"Black Coffee Blues" collects writing from 1989 to 1991, the period shortly before one of his best friends, Joe Cole, to whom the book is dedicated, was shot to death in Los Angeles, an event that was life changing for Rollins.

The book is split into seven sections. Two, the opening "124 Worlds" and the later "61 Dreams" consist of pieces of a few lines, the former describing the bleak worlds of a variety of individuals, the latter a dream journal.

The central "Black Coffee Blues" is a series of journal entries from a European tour, "I Know You" a poem and the remaining three pieces "Exhaustion Blues", "Invisible Woman Blues" and "Monster" rather meandering essays.

These pieces share the same mindset and world view of Rollins the speaker - a mixture of anger, drive, brutal honesty and self-loathing. However, without the contemporary edge which characterises his live appearances these often seem like little more than the morose writings of a depressed, self-obsessed teenager (Rollins is now 48, so would have been in his late twenties when this book was written). There's none of the humour that has run through some of the live shows I've seen either.

Maybe his more recent work, where Rollins' mind might have been broadened by the tragic death of Joe Cole, his non-tour related travelling and increasing maturity, might make for more rewarding reading, but this was a disappointment. ( )

I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- that Hank is One Sick Puppy. Seriously. This, like many of his books, is best enjoyed in small bites, otherwise one's view of the world could become seriously skewed. ( )