I was bed-ridden with a horrible flue and fever. Bored and wanting something to read, my Mother's boyfriend gave me Basketball Diaries. I consumed the book within the very same day. The book itself is very vulgar but not trash. A work of literature may contain vulgarities but this does not mean it is trash.
Romance novels are trash.
No, this book is a great work from a realist point of view. The story itself shows a real life example what happens to all to many people. At the beginning of the book, Carrol is a star basketball player at the same high school Kareem Abdul Jabbar attended. But what begins as mischief among his group of friends quickly progresses to a life of misery due mainly to drugs. He was soon kicked out of his mother's house and dropped out of highschool.