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Beloved Demons
In his follow-up to Lunatic Heroes, Martignetti sheds all defenses to reveal the viscera of a mind shaped by the dark and confusing forces of his childhood. This collection of memoirs and essays focuses mainly on Martignetti's adult years, and features the pivotal characters of his ever-entertaining personal narrative. From the cascade of memories and emotions triggered by an accidental butterfly killing in "Cocoon Talk," to the homicidal impulses prompted by a visit to his boyhood home in "Sign," from the heartbreaking to the hilarious musings inspired by beloved pets in "Mochajava" and "Dog," and throughout the uncensored sexcapades of "Mad," "The Wild," and "Feast of the Hungry Ghost," Martignetti's colloquial, humorous, and intimate style will keep you riveted, crack you open, enthrall and embrace you with an honesty normally reserved for not even the closest of friends.
- GenresNonfictionMemoirEssays
226 pages, Paperback
First published December 7, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 10, 2015
Anthony's exposes his demons and teaches us how he learned to not only dance with them but to embrace them tightly for them make us who we are. Beautifully written, humorous and potent. His voice is incredible and will be deeply missed.
March 2, 2017
Absolutely love this book. <3
March 12, 2014
A review I wrote at my blog: http://blog.veragolosova.com/?p=1243
(blog entry includes videos and a picture)
What if I finally would start writing a review for Anthony Martignetti book titled “Beloved demons: confessions of an unquiet mind”? I might say that I have never written thoughtful pieces about books I’ve read. But I guess it is a right time to start doing so.
I will start with a little pre-info. C. Anthony Martignetti, PhD, is a writer and psychotherapist with a private practice in Lexington, Massachusetts. Anthony is not well-known author, but he definitely is known by some people. I would love more people to discover his books. Especially that now there is a chance to purchase an e-book which solves problem for most non-American readers.
“The world isn’t created of atoms and molecules, but of stories. Maybe I wanted to create a world. A new one… where I, and we, could be happy and safe.
Making stories from memories… I think it has something to do with looking back and fabricating meaning in events that, at the time, just happened”
(from a touching and powerful story “Sign”)
“Beloved demons: confessions of an unquiet mind” is the second book of Anthony Martignetti. The first one is “Lunatic Heroes: Memories, Lies and Reflections”, I’d like to read it as well, but there are no digital copies.
To be honest I suck at using clever words and making an analyse of a literature. But that book was a profound read for me. Both like an intimate whisper and solid punch in a face. It takes you into a poignant and dark journey deep through the lanes and alleys of a human soul. A soul brave enough to let guests in without cleaning up and hiding certain things.
Did I say that “Beloved demons” is a memoir? It is a collection of stories which happened to Anthony during his adult years. It is a collection of feelings that fought with each other deep inside of his soul. It is a collection of mind twists and hungry thinking. It is a collection of people Anthony met on his way. It is a collection of things that people usually prefer to hide and pretend they are normal in a way that is acceptable by a society in general.
Thing is that each one of us (no exceptions really) is more complex and twisted from inside than rules of morality let to identify and legalise. We can’t shrink into humanity-approved size without pain. We need to be really gentle to each other. And try to get rid of assumptions and fixed schemes. Otherwise we will continue to breed demons inside of us and inside of our beloved ones.
“She had become human in the worst possible meaning of it. She shrank into life. It was the greatest example I’d ever had that the death is real. She, the mad one… she, who was always and only young… fell under the deflated world… the weight of years… money, marriage, children and cocks gone old and cold”
(from one of my favourite stories “Mad”)
Anthony spills out his feelings, his fears, his thoughts, his regrets, first it’s suffocating. Then you start to give names to your own demons. And reading becomes painful, but very honest and cleansing. The crucial point for me was that Anthony doesn’t accuse anybody. He accepts. And shares.
I would say that we all should read such memoirs. Maybe we should privately write our own. We need to spend time thinking what excites us, what makes us go on with our lives. What made us who we are, how should we deal with who we are. We need to be curious and searching. Unquiet. Always. Otherwise our life will become “a cheerless case of utter domesticity”. It is not that I am against building families. I am against creating a family and then ceasing to live.
“And then I began to learn too much, have too much in my pile; that’s when I found one of the great rugs under which I could sweep all of it.
The magic carpet of fantasy.
And a new life began, a secret one. And it’s been grinding in my chest and groin ever since.
