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Devil in a Coma
One morning in March 2021 with the second wave of infections ripping through Ireland where he was newly resident, Mark Lanegan woke up breathless, fatigued beyond belief, his body burdened with a gigantic dose of Covid-19. Admitted to Kerry Hospital and initially given little hope of survival, Lanegan's illness has him slipping in and out of a coma, unable to walk or function for several months and fearing for his life.
As his situation becomes more intolerable over the course of that bleakest of springs he is assaulted by nightmares, visions and regrets about a life lived on the edge of chaos and disorder. He is prompted to consider his predicament and how, in his sixth decade, his lifelong battle with mortality has led to this final banal encounter with a disease that has undone millions, when he has apparently been cheating death for his whole existence.
Written in vignettes of prose and poetry, Devil In A Coma is a terrifying account of illness and the remorse that comes with it by an artist and writer with singular vision.
As his situation becomes more intolerable over the course of that bleakest of springs he is assaulted by nightmares, visions and regrets about a life lived on the edge of chaos and disorder. He is prompted to consider his predicament and how, in his sixth decade, his lifelong battle with mortality has led to this final banal encounter with a disease that has undone millions, when he has apparently been cheating death for his whole existence.
Written in vignettes of prose and poetry, Devil In A Coma is a terrifying account of illness and the remorse that comes with it by an artist and writer with singular vision.
148 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 14, 2021
46 people are currently reading
1084 people want to read
About the author
Mark Lanegan
17 books173 followersMark Lanegan (born November 25, 1964 in Ellensburg, Washington) was an American rock musician and songwriter. Lanegan began his music career in the 1980s. In 1985, he became the vocalist for grunge group Screaming Trees; the group broke up in 2000. Lanegan would start a low-key solo career, but in 2004 Lanegan released his big breakthrough album Bubblegum. In addition to leading the The Gutter Twins, Lanegan has also been involved in other musical projects, including hard rock band Queens of the Stone Age, longterm collaborations with Isobel Campbell; and undertaken some surprisingly eclectic collaborations, such as co-writing and providing vocals for "Black River" by the electronic outfit, Bomb the Bass. He also lent his vocal talent to the highly regarded album, "Above", by supergroup Mad Season.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 133 reviews
December 31, 2021
Sometimes I wonder how much of Lanegan's bitterness is legit and how much is tongue in cheek knowing that he has a rep as a bit of an arsehole. I guess that's why I like his writing so much? He doesn't hold back from putting his flaws and self loathing on display while at the same time being completely non repentant about it? It's just... how do you even describe that.
This was a short, sort of whimsical read, as much whimsy as you can get with such a dark mood permeating every word. Swinging between actual events, to hallucinations, and poetry. Once again Mark Lanegan slithers through another experience that probably should have left him dead perhaps indicating the end of the world will be the cockroaches and this guy.
It's an interesting read. Especially given some of Lanegan's previously released work that swings into the conspiracy view of ~covid~ which effectively kneecapped him regardless of his thoughts on the matter. And for all it's dark and twisty there's the signature Lanegan humour. I could just imagine the doctors and nurses clapping with glee at the chance to find a vein when he was hospitalised for a second time unconscious.
Anyway. This just cemented that I will probably go out of my way to purchase any sort of writing this dude puts out. For all he loathes it, he's pretty good at it.
This was a short, sort of whimsical read, as much whimsy as you can get with such a dark mood permeating every word. Swinging between actual events, to hallucinations, and poetry. Once again Mark Lanegan slithers through another experience that probably should have left him dead perhaps indicating the end of the world will be the cockroaches and this guy.
It's an interesting read. Especially given some of Lanegan's previously released work that swings into the conspiracy view of ~covid~ which effectively kneecapped him regardless of his thoughts on the matter. And for all it's dark and twisty there's the signature Lanegan humour. I could just imagine the doctors and nurses clapping with glee at the chance to find a vein when he was hospitalised for a second time unconscious.
Anyway. This just cemented that I will probably go out of my way to purchase any sort of writing this dude puts out. For all he loathes it, he's pretty good at it.
