HOUR of the WITCH

What does it take to be a witch? Very little. If a neighbor or an indentured servant doesn’t like you, he/she can plant some symbol of the devil in your garden and accuse you of witchcraft, or tell everybody that you were seen being kind to a Quaker, or being seen with someone suspected of witchcraft. Maybe as a married woman, you are seen about to kiss a man not married to you...seen but not kissed. That is adultery. If you live in the world of a Puritan, that’s a major faux pas. The man gets off easy...15 lashes in a public square. All these things happened to Mary Deerfield of Boston in 1662, who fails, in her attempt to get a divorce from a cruel man and later was charged with witchcraft. Chris Bohjalian writes a story that will aggravate you till the last moment.

Who are the Puritans? They are a group of whackos (not sorry for the derogatory remark) who came to America from England because of their objection to the Catholic religion. The Puritans believed they were in a constant struggle with good and evil and every day was to be lived according to the bible. They wanted the laws of the New Testament to reign supreme. In other words, they wanted life to be focused on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, kind of like some modern(?) day countries that run their governments according to the Koran. Actually, they are the modern-day Puritans. Anyway, the thing is you (especially women) had to live your life teetering on disaster. My research says that between the 15th century and the 17th century, approximately 200,000 witches were tortured, burnt, or hanged worldwide. Wow, enough Puritan background...what happened to Mary?

Mary Deerfield was constantly being abused and battered by her husband, Thomas, the owner of a large mill. He would routinely come home for dinner after drinking heavily at local taverns. He always hit or abused his wife when their servant, Catherine, was not in the same room. One day someone planted (two) three tine forks and a pestle with a devil’s mark in Mary’s garden. Three tined forks were only recently imported from England and ultimately not purchased by the Puritans because the three tined forks (they ate with 2 tined forks) reminded them of the devil’s pitchfork or trident (Haha)...sorry. Anyway, Mary thought Catherine did it...Catherine said “no”, but there are other neighbors who don’t like her. Mary told Thomas about it. He wasn’t sure if Mary was a witch, but wouldn’t allow the use of three tine forks for their meals. One day he came home drunk and got into an argument with Mary. While Mary had her hand on the dining table, he viciously slammed her hand with a three-tined fork to see if she bleeds (witches don’t bleed). After she bled, Thomas said, “Well, thou dost seem to bleed, Mary.” He told anybody that asked about her wounded hand that Mary tripped and fell into the spout of a tea kettle. Later that day Mary said to her mother, “I intend to divorce him.”The odds of getting a divorce from a man in the Puritan days were very slim, especially when nobody ever saw Thomas abuse his wife.

“Mary Deerfield may be barren, yes, but is she unclean? I will not dissemble and suggest that I know. Only our Lord and Savior can say why she has never been with child.”-The testimony of physician Roger Pickering from the records of the divorce trial.

“I saw my mistress placing the Devil’s tines into the earth, burying them, but for what purpose I cannot say.”- The Testimony of Catherine Stileman from the records of the divorce trial.

“No. Never...I never saw my master hit or hurt Mary Deerfield. Not even once.”- The testimony of Catherine Stileman from the records of the divorce trial.

“She is neither a healer nor midwife. Her simples (the word for remedies in those days) may not be of the devil, but neither are they healing. Her teacher was that old woman who lives out by the Neck. And I believe no midwife would ever allow so barren a womb to be present at birth.”- The testimony of physician Roger Pickering from the records of the divorce trial. 

“Cruelty may be defined as violence without provocation and discipline that is excessive.”- The remarks of Magistrate Richard Wilder from the records of the divorce trial.

“I was shocked deeply by what I saw. I speak as a witness, not gossip.”-The testimony of Abigail Gathers from the records of the divorce trial.

So there you go, a taste of the trial. You, the reader, will most likely be as rankled as I was throughout the novel. The laws and thoughts of the Puritans are so frustrating. But if anything, you will read this novel for its entertainment value. I thought the author did a yeoman’s job getting his facts correct and has a good grip on the prose. What I didn’t like were his compact descriptions. I’m a reader who loves the days of the descriptive writer. This author makes an attempt to describe but fails. Here is an example: “The Reverend John Norton was fifty-six years old, exactly one year older than Mary’s father and three years her mother’s senior. But he seemed considerably older than that. He wasn’t frail, not at all. But his presence was so august. He stood six feet tall, even now, and his beard was an immaculate dapple gray.” Do you see how compact that description was? What was he wearing? Was he heavy or slim? What was his complexion? What did his voice sound like? A descriptive writer must form a picture of his character in the reader's mind. If you want a descriptive lesson, read The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne, oh yeah. Some words in my review may be spelled incorrectly, but that’s how the author spelled them.

RATING: 4 stars out of 5

Comment: One has to wonder what religion will be like 100 years from now, or will there be one. One can see how it’s progressed over the years, not so much the Bible itself, but how it’s interpreted. And the popes over the years have changed their views on ‘same-sex marriage, homosexuals and transgenders. They have admitted most of the priest’s sexual abuses against minors after denying for years.

No religion is without fault or bad decision making, not long ago the Catholic religion had one glaring mistake. Pope Pius XII declared the Vatican neutral during WWII while millions of Jews were being slaughtered, thus avoiding the occupation of the Vatican and pleasing Hitler. Did the Pope’s mousy attitude contribute to the communist countries killing thousands of his priests and outlawing the Catholic religion after the war ended?