A 100 percent pure life. The very best. I know, I write it myself.”
(from a very observing story “Swept”)
From birth to childhood, from childhood to teenage, from teenage to adult age we deal with everything inside us and around us. Anthony’s book spoke to me about the issue I see too much here and there lately. It is an issue of child abuse and humiliation. I never thought how deeply our childhood influences our adult life. Sometimes it is unbearable to think about. Those connections and consequences are so much bigger than us. And we go on living nevertheless.
I would say that “Beloved demons: confessions of an unquiet mind” is a song glorifying life and humanity. But it is a song from a B-side. Not everybody is patient with life and continues to listen so far, because they got stuck on the juicy bestselling tracks of an A-side.
(blog entry includes videos and a picture)
What if I finally would start writing a review for Anthony Martignetti book titled “Beloved demons: confessions of an unquiet mind”? I might say that I have never written thoughtful pieces about books I’ve read. But I guess it is a right time to start doing so.
I will start with a little pre-info. C. Anthony Martignetti, PhD, is a writer and psychotherapist with a private practice in Lexington, Massachusetts. Anthony is not well-known author, but he definitely is known by some people. I would love more people to discover his books. Especially that now there is a chance to purchase an e-book which solves problem for most non-American readers.
“The world isn’t created of atoms and molecules, but of stories. Maybe I wanted to create a world. A new one… where I, and we, could be happy and safe.
Making stories from memories… I think it has something to do with looking back and fabricating meaning in events that, at the time, just happened”
(from a touching and powerful story “Sign”)
“Beloved demons: confessions of an unquiet mind” is the second book of Anthony Martignetti. The first one is “Lunatic Heroes: Memories, Lies and Reflections”, I’d like to read it as well, but there are no digital copies.
To be honest I suck at using clever words and making an analyse of a literature. But that book was a profound read for me. Both like an intimate whisper and solid punch in a face. It takes you into a poignant and dark journey deep through the lanes and alleys of a human soul. A soul brave enough to let guests in without cleaning up and hiding certain things.
Did I say that “Beloved demons” is a memoir? It is a collection of stories which happened to Anthony during his adult years. It is a collection of feelings that fought with each other deep inside of his soul. It is a collection of mind twists and hungry thinking. It is a collection of people Anthony met on his way. It is a collection of things that people usually prefer to hide and pretend they are normal in a way that is acceptable by a society in general.
Thing is that each one of us (no exceptions really) is more complex and twisted from inside than rules of morality let to identify and legalise. We can’t shrink into humanity-approved size without pain. We need to be really gentle to each other. And try to get rid of assumptions and fixed schemes. Otherwise we will continue to breed demons inside of us and inside of our beloved ones.
“She had become human in the worst possible meaning of it. She shrank into life. It was the greatest example I’d ever had that the death is real. She, the mad one… she, who was always and only young… fell under the deflated world… the weight of years… money, marriage, children and cocks gone old and cold”
(from one of my favourite stories “Mad”)
Anthony spills out his feelings, his fears, his thoughts, his regrets, first it’s suffocating. Then you start to give names to your own demons. And reading becomes painful, but very honest and cleansing. The crucial point for me was that Anthony doesn’t accuse anybody. He accepts. And shares.
I would say that we all should read such memoirs. Maybe we should privately write our own. We need to spend time thinking what excites us, what makes us go on with our lives. What made us who we are, how should we deal with who we are. We need to be curious and searching. Unquiet. Always. Otherwise our life will become “a cheerless case of utter domesticity”. It is not that I am against building families. I am against creating a family and then ceasing to live.
“And then I began to learn too much, have too much in my pile; that’s when I found one of the great rugs under which I could sweep all of it.
The magic carpet of fantasy.
And a new life began, a secret one. And it’s been grinding in my chest and groin ever since.
A 100 percent pure life. The very best. I know, I write it myself.”
(from a very observing story “Swept”)
From birth to childhood, from childhood to teenage, from teenage to adult age we deal with everything inside us and around us. Anthony’s book spoke to me about the issue I see too much here and there lately. It is an issue of child abuse and humiliation. I never thought how deeply our childhood influences our adult life. Sometimes it is unbearable to think about. Those connections and consequences are so much bigger than us. And we go on living nevertheless.
I would say that “Beloved demons: confessions of an unquiet mind” is a song glorifying life and humanity. But it is a song from a B-side. Not everybody is patient with life and continues to listen so far, because they got stuck on the juicy bestselling tracks of an A-side.
