David Herkt reviews Danyl McLauchlan s Tranquillity and Ruin
27 Feb, 2021 07:00 PM
3 minutes to read
Danyl McLauchlan. Photo / Russell Kleyn
By: David Herkt Faced with complexity and confusion, human beings compare their experiences and synthesise a response. It is the tale of the tribe. Every age also has its literary genre-du-jour, a style that attempts to answer the needs of its contemporaneous readers. For the third decade of the 21st century this dominant mode has become the first-person factual essay.
The feeling of being out of joint with our times and ourselves is now a common one. Danyl McLauchlan s Tranquillity and Ruin deals with the personal consequences of strange psychic states, mood disorders, anxiety, sleeplessness, chemical antidepressants, the search for solutions – and those who attempt to provide them. It is observant, honest, sometimes mordantly humorous, and always informative.