Reviews of Void of Course (1998)

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Paul
McDonald, Review of Void of Course. Louisville
Eccentric Observer, 1998.
“Jim Carroll reaffirms his prowess as mentor and scribe of the
human condition.”  

Stephen
Perrin, “Jim Carroll: The Poet Speaks.” Beat Scene
32 (1999): 59.
“The problem with Carroll is that he has always had two voices
and most commentators have chosen to privilege the street talking
wise ass adolescent narrator of the diaries over the more measured
tones which tend to dominate his poetry. In a some ways this vocal
schizophrenia can be seen as a dramatisation of the conflict between
America and Europe.” Perrin reviews both Pools of Mercury
and Void of Course.

Heather
Perry, Review of Void of Course. The Trumpet, 1999.
“Jim Carroll’s work in Void Of Course is truthful
and strong which is inspiring to the teenagers of today.”

Benjamin
Segedin,
Review of Void of Course. Booklist
95.4 (15 Oct. 1998): 389.
“Carroll
exhumes his life and loves, and his candor at times startles.”

Review
of Void of Course. Publishers
Weekly 28 Sept. 1998: 96.
“An
alternately self-exposing and swaggering Bukowskian diarist, Carroll
reinforces his rock-star-like pop culture niche with his latest
volume of poetry, which somewhat resembles a compilation of power
ballads.”

Reviews of Fear of Dreaming (1993)

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Cassie
Carter, “Integrity of Vision.” Exclusive to The Jim Carroll
Website.
Exclusive to The Jim Carroll Website.

Merry
Fortune, Review of Fear of Dreaming. Poetry Project
Newsletter, 1994.
Merry
Fortune’s free-flowing, poetic review of Fear of Dreaming
was published in the newsletter of the St. Mark’s Poetry Project,
the very place where Carroll got his start as a poet.

Benjamin
Segedin,
Review of Fear of Dreaming. Booklist
90.4 (15 Oct. 1993): 412.
“Touching,
disturbing, and deeply personal, Carroll mines Catholic symbolism
and mean-street and drug imagery with poignant intensity.”

Richard
Sutherland,”BOOKS: Fear of Dreaming.”
Eye Weekly 17 Feb. 1994.
Download PDF or visit
the site.

Reviews of Forced
Entries (1987)

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“Diaries
of the Damned: The editors pick at the writings of Jim Carroll.”
Columbia Journal of American Studies 1:1 (1995).
Available www.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/cjas/11/3.html
This article includes two separate reviews: one of The Basketball
Diaries and one of Forced Entries. As an added bonus,
it features a unique Jim Carroll autograph that says, “Dev Duckster
lives!” as well as the full text of Carroll’s poem “Midnight.”

William
Hochswender, “The Way They Were in Greenwich Village.”
Los Angeles Times Book Review 18 Oct. 1987: 10.
“[T]he real attraction of Carroll is the energy of his language,
whether applied to fantastically baroque nods or to mundane urban
realities.” And “When, ultimately, Carroll finds his
redemption in California . . . we sense that eneormity of the
underground experience, as lived, in ways a documentary history
can only grope for.” Download
PDF

Christopher
Lehmann-Haupt, “Books of the Times.” New York Times,
9 July 1987: C23.
Review of The Basketball Diaries and Forced Entries.
Download PDF

Mark
Stevens,”The Cockroach Chronicles.” New
York Times, 1987.
Stevens
says Forced Entries “provides plenty of diverting
tinsel,” enumerating Carroll’s activity at the Factory and
Max’s Kansas City, but says “Mr. Carroll aspires to something
wieghtier, however–a story of struggle and redemption.”

Reviews of The Basketball Diaries (1978)

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“Diaries
of the Damned: The editors pick at the writings of Jim Carroll.”
Columbia Journal of American Studies 1:1 (1995).
Available www.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/cjas/11/3.html
This article includes two separate reviews: one of The Basketball
Diaries and one of Forced Entries. As an added bonus,
it features a unique Jim Carroll autograph that says, “Dev Duckster
lives!” as well as the full text of Carroll’s poem “Midnight.”

Tricia
Ireland, “Author’s Honesty Makes Book Entertaining.”
Orion Online [Chico State University, CA]. 3 May 1995.

Download
PDF or visit
the site.

Jamie
James. “The Basketball Diaries.” American
Book Review 2.3 (1980):9.

This
is the all-time best review of The Basketball Diaries.
Much quoted. Download
PDF

Christopher
Lehmann-Haupt, “Books of the Times.” New York Times,
9 July 1987: C23.
Review of The Basketball Diaries and Forced Entries.
Download PDF

Cindy
Rogowitz, Review of The Basketball Diaries.
http://pptnt.cpcnet.com/lancaster/pub/13/10.95/bball10.95.html

Mary-Anne
St.Onge,
Review of Basketball Diaries. Exclusive to The Jim
Carroll Website.
Special
to the Jim Carroll Website.

Reviews of Living
at the Movies (1973)

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Gerard
Malanga,”Traveling and Living.” Poetry,
1974.
A
glowing review of Living at the Movies. Download PDF

Michael
Stephens, Review of Living at the Movies. Guardian,
circa 1973.
Another glowing review. I don’t have publication details for this
article; Jim Carroll gave it to me. Download PDF

Review of Organic
Trains (1967)

Ted
Berrigan, “Jim Carroll.” Culture Hero,
1969.
Poet
Ted Berrigan describes first meeting Carroll and praises his first
book, Organic Trains.