May 23, 2014
A patient introduced me to Anthony's work. First, Lunatic Heroes and then Beloved Demons. Sometimes a work is so powerful and potent in its courage and its honesty that it lifts up the space around itself, inviting intimacy and strength all at once. I am grateful for the introduction to his work and honour the way people dedicated to their own life journeys tend to discover and share treasures along the way. Anthony's books have become shared treasures, it appears, for many who have been moved by his writing and his stories.
I remember my first time in a sweat lodge, where I was moved by the invitation to honesty, intensity and a kind of truthfulness that was no longer content to wait for a more comfortable moment. Reading Beloved Demons took me to a similar place.
I know I have one thing in common with Anthony - we have both owned and loved terriers and taken them to Acadia National Park in Maine. Really, we may have more in common than that, but I'll stick with facts.
After reading Beloved Demons, I wanted more. Another series of stories to deepen the mystery and experience of life. A change of address; more proximity.
I finished the book thinking, this is the guy I want to be talking to after the most rewarding or unsettling of days. And - in a sense - having read his stories, he is with me, unflinching in his ability to look at our accommodations to pain and fear and deprivation, and the lives we build out of them, and the stories we create out of those lives.
I remember my first time in a sweat lodge, where I was moved by the invitation to honesty, intensity and a kind of truthfulness that was no longer content to wait for a more comfortable moment. Reading Beloved Demons took me to a similar place.
I know I have one thing in common with Anthony - we have both owned and loved terriers and taken them to Acadia National Park in Maine. Really, we may have more in common than that, but I'll stick with facts.
After reading Beloved Demons, I wanted more. Another series of stories to deepen the mystery and experience of life. A change of address; more proximity.
I finished the book thinking, this is the guy I want to be talking to after the most rewarding or unsettling of days. And - in a sense - having read his stories, he is with me, unflinching in his ability to look at our accommodations to pain and fear and deprivation, and the lives we build out of them, and the stories we create out of those lives.
February 6, 2014
Honest is the word that comes to mind to describe this second volume of memoirs. We all keep so much hidden, even from ourselves, that it's a shock to read someone write quite so honestly about their own emotions, desires and frailties. His first book was a collection of childhood stories, sometimes amusing, sometimes disturbing, often both together. This book continues in the same vein with some of the particularly memorable events and characters from his 'adult' life and in one case his thoughts on death and "who should go first". He's a lovely guy and it's a great book. Read it.
February 2, 2019
Anthony kindly sent me a digital copy of this book after I had the good fortune to meet him and share a meal. I met him this one day and still think of him often. He was a beautiful, sweet, generous, and unique soul. This book is very honest... I always tend to have respect for someone who is willing to bare the dark parts of themselves.
April 21, 2020
The sordid memoirs of Anthony Martignetti continue, this time more focused on his adulthood rather than his dysfunctional childhood.
While I found his first book to be a delightfully surprising, not to mention eloquently written, exploration into Martignetti’s strange childhood, I wasn’t as enamored with this book. Maybe it’s because Martignetti’s childhood was infinitely more interesting than his adulthood, despite his kinky sexual preferences and admirable career in the field of psychology. Any time the book dipped even briefly back to his upbringing, it became much more engaging.
It’s still worth reading, especially if you enjoyed Lunatic Heroes or if you’re a fan of memoirs. It’s certainly short enough that it won’t feel like a drag to get through even if it’s not your cup of tea.
While I found his first book to be a delightfully surprising, not to mention eloquently written, exploration into Martignetti’s strange childhood, I wasn’t as enamored with this book. Maybe it’s because Martignetti’s childhood was infinitely more interesting than his adulthood, despite his kinky sexual preferences and admirable career in the field of psychology. Any time the book dipped even briefly back to his upbringing, it became much more engaging.
It’s still worth reading, especially if you enjoyed Lunatic Heroes or if you’re a fan of memoirs. It’s certainly short enough that it won’t feel like a drag to get through even if it’s not your cup of tea.
October 19, 2021
In this book we get a very open and honest set of personal stories and experiences. Some will make you cry (I cried throughout the chapter on his pets), others will make you laugh, then others will make you frown. All of them are interesting and from all of them lessons can be learned.
May 11, 2016
A little stranger. A confessional. Peace to him.
July 7, 2015
fabulous insight into Anthony's mind.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews