Comments on: Jim Carroll is now also a person who died

By: Amstutz

Amstutz — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:03:39 +0000

He was a great writer, but he was great because he was haunted. I’m amazed he even made it to 60. When his book came out in 1978, my friends and I argued about whether he was still alive then.

By: WhiteBoy41

WhiteBoy41 — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:57:02 +0000

If you don’t have “Catholic Boy” in your rec. collection get it. Cuz its not a true rec. collection til you do.
R I P Jim.

By: G.D. Hawksley

G.D. Hawksley — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:40:11 +0000

There may be some irony in the fact that one of my closet friends, and the best poet I have known, was named Steven Elliott, who was also someone who died far too young, and may have had too much in common with Carroll….

By: Tony O'Neill

Tony O'Neill — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:35:01 +0000

Man, this is terrible news. Whatever ‘it’ was, Jim had it. A really great prose writer, and a poet of exceptional talent. And he lived it, it wasn’t just some abstract notion to him. It’s a brave thing to actually physically embody what you write about… like the old Burroughs axiom of dividing writers up into either bullfighters, who risk getting gored, or bullshitters, who make fake passes at imaginary foes… he was definitely the former…

By: james myers

james myers — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 01:30:30 +0000

and he had a trusted rhythm of his own when he read. He was always pulling back on the beat, not like in his singing. You figured he’d picked up a lot from St Marks, learning how to hold the idea or image in the phrases of the sentence.
And he felt right.