Solipsist (Henry Rollins)
by Henry Rollins

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Book Reviews of Solipsist (Henry Rollins)

Book Review: just realize what you're in for
Summary: 3 Stars

The book really drew me in. I kept thinking that on one of these pages he was going to really get it. Here and there there would be a sentence or two that really hit the mark. But when I got to the end and realized that dream wasn't going to come to fruition I was quite disappointed. Everything he said was too much... too far... His unease was too extreme to be identified with. His anger was much the same. **I got the distinct impression that he was trying to write from the outside** He wanted to appeal to the young lost soul. He wanted all those angry youth to identify with them (and I hate the stereotype "angry youth"). But maybe that stereotype he was writing to was exactly that - a stereotype. A stereotype that was too far out to be real for even the most jaded teenager.

Now I'm not saying that it's impossible for someone out there to feel exactly the way he describes, I'm only saying that they are rare to the point of not being able to function in society and they are not him. Henry Rollins leads too successful of a life to have trouble doing the simple things he describes in his books, like making eye contact with a clerk at a store. I've seen him on TV (and I hadn't at the time). Henry Rollins is not writing his own feelings. He's just not.

And some people, like this guy I was dating at the time, probably find comfort in the feelings in the book. They may think they relate to them, as he did -- but what he was doing was extracting and twisting it into ideas he sort of felt. He wasn't that angry or that socially mal-adjusted. He just thought he was, I guess.

So in the end, what I want to leave you with is the idea that this book may make you even more jaded than you started if you have too high of hopes for the connection you expect to feel while reading it. You have to read this realizing that it's not Henry Rollins. It's a character that he has created that is not real, in an attempt to rope in the stereotyped angry youth. If you can keep this straight in your mind, it is excellently poetic -- good enough to keep a quote sheet from. Just don't expect a real, live, honest-to-god spilled soul.

Summary of Solipsist (Henry Rollins)

Poetry Books

• Subjects > Literature & Fiction > Poetry
• United States > Poetry
• Social Sciences