Synopses & Reviews
Originally published in 1973, Living at the Movies was the first aboveground publication of the work of Jim Carroll, author of the now-classic Basketball Diaries and a singer-songwriter whom Newsweek called "contender for the title of rock's new poet laureate." In these poems, all written before the age of twenty-two, Carroll shows an uncanny virtuosity. His power and poisoned purity of vision are reminiscent of Arthur Rimbaud, and, like the strongest poets of the New York School, Carroll transforms the everyday details of city life into poetry. In language at once delicate, hallucinatory, and menacing, his major themes love, friendship, the exquisite pains and pleasures of drugs, and above all, the ever-present city emerge in an atmosphere where dream and reality mingle on equal terms. It is an astonishing debut by an important American writer and artist.
About the Author
Jim Carroll’s bestselling memoir The Basketball Diaries was first released in 1978 and adapted as a film in 1995. Carroll’s work includes several collections of poetry as well as a asecond memoir, Forces Entries: The Downtown Diaries 1971-1973. As the leader of The Jim Carroll Band he released three albums as well as several spoken word recordings. He died in New York City on September 11, 2009.