February 24, 2022
RIP to one of the real ones. Wish you well.
A major theme of Lanegan's work in music and recently in writing is that of being the one who survived, "When the sun is finally going down/And you're overdue to follow/But you're still above the ground." Not for lack of trying either, or for making good choices, being smarter, more resilient, more deserving. There's seemingly no reason to have made it, and you're not different from the friends who didn't make it.
COVID is notoriously hard on bodies that have gone through a lot. Though Lanegan sang full throated on survivorship making an iron man of no one, there's something biblical about being met with a virus which specifically sledgehammers people like him. The poetry in his reckoning with this, as with Sing Backwards, is to strip the poetry from this. Let him come face to face with cosmic irony and still learn nothing, still never attach meaning to suffering. There is a further truth in doing so. The only illusion remaining is how he exaggerates his devil horns, but that needs to remain as expressing an emotional truth and aspect of his personality.
It's nearly impossible to not read this as a deathbed screed. The arc of the book roughly consists in his defiance of getting an ok from doctors who had to patiently reassure him of how bad off he was. The book concludes this tension with doctors for the first time giving him an unqualified all-clear. It's brief, abrupt, and on my reading, unbelieved. It's a sitcom ending unless the fact of his death months later is kept in mind. It may be an accident of text, just as the jumble of prose and poetry in this is abated by the disorientation of sickness meant to be conveyed, but it remains something heavy to dwell on that perhaps this time it's not about the arbitraity of having survived, but the question mark over having done so.
A major theme of Lanegan's work in music and recently in writing is that of being the one who survived, "When the sun is finally going down/And you're overdue to follow/But you're still above the ground." Not for lack of trying either, or for making good choices, being smarter, more resilient, more deserving. There's seemingly no reason to have made it, and you're not different from the friends who didn't make it.
COVID is notoriously hard on bodies that have gone through a lot. Though Lanegan sang full throated on survivorship making an iron man of no one, there's something biblical about being met with a virus which specifically sledgehammers people like him. The poetry in his reckoning with this, as with Sing Backwards, is to strip the poetry from this. Let him come face to face with cosmic irony and still learn nothing, still never attach meaning to suffering. There is a further truth in doing so. The only illusion remaining is how he exaggerates his devil horns, but that needs to remain as expressing an emotional truth and aspect of his personality.
It's nearly impossible to not read this as a deathbed screed. The arc of the book roughly consists in his defiance of getting an ok from doctors who had to patiently reassure him of how bad off he was. The book concludes this tension with doctors for the first time giving him an unqualified all-clear. It's brief, abrupt, and on my reading, unbelieved. It's a sitcom ending unless the fact of his death months later is kept in mind. It may be an accident of text, just as the jumble of prose and poetry in this is abated by the disorientation of sickness meant to be conveyed, but it remains something heavy to dwell on that perhaps this time it's not about the arbitraity of having survived, but the question mark over having done so.
March 9, 2022
After Mark Lanegan sadly died yesterday I realised he documented his struggle with the Covid virus in this book. Laid up in an Irish hospital after 3 weeks in a coma he's documenting all his ills with his usual bleek outlook and dark humor: Fever dreams, an unhappy childhood come back to haunt you yet again, the perceived death sentence of being locked in a hospital room - and add the spice of refusing blood samples on a daily basis - as he has next to no usable veins left (and the doctors won't let him find them himself, tho' he is somewhat of an expert after shooting up for years). It's devastating, dark and funny in it's self-deprecating honesty.
Read
March 4, 2022Knjiga prati kod Lanegana već viđen narativ: "ja mislio belo je crno, pa sam se gadno zajebao i najebao, i ne samo ja već i moji mili i dragi, pa sam shvatio, kreten sam i kajem se", i eto zvuči iskreno kad to kaže, ali taj je majstor da zajebe ljude pa sam ipak na distanci. Sama knjiga je kratko ali živopisno svedočanstvo pakla ozbiljnog kovida i ostalih tekućih problema koje je vukao, prozni fragmenti ispresecani pesmama, kao što se može očekivati teskobno je i skučeno i aprijatno i nema nekog razloga da čitate ako već niste fan.
