Void of Course

by Jim Carroll

Book Overview

In 1973, at the age of twenty-three, Jim Carroll burst upon the poetry scene with his first collection, Living at the Movies, a book of vivid and inventive verse that won him comparisons to everyone from Arthur Rimbaud to Frank O'Hara.

Carroll's first new book of poetry in more than a decade, Void of Course presents work composed over the last two years. His major themes--love, friendship, desire, time and memory,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140589090
• ISBN13: 9780140589092
• Release Date: October 1998
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

a true poet, for all his wounds

jim carroll possesses a poetic of the wounded and lost which seems unrivalled to me today by any other modern poet. it's not, as some critics claim, that kids read his work because "he's the kid from the basketball diaries", or "he's done a lot of drugs".the attraction of people, whatever age or place in life, to carroll's poems and music seems a sign of enlightenment to me: a man writes about the underbelly of society, which he spent most of his life exploring (and eventually becoming trapped within), and comes out at great cost to himself, with pearls. Carroll's "8 Fragments for Kurt Cobain" is a really moving piece, and if you have any knowledge of the subject you will feel something shift inside you while reading it, and a deep disappointment that it ends at all. ("The lyrics were strange/"Chalk Skin Bending"/"Incognito Libido"/But copying them down I realized/That they only fit into the barrel of a gun.")Perhaps that should be the final word on Cobain's death.The last poem is also touching: Carroll talks of love betrayed and acknowledges his inevitable aloneness. Read it.

Thought Felony Drainage.

This is sensational. I saw him do some stuff from this in New York a little while ago and went and bought this the next day from the lady with the stand at the corner of St.Mark's and Astor Pl. The words here are just gold. For some reason it reminded me of Leonard Cohen's stuff, it has that air of 'it's always been there, I just said it best' about it. 'Jukebox' is a highlight, as are most of the pieces headed simply 'poem'... Oh, just get it, it's not that expensive, and it's really worth it.

Disecting the Void

Jim Carroll is the last poet hero. VC is gritty & unrelenting in its pursuit of redemption. i make it a habit to highlight illuminating verses, i found myself highlighting most of this book.

Jim Carroll at his best!!!

Void Of Course is one of the best books I've ever read in my whole life! Jim Carroll proves once again that he's a genius. All the poems in this book prove that Jim Carroll is only getting better! It was definitely worth waiting for! The poems range from very short pieces ("What Burroughs told me") to long poems - such as "While she's gone" which is nine pages long, but doesn't appear that long. Jim Carroll is the unofficial king of the poetry scene.

Ohmigoddess, Jim Carroll rocks!

I think this book shows a growing, a progress, in both Jim Carroll's depth and his vision...he's no longer the 15-year-old street kid he was in The Basketball Diaries, and this book proves it. He still may not be completely at peace w/his past, but he has gone on, at least to a point. The ever-beatiful "8 Fragments for Kurt Cobain" strummed a string in my heart-he went through addition and all and survivied, but K.Cobain didn't. Also, the last poem, "My Ruins" on Pools of Mercury, is amazing...it sums it up!!! "While She's Gone", the longest poem in the book, tells powerfully the pains and anxieties of a parted lover, but the shorter poems are jewels on equal terms. He's taken a turn from TBD, and it's incredible!!! Get the book, read it, love it, and you'll be rewarded w/infinite wisdom!!!