cover image The Portable Henry Rollins

The Portable Henry Rollins

Henry Rollins. Villard Books, $19.95 (320pp) ISBN 978-0-375-75000-7

Some books should come with warning stickers plastered on their covers. A prime candidate for such a label is The Portable Henry Rollins: ""Warning: This book contains graphic images of abusive parents, gratuitous death and destruction, and sex with giant insects."" Certainly not for the squeamish, this collection of excerpts from Rollins's 11 books published by his own company, 2.13.61 (including Get in the Van), jars readers with its rawness and hate. Much like his work in the seminal punk band Black Flag and now as a spoken-word artist and frontman for The Rollins Band, Rollins blurs his writing at the frayed edges where reality ends and imagination begins. This book is chock-full of irksome rants about suicide, the murder of Rollins best friend Joe Cole and the writer's obsession with death. This is not to say that some workings of Rollins's mind and pen aren't twisted genius. His simple, staccato prose and verse suit the voice in which he writes, and his gifts of honesty and observation shine through in accounts of life on the road. He even gives insight into the 1986 dissolution of Black Flag, why he despises love and his self-described role as a performer. Taken in small doses, this writing is tolerable; swallowed chapter after chapter, though, leaves readers anesthetized. Caveat lector. (Oct.)