U svakom slučaju, laka mu zemlja. Nadam se da ćemo jednom videti i biografiju na srpskom, to bi bilo lepo...
U svakom slučaju, laka mu zemlja. Nadam se da ćemo jednom videti i biografiju na srpskom, to bi bilo lepo...
February 13, 2022
“I’ve never enjoyed being fully present, a muted reality has been the landscape I preferred and mainly inhabited forever.”
March 25, 2022
Це вражаюча книга.
Не тому, що вона про ковід і кому,
а тому, що це безкінечні рефлексії на тему смерті.
Описаний досвід стався з автором навесні 2021-го, а навесні цього року він помер.
Тепер уже невідворотно.
А ще у кінці — список подяк. По суті, список близьких людей.
Останнє прощання.
Що ж, це було сильно, Матвійович.
A friend once told me
it’s better to get old than not
considering the alternative
but I am of the Pete Townshend school of
thought
I hope I die before I get old
Не тому, що вона про ковід і кому,
а тому, що це безкінечні рефлексії на тему смерті.
Описаний досвід стався з автором навесні 2021-го, а навесні цього року він помер.
Тепер уже невідворотно.
А ще у кінці — список подяк. По суті, список близьких людей.
Останнє прощання.
Що ж, це було сильно, Матвійович.
A friend once told me
it’s better to get old than not
considering the alternative
but I am of the Pete Townshend school of
thought
I hope I die before I get old
February 11, 2022
Well that's was short but not particularly sweet! In fact it was downright depressing, although nothing less than one would expect from ML. This lacked the dark humour of Sing Backwards and Weep, but it did take you into down into the bleak space he inhabited when almost dying from Covid. One for the real fans and Mark Lanegan completists I would suggest.
March 24, 2022
Recently I finally got covid and I know I got off very easy especially after reading an account of the disease like this. For anyone who read "Sing Backwards and Weep" it's clear Mark Lanegan has a history of being close to death for most of his life, through both the deaths of his friends and his own drug use. Managing to get through the 90s and finally get clean was a sign Lanegan was a survivor in a way others unfortunately couldn't manage, but when covid came calling in Lanegan's life in 2021 it was to nearly be the curtain call he had managed to avoid for decades.
Devil In A Coma is a strange and very individual piece which reads almost as an unplanned companion to Sing Backwards and Weep while also standing on its own. Lanegan recounts his stay in Kerry Hospital in Ireland honestly and in a self deprecating manner. Breathing through a tube, surrounded by other sick people. The lack of any idea of how long recovery will take. It really puts you inside of all the news stories you no doubt read of what hospital wards were like during the pandemic.
Lanegan gives a view into the at times hallucinatory experience covid had on his brain. We switch between prose and poetry and I have to say I'm impressed at his poetry especially knowing some of it may have been written during his seemingly endless stay in hospital. The past invades the present and given Lanegan is under the assumption he won't leave alive for much of the book he takes stock of his life in a way we all must if we think the end is near. He is brutally honest and and pulls no punches in his self assessment, in a pit of such brutal ennui surrounded by the sick or dying I can imagine such thoughts flow easily.
This is a journal not of the Pandemiad but of the plague raging through one man's body and his brutal struggle to survive. If you're a Lanegan fan it feels like a natural extension of SBAW and his recent albums. If you have no idea about Lanegan but want to read about what it was like to have a bad bout of covid this may also interest you.
Addendum: RIP Mark you beautiful soul. To think you left the world less than a week after I wrote this review. So much left to give.
Devil In A Coma is a strange and very individual piece which reads almost as an unplanned companion to Sing Backwards and Weep while also standing on its own. Lanegan recounts his stay in Kerry Hospital in Ireland honestly and in a self deprecating manner. Breathing through a tube, surrounded by other sick people. The lack of any idea of how long recovery will take. It really puts you inside of all the news stories you no doubt read of what hospital wards were like during the pandemic.
