This 2005 work from Henry Rollins is different from some his more familiar journal-based works, like Get in the Van and Black Coffee Blues. It is a collection of topical works, quite wide-ranging in both tone and subject.

One of the two main threads to be discerned in Roomanitarian is Rollins’ adoption of another persona to explore various ideas and personalities. For example, separate sections of the chapter “Ended” have him writing first as a plastic-surgery-addicted inhabitant of a gated community, and later as a Russian citizen comparing recent American history to life under Stalin.

These vignettes provide a dizzying and poignant read. Imagine Kierkegaard if he had been born to a single runaway teen and been left for dead in a dumpster behind an L.A. McDonalds.

There are hints among these short pieces of greater things to come. Two must-read sections of “Ended” have Rollins wielding a command of fiction-craft that is much deeper and mature than one would suspect from his journal-based works.

The first is essentially a short story that begins with the narrator meeting a possible love-interest on a plane. This little jazz solo of a narrative zips among dialogue about Max Frisch books, a surreal story-within-a-story, and meta-narrative within a few short pages.

Another notable fictional segment has Rollins evoking a stark, David-Lynchian atmosphere. A man’s consciousness seem to morph as mysteriously as his surroundings:

By my calculations, it is now Day One Hundred and Eighteen. I clean the ever widening spot of black liquid. I showed the spot to my wife several weeks ago and all she said was, “Maybe it’s birds. Maybe it’s dead birds.” Since then we don’t talk much about the spot of black liquid. (p.66)

My hope is that these fictional snippets portend a novel from Rollins at some point. Perhaps if his body finally “kicks him off the stage”—as he has often written about his inevitable fate as an aggressive frontman—he will have time for the extended concentration one needs to write such works.

Another main strand through Roomanitarian addresses this question: How can a guy who draws sellout crowds to his gut-busting spoken word shows manage to bring his talent for humor to the page without trying to duplicate his live act? The answer: satire.

Rollins’ written work has always provided source material for his talking gigs, but hearing or going to the gigs was always necessary for really catching the humor in his stories. He was never one to include the little one-liners and non-stop quipping that career humor-writers do. The fun was in the live delivery.

But now comes Roomanitarian. Through the use of satire he has managed to write a book that is funny without seeming forced. None of that Dave Barry insert-punchline-here hackery.

Satire is criticism and it is also humor. Rollins is a critic of culture and politics, but he has never set himself up as a great arbiter of truth. You read his criticism somewhat like you would listen to a crude but shrewd guy down the street. There are gems of wisdom, but you don’t expect some grand treatise.

However, with Rollins, your “guy down the street” is one who has packed about three lifetimes into one. The signal to noise ratio is accordingly much higher.

Both in the satirical pieces and in the fictional ones, readers will discover a political edge in “Roomanitarian.” From his first Reagan-era book, 2.13.61, Rollins has always had a few nasty things to say about those in power. In this latest work the anger comes to a white-hot head. In the “Letters to whitey,” “To Ann Hitler,” and in several sections of “Ended,” Rollins applies a keen blade to the throat of the Bush administration and its supporters. He seems to channel the anger of millions of us who felt betrayed by the farcical Iraqi War and 2004 election.

Here is a quote from a standout Jeremiad in “Ended,” clearly directed at Bush:

Do you know what parents consider themselves when they bury their sons? Failures. Will you admit that you never knew what you were doing and you were never ready to give what you made others give? That you are and always will be a coward? A weakling who preaches strength, who sends in the best to do the worst. (p.8)

Roomanitarian is an important part of Rollins’ output in many ways. It will be seen as a transitional book for Rollins. It will be a book in which one can discern several lines of his later development maturing. ( )