A Demon-Haunted Land: Witches, Wonder Doctors, and the Ghosts of the Past in Post-WWII Germany
By: Monica Black / Narrated By: Erin Dion
Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
I don’t know; but I don’t think Monica Black quite knows either… hmmm…
It’s like this, see: I can’t multitask for squat. The ONLY audiobook I’ve been able to listen to all whilst DOING something else was Marie Kondo’s seminal text on how to Get Rid Of Schtuff. Naturally, for THAT one I spent the hours taking crap outta my closet, my dresser drawers, the unused-for-eeeeons stuff, thanking said items for Meaning Something To Me, and then chucking it all in the trash. So it was Listening, Doing, Done. There!
And here’s another bit about me: I have ooooodles of things to go through before we move again, so I tried, not expecting much, to listen to A Demon-Haunted Land whilst culling m’ bead and gem and jewelry tools items. I full-well expected to have to hit Stop and then go onto, like, music or something, saving the audiobook for a later time when I could focus on it, pay attention to the unfolding of this brilliantly conceived story of faith-healers, witch hunts, etc. etc. et truly wretched in Post-WWII Germany cetera.
Dude, I managed to listen to ALL 10 1/2-hours of it, missing nothing (But still having sooo much more to do as far as culling and cleaning go!).
Such a thing does NOT bode well for a review of the audiobook as it’s NEVER a good thing when you can say something along the lines of: Jeez, totally picked my navel free of smelly lint, stayed bored, missed nothing…
BRILLIANT concept, inCREDibly ill-conceived execution. Cuz, you see, that secondary title led me to believe that I’d be hearing about a multiplicity of people and events and, basically? This was a looooong treatise on ONE faith healer; count ‘em! ONE…
Snoooooze, and >whazzaaa<? A witch hunt or two? Okay, I’m awake now…
But nope, it all eventually goes back to our wunderdoktor and to him alone. Seriously. Got caught up licking m’ fingertips to pick up stray Delica seed beads that were rolling all around the bottoms of several drawers, and any witch hunt? Poof! Mentioned and done.
Things get a bit, a trifle, interesting when author Monica Black describes Bruno Gröning’s methods: He asks individuals seeking health and healing to focus on their bodies; he asks them about their lives; he asks them what emotions they’re feeling. It’s as though the populace, caught up for so many years, having lived to see destruction, death, defeat come to them as a society, as individuals, have shut down and simply wish to be seen, to be heard. Pathology is not diagnosed, but they are listened to and treated. Kinda sorta.
Of course, the man was a mercurial nutbag, and Black goes into great/meticulous details about how he started a tad nutty but then got incredibly profligate as time and available resources went on/came to be. He didn’t exactly ask for big bucks, but donations, and a tab or two picked up were encouraged. But most were happy to chuck the shekels at him because he brought hope in an era where there was precious little to be had. Further, Black has oooodles of cases to discuss, and speaking of cases? Black has carefully researched and described the legal cases that were brought against him as time went on.
Never heard of Erin Dion, and she wasn’t stellar, but by no means is she responsible for the lackluster words I’m hurling at this work. Her narration was a bit choppy, but it’s as tho’ author Black couldn’t decide on whether she was going for painstakingly-researched scholarly treatise, or for salacious pop history, or maybe even for deep-dive into the Human Psyche sorts of stuff. This is at its best when Black offers theories rather than historical accuracies, as in: The witch hunts occurred in parts of Germany where collaboration and acceptance of Nazis was widespread. Now, after the war? Better to denounce your neighbor for witchcraft first, before they kinda sorta narc on you for getting far too chummy with Nazis, or p’raps committing atrocities yourself. That was stellar conjecture, and Dion delivers such thoughts with the air of one who’s vastly relieved to have something serious to say, rather than just facts and cases to recite.
I don’t exACTly Want ALL My Hours Back, but I sure as heck do wish for several of ‘em to come back my way again. Say, six?! There are only so many times you can think: Jeez, these drawers are reeeally filthy, lemme clean ‘em, oh look, an hour’s passed, and? Ahhhh dang it: back to Gröning… AGAIN!!! This whole train of thought, the entire process of Listening whilst doing something else and not missing much is wholly disheartening.
I mean, this coulda been GREAT! It brushed upon an era fairly unknown to the West over this way: We often think of West Germany as that nation that sooomehow was almost destroyed, that came to terms with its past sins, that became an economically strong and vibrant country. So here was Black’s opportunity to dazzle all and sundry with scintillating little known history, to use her research chops to bring to light case after case of faith healers/personality cults, of witchcraft accusations and persecutions, of various sightings of the Virgin Mary in overcooked schnitzel. You know, stuff like that, exciting, intriguing, thought-provoking, conversation starters.
Alas, ‘twas not to be. Expect some willing if not entirely capable narration to go with some dry repetitive writing. Letters letters letters written to Gröning chronicling the demise of a tubercular young woman got old really fast; protestations of: Never said I was performing magical healing in court cases over the years got old really fast.
And man! did itty bitty bittiest of seed beads all over the place get well and truly snagged for the trash, or what?! I still have to separate jewelry-makings… p’raps Ms. Black has aNOTHer scintillating look at history out there?
Oh OUCH!
With that, I’ll hush up now…
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.