Lanegan gives a view into the at times hallucinatory experience covid had on his brain. We switch between prose and poetry and I have to say I'm impressed at his poetry especially knowing some of it may have been written during his seemingly endless stay in hospital. The past invades the present and given Lanegan is under the assumption he won't leave alive for much of the book he takes stock of his life in a way we all must if we think the end is near. He is brutally honest and and pulls no punches in his self assessment, in a pit of such brutal ennui surrounded by the sick or dying I can imagine such thoughts flow easily.
This is a journal not of the Pandemiad but of the plague raging through one man's body and his brutal struggle to survive. If you're a Lanegan fan it feels like a natural extension of SBAW and his recent albums. If you have no idea about Lanegan but want to read about what it was like to have a bad bout of covid this may also interest you.
Addendum: RIP Mark you beautiful soul. To think you left the world less than a week after I wrote this review. So much left to give.
January 25, 2022
i almost finished it in one sitting, but wanted to keep it with me for longer. it is 5/5 for what i expected, but 4/5 compared to the autobiography. it is a great read and i loved the addition of poems. it gets a bit repetetive, but i guess there was no escaping that, because that was the nature of the situation he was in.
i will support everything this man does, and i can't wait for that to actually be seing him live again.
i will support everything this man does, and i can't wait for that to actually be seing him live again.
March 3, 2022
A week to the day after Mark Lanegan passed away I received a signed copy of this book that I had forgotten I'd ordered back in November 2021. Lanegan's music has been some of my favorite for years now, really connecting with me on some level that's never made a whole lot of sense considering my pretty bearable overall life circumstances. I guess themes of loneliness, self-hatred, and misery really work for me despite all that. His writing is not different thematically than his music. I began reading this on my lunch break from work on an uncharacteristic gloomy, rainy day for Eastern Washington, not too far from where Lanegan grew up.
Devil in a Coma is a pretty bleak depiction of someone nearly dying of Covid. A good chunk of the memoir section of the text (it jumps back and forth between bits of memoir and poetry) takes place in the hospital as he nearly dies and struggles to recover. It probably comes off as somewhat bleaker knowing that he passed not long after the events of this book from, at the time of this writing, unspecified causes.
Lanegan had been toying with conspiracy theories about Covid towards the beginning of the pandemic, much to my chagrin, but luckily there is only a small amount of that here and he seemingly had been changing his tune after his near death experience. This book definitely isn't for everyone. If you're a fan of his music and liked the poetry he released the last few years then you will likely enjoy this. Otherwise, I'm not too sure what the reaction would be. It's a really quick read if nothing else, it took me about an hour and a half to finish. It was a cathartic read for me overall, despite the penetrating gloom contained within.
R.I.P. Mark Lanegan
4/5 Stars
Devil in a Coma is a pretty bleak depiction of someone nearly dying of Covid. A good chunk of the memoir section of the text (it jumps back and forth between bits of memoir and poetry) takes place in the hospital as he nearly dies and struggles to recover. It probably comes off as somewhat bleaker knowing that he passed not long after the events of this book from, at the time of this writing, unspecified causes.
Lanegan had been toying with conspiracy theories about Covid towards the beginning of the pandemic, much to my chagrin, but luckily there is only a small amount of that here and he seemingly had been changing his tune after his near death experience. This book definitely isn't for everyone. If you're a fan of his music and liked the poetry he released the last few years then you will likely enjoy this. Otherwise, I'm not too sure what the reaction would be. It's a really quick read if nothing else, it took me about an hour and a half to finish. It was a cathartic read for me overall, despite the penetrating gloom contained within.
R.I.P. Mark Lanegan
4/5 Stars
January 8, 2022
Almost 15 years ago to date I photographed Mark Lanegan in Vooruit in Gent, Belgium, at a concert in duo with Isobel Campbell. I had never heard of Lanegan --or QotSA (Queens of the Stone Age)-- until a few days before, when I was asked to provide the reviewer with photos. The concert was just so-so --there was no energy whatsoever between Lanegan and Campbell-- so I'd never really paid any attention to Lanegan's further career.
