Mark Lanegan – Devil In A Coma – Book Review
by Killian Laher

Preorder the book: https://smarturl.it/DevilInAComa

If you thought last year’s autobiography was dark, Mark Lanegan has followed it up with his account of his battle this year with COVID-19.  It’s an extraordinary tale of his experience with the virus.  The story picks up when he moved to Ireland, after which he sadly contracted COVID.  The devastating account is interspersed with his poetry, memories of growing up in rural Washington and his black as night musings.  He details his experience with unflinching, terrifying detail.

Not to spoil the read, but it appears Lanegan considers his illness as a kind of karma, payback for past behaviour, which is a hell of a way to look at it.  Presumably writing an account like this helped him through his ordeal.  Deluded, yet somehow lucid, of all the people mentioned in this book, his mother fares the worst, he unleashes quite a bit of poison in her direction.  Although a bleak read, by its conclusion you don’t want it to end.  Mark Lanegan may well have suffered lasting damage from his experience with COVID-19, but has managed to survive.  The book is a serious read but never becomes too heavy going.