The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music

The following review is another guest review from Ed O'Hare, an up & coming acclaimed reviewer:

Dave Grohl has for years served as rock and roll’s unofficial ambassador. The former drummer of Nirvana and the founder, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and frontman of the Foo Fighters, Grohl is seemingly everywhere, a veritable whirling dervish of guest appearances, side projects, and collaborations. When he’s not roaming the world with the Foos, he can be found sharing the stage with the likes of Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Slash, Tenacious D, Joan Jett, Queens of the Stone Age, and, of course, Animal from the Muppets. He has sold out massive Wembley Stadium in London, won multiple Grammys, performed at the White House for President Obama, and directed acclaimed documentaries. When Madison Square Garden decided to reopen its doors this past June, after being closed for almost a year due to the pandemic, it was Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters who welcomed back concertgoers with a (very) loud and rollicking three-hour show (I was there!). Later this month, Grohl will join a select group of musicians when, for the second time, he will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, this time for the Foo Fighters, Nirvana having been installed seven years ago.

His rock star bona fides firmly established, Grohl has now written a book, The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music, a collection of random stories roughly tracking Grohl’s childhood in the Washington, D.C. suburbs through the current day. Along the way, we learn about life on the road with his first real band, punk rockers Scream, and his difficult decision to join a certain Seattle-based band that would not only change his life but alter the course of rock music itself. We see Grohl pick himself up off the floor to start Foo Fighters after the untimely death of his Nirvana bandmate, Kurt Cobain. And we are along for the ride as Grohl, now entering the early stages of rock elder statesmanship, bumps elbows with Presidents and ex-Beatles.

Fans of Grohl will hear his distinctive voice jump from the page, his familiar and endearing enthusiasm soaking every sentence. It is clear that Grohl has worked hard to get where he is, but if there is one overarching takeaway from The Storyteller, it is his seemingly sincere gratitude and appreciation for the charmed life he leads. Indeed, he is refreshingly upfront about his good fortune, a privilege he recognizes has not been available to everyone. When Grohl candidly admits that “being a rock star is all that it’s cracked up to be,” few, if any, would begrudge him the fruits of his labor.

At their best, memoirs -- in particular, those produced by famous musicians -- don’t simply recount the day-by-day chronology of the author’s life. Instead, we learn what inspires them, what moves them, what makes them tick. They pull back the curtain to reveal the inner artist otherwise hidden behind the makeup or the guitar or the drum kit. They paint memorable, illuminating portraits of the author's place in a particular era. They even manage to captivate the reader unfamiliar with the artist’s work or life story. In other words, the sometimes magical, sometimes generation-defining interplay of notes and lyrics are translated to the page. 

Obviously, this is no easy chore. Catching lightning in a bottle is no easier on the page than on a piano. But it can be done. Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run, Patti Smith’s Just Kids, and Flea’s Acid for the Children are just a few recent examples of transcendent memoirs, highly personal stories that transport the reader into unfamiliar and interesting new worlds, yet which confront universal truths such as love, loss, and family with heart, honesty, lyrical elegance and wit. The fact that I don’t own a single song, let alone an album, of either Springsteen or Smith, didn’t detract from my thorough enjoyment of those books (I’m a big fan of Flea's Red Hot Chilli Peppers, yet I knew nothing of his fascinating life story).  

Alas, The Storyteller is not such a book. This is not necessarily a slight. Perhaps the comparison is not apt. Perhaps it's a question of personal preference: insight vs. anecdote, revelation vs. reminiscence. A searching, comprehensive, revelatory autobiography is clearly not the objective here. Grohl himself would likely concede that he does not possess the literary tone or temperament of a Springsteen or a Smith. While he does engage in some introspection and shares some heartfelt personal details, it is mostly fleeting. It’s clearly a conscious choice. He is holding back. A lot. 

Selectivity is the prerogative of the memoirist. But I suspect readers want to hear more. I know I did. For example, I’ve probably learned more about Grohl from his various appearances on Howard Stern and late-night talk shows, and in the excellent 2011 Foo Fighters documentary Back and Forth. In one maddening, but representative, example, Grohl describes the difficulty he had deciding to leave his struggling first band Scream to join Nirvana, saying it:

“pained my heart in a way I never felt, even more than saying goodbye to my own father when he disowned me for dropping out of high school.”

A touching anecdote to be sure. But that’s it, we’re on to the next story. Not only do we not hear how his soon-to-be former bandmates reacted to the news, he gives no further details about that “goodbye to [his] own father.” Indeed, while Grohl touchingly and repeatedly cites his love for and influence of his mom, he is largely mum on the apparently fraught relationship he had with his dad. It’s not that Grohl is incapable of evocative, personal narrative. For instance, his depiction of life on the road in a struggling band is vivid and absorbing. He also writes movingly about his love for his children and offers a poignant if brief account of his relationship with Cobain. That said, we learn more about Grohl’s interactions with Paul McCartney than his own sister. 

But then again, people don’t attend a Foo Fighters show hoping to hear Bob Dylan. They come to rock and have their ears blown back. Those looking for Grohl to regale us with funny, engaging stories of life on the road and his encounters with famous rock stars will not be disappointed. 

It was apparently Grohl’s peripatetic nature during the concert-less pandemic that led him to write this book. I’m glad he did. We may not know exactly what makes Dave Dave, but he has written an entertaining and welcome addition to the rock memoir bookshelf, a collection of good stories well told.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Comment: Wow, that review is unquestionably stimulating me to listen to more modern music! And silly me, all I have been listening to is Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, Chicago, Oldie but goodies songs, and Queen. Ed O'hare, your sweeping review has opened the door (I've never heard a Foo-Fighters song for example) for me to listen to more present-day music, save Bob Dylan and The Beatles!

This somewhat memoir will go down as one of my favorites, challenging Lauren Bacall: By Myself and Bob Woodward's Wired (the sad story about John Belushi).