This memoir did get my attention though, when a local reviewer Ewoud Ceulemans of the Flemish newspaper De Morgen, described the booklet as sinister and devoid of pleasure.
It's been a fantastic trip. Lanegan got infected with COVID-19 and describes how he dealt with that (spoiler: not in what most people would describe as 'a good way').
This memoir did get my attention though, when a local reviewer Ewoud Ceulemans of the Flemish newspaper De Morgen, described the booklet as sinister and devoid of pleasure.
It's been a fantastic trip. Lanegan got infected with COVID-19 and describes how he dealt with that (spoiler: not in what most people would describe as 'a good way').
January 22, 2022
So, after being blown away by Sing backwards and Weep, I was very interested in hearing Lanegan tell the tale of his contracting COVID and nearly dying. I am strongly aware of his not being a role model in almost every way, but I am fascinated that Mark sees his life and his actions so clearly and isn’t being narrow-minded about his plight. He truly is just “who he is”. The good, the bad, the ugly, it’s all just who he is and he knows it. His poetry in the book is good, but often sad, which is on point again. Hang in there Mark, I do enjoy the art you have brought into this world!
April 19, 2022
Enjoyable short read. Added intrigue and poignancy given Mark’s subsequent passing.
It is so unusual to have someone who is so unlikeable (by his own admission) and difficult yet pretty much unrepentant as he accepts his poor behaviour is just part of his destructive behaviour, no attempt to sugar coat or excuse himself.
There were a few reflective moments concerning old age or how wealthy countries can buy their way out of a crisis which gave interesting glimpses of his worldview.
It is so unusual to have someone who is so unlikeable (by his own admission) and difficult yet pretty much unrepentant as he accepts his poor behaviour is just part of his destructive behaviour, no attempt to sugar coat or excuse himself.
There were a few reflective moments concerning old age or how wealthy countries can buy their way out of a crisis which gave interesting glimpses of his worldview.
January 20, 2022
Another stunner from Lanegan. He is so good at bringing the reader right along with him—his writing is visceral. Glad he finally recovered and is free to continue creating magic.
Read
March 22, 2022Being a fan of Lanegans music for more than a decade, reading an excerpt of this book before his death, and now reading the whole thing while still in the throes of the pandemic. That was tough.
September 21, 2022
Little Lanegan with his cute little books
I'm going to think up something supremely profound about this soon but in the meantime I might just chuck some random quotes from it into this review.
I'm going to think up something supremely profound about this soon but in the meantime I might just chuck some random quotes from it into this review.
February 24, 2022
I’m sad that I didn’t hear about this book’s release until the day of his passing. Not sure how I missed it. Mark Lanegan has been one of my musical idols for years. Though I was a mild fan of The Screaming Trees, I was a HUGE fan of his solo work as well as with Queens of the Stone Age. I pre-ordered his memoir”Sing Backwards and Weep” and devoured it within 2 days of the day it hit my Kindle.
I expected I’d relate to his story somewhat, but never expected to relate as much as I did. Though I didn’t have Covid, mere months before Covid existed, I was in the ICU with damaged lungs and ventilated for a bit too long, with the conversation of a tracheotomy with my loved ones occurring. His descriptions of the nightmares and hallucinations, the extreme obsession with getting out- all worded as though it came directly out of my own head. I’ve never read such a similar description of my own experience (though his was quite a bit more extreme and a much lengthier stay- my 37 days to his MONTHS).
My favorite part (if it’s appropriate to have a “favorite” part of such a brutal retelling of an illness) was the style of his writing- the combination of old memories combined with the re-telling of his hospitalization, and then poems that relate to the specific part of the story in between.
I gave it 4 stars because toward the end, it got a bit repetitive and then just ended abruptly. I had the same issue with Sing Backwards and Weep. But, overall, am so glad I read both of these memoirs to get deeper into the mind of one of my favorite voices.
I’m truly saddened by the passing of the great, grovel-y voiced, soulful and dark Mark Lanegan. RIP, Dark Mark.
