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.
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Reviews
Devil in a Coma is fired by Lanegan's expressionistic prose and visceral poetry . . . his writing is exhilarating and unexpectedly funny
Lanegan doesn't tread softly or treat himself easily. Maintaining the commitment to the unvarnished truth of Sing Backwards..., he presents himself as a nightmare hospital patient and a flawed human being. But shades of humour illuminate the darkness judiciously
This latest title is a must-have for Lanegan fans, or anyone left hungry for more of his pitch-black wit
Shades of humour illuminate the dark judiciously.
Devil in a Coma offers a pleasingly bitter counterpoint to the clap-for-carers mood of the times
This slight but weighty volume only adds to the man's muscular and vivid - in every sense of the word - body of work
Compelling . . . When he eventually does sing again, Mark Lanegan has the record of a lifetime to make