I expected I’d relate to his story somewhat, but never expected to relate as much as I did. Though I didn’t have Covid, mere months before Covid existed, I was in the ICU with damaged lungs and ventilated for a bit too long, with the conversation of a tracheotomy with my loved ones occurring. His descriptions of the nightmares and hallucinations, the extreme obsession with getting out- all worded as though it came directly out of my own head. I’ve never read such a similar description of my own experience (though his was quite a bit more extreme and a much lengthier stay- my 37 days to his MONTHS).
My favorite part (if it’s appropriate to have a “favorite” part of such a brutal retelling of an illness) was the style of his writing- the combination of old memories combined with the re-telling of his hospitalization, and then poems that relate to the specific part of the story in between.
I gave it 4 stars because toward the end, it got a bit repetitive and then just ended abruptly. I had the same issue with Sing Backwards and Weep. But, overall, am so glad I read both of these memoirs to get deeper into the mind of one of my favorite voices.
I’m truly saddened by the passing of the great, grovel-y voiced, soulful and dark Mark Lanegan. RIP, Dark Mark.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 16, 2024
Putting it plain and simple, this is a book that tells the perspective of the author about his struggles with Covid and his time spent in the hospital because of it. I found it refreshing, there is no bullshit about conspiracies or other theories.
This is certainly not at the same narrative level as "sing backwards and weep", and that is a good thing. "Sing backwards and weep" is a narrative about Mark's life and his struggles with drugs and depression. Here is just his latest and sadly one of his last written memories that one can have easy access to. In that sense, in my opinion it serves as a complement but certainly there is no need to read any other book of his beforehand. Although it certainly helps to have at least a notion who Mark Lanegan was.
You can expect a raw and crude, almost depressing narrative of a man who already struggled so much throughout is life, about one more (and last) struggle.
Strongly recommend
This is certainly not at the same narrative level as "sing backwards and weep", and that is a good thing. "Sing backwards and weep" is a narrative about Mark's life and his struggles with drugs and depression. Here is just his latest and sadly one of his last written memories that one can have easy access to. In that sense, in my opinion it serves as a complement but certainly there is no need to read any other book of his beforehand. Although it certainly helps to have at least a notion who Mark Lanegan was.
You can expect a raw and crude, almost depressing narrative of a man who already struggled so much throughout is life, about one more (and last) struggle.
Strongly recommend
September 9, 2022
I am a fan of the Screaming Trees, though this is the first time I have come across Lanegan’s prose. He clearly endured an incredibly turbulent and miserable upbringing and overall this memoir really makes for pretty intense and depressing reading.
This is part cautionary tale about the perils of addiction, published during that very brief window where other people’s Covid experiences were still relatively novel or interesting, no one in Camp Lanegan was risking the chance of missing out on the cash in.
According to this Lanegan’s lot in life was far from a desirable one, seemingly he led a life of chronic ill health, whether it be through violence, accidents or addiction. It’s no feel good factor read. There isn't really much in here, its a very short account which reads like broken shards from a black mirror, padded out by a lot of mediocre poetry to fill in some of the cracks.
This is part cautionary tale about the perils of addiction, published during that very brief window where other people’s Covid experiences were still relatively novel or interesting, no one in Camp Lanegan was risking the chance of missing out on the cash in.
According to this Lanegan’s lot in life was far from a desirable one, seemingly he led a life of chronic ill health, whether it be through violence, accidents or addiction. It’s no feel good factor read. There isn't really much in here, its a very short account which reads like broken shards from a black mirror, padded out by a lot of mediocre poetry to fill in some of the cracks.
May 1, 2022
Had to wait a while for this one to be refilled on the shelves here in Oz and I was cranky I missed it when it came out. I didn't enjoy the read as much as Sing Backwards, but I wanted desperately to read it. And I read it quickly, as just like his music, it was hard to stop partaking.
Reading each passage, the feeling grew in me that he was writing his own obituary. Filled with self deprecation and loathing in places, I certainly didn't feel 'up' after finishing it. I felt the same after Sing Backwards, but that book will be one of my all time faves.
I loved the poetry in Devil in a Coma. And I think that's why I loved Lanegan's music so much. It was poetry with an always beautiful backing track.
Reading each passage, the feeling grew in me that he was writing his own obituary. Filled with self deprecation and loathing in places, I certainly didn't feel 'up' after finishing it. I felt the same after Sing Backwards, but that book will be one of my all time faves.
I loved the poetry in Devil in a Coma. And I think that's why I loved Lanegan's music so much. It was poetry with an always beautiful backing track.
March 31, 2022
I read this immediately after hearing the news about Mark Lanegan's tragic death earlier this month. It was a very sobering read which, much like the superior 'Read backwards and weep", seems unremitting bleak but still offers the chance of some sort of redemption. Sadly, in the case of this, his final book, that redemption following a debilitating bout of Covid 19, was to be short-lived.
The writing is as forceful and honest as ever. However, the powerful prose is interspersed with regular poetic interludes which are not always successful or effective.
This book will always be remembered as some kind of memorial to the difficult life and untimely death of this most singular of artists. However, I prefer to remember Lanegan for his previous memoir and , especially, his varied and impressive musical career.
The writing is as forceful and honest as ever. However, the powerful prose is interspersed with regular poetic interludes which are not always successful or effective.
This book will always be remembered as some kind of memorial to the difficult life and untimely death of this most singular of artists. However, I prefer to remember Lanegan for his previous memoir and , especially, his varied and impressive musical career.
January 10, 2025
Having read Sing Backwards and Weep previously, I was looking forward to more gritty honesty from Mr Lanagan, and it didn't let me down. It makes me even more sad that I didn't get the opportunity to see him perform live before he passed away.
One thing I took away from this (and from SBAW) after also having read Matthew Perry's autobiography is the difference in accountability.
Matthew Perry blamed his addiction for pretty much all the bad things in his life. Always the illness, never himself. It's refreshing that Mark Lanegan freely admits he made bad decisions over and over, and the consequences were very much his own doing. And that just makes me like him even more.
One thing I took away from this (and from SBAW) after also having read Matthew Perry's autobiography is the difference in accountability.
Matthew Perry blamed his addiction for pretty much all the bad things in his life. Always the illness, never himself. It's refreshing that Mark Lanegan freely admits he made bad decisions over and over, and the consequences were very much his own doing. And that just makes me like him even more.
May 9, 2022
Hard to be objective about this book reading it after the author recently passed on, but whilst enjoy would be the wrong term, I am glad to have read it.
As with his autobiography, he is unendingly hard on himself and his time being very uwell, trapped in hospital gave him ample opportunity to remember all the bad things in his past.
It's a painful book, honest and uncompromising, but somehow there is always hope in there.
As with his autobiography, he is unendingly hard on himself and his time being very uwell, trapped in hospital gave him ample opportunity to remember all the bad things in his past.
It's a painful book, honest and uncompromising, but somehow there is always hope in there.
July 9, 2023
A remarkable book. I first read this book shortly before Mark Lanegan died. Reading it again now makes it all the more poignant. The book intersperses personal reflections on the brutality of suffering from and recovering from covid with poetry and moments of deep introspection. A very honest text which is both bleak but also at times hopeful.
December 3, 2022
Oh Mark, the world lost one of its most beautiful voices when you left it. This was hard to read, sad and hopeless. Jumping between fever dreams/poetry and the struggle to get better from a brutal bout with covid. I'm glad I read it.
March 11, 2023
Read this in one sitting - my God. Even though I bought this book, I have avoided reading it because we know what Lanegan doesn't - he will be dead in a few months. He didn't want to get old, afterall, and he got his wish.
May 11, 2022
Very brief "final chapter." Mix of poetry and prose. Unhappy, inevitable conclusion.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 29, 2024
miss you mark ❣️
October 29, 2024
Qué pena tan grande.
January 5, 2025
Oh my god, this man. Take an evening with this book to get your heart shattered into a million pieces.
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