Jung's Demon: A serial-killer’s tale of love and madness

“Jung’s Demon” by Wighdal is a spellbinding tale of love and pain its loss produces; a lonely madman’s journey across the continents while simultaneously offering a brutal, deep dive into his own soul, seamlessly weaved into one tightly written narrative. The writer bares his soul and takes you along the ride you could not imagine existed. Once you start reading the book you’d enter the maze of murderous madness at your own peril, but what a maze! Inside you will find a Woland-like (the Devil from Bulgakov’s “Master and Margarita”) character, Magyar the Priest, as well as Brueghel the Elder’s painting that comes alive to haunt the author and yourself alike. Both murders and love making scenes ooze from the pages, accompanied by Mozart, and surprise and startle you. And it works! This is a book of deep self-exploration; it seems strange to me that prior reviewers did not point that out more clearly. “The unexamined life is not worth living,” a dictum Socrates uttered before his death sentence seems to have been the author’s leading thought as he went on examining his pain thoroughly. Even truly gruesome murders he had committed (and described, sometimes in uncomfortable details) are not gratuitous violence but a part of an examination process. How and why did that happen? How did a loving man became a monster, a killer? Is there a redemption waiting at the end? I guess you’d have to figure that out for yourself by reading this truly extraordinary book. Read carefully and you will not fail to notice Wighdal's fine sense of humor. I’d love to read a comedy by Wighdal one day, but until he publishes one, we have his rhapsody of pain to enjoy and to learn from it. It is not an easy book to read but worth every penny and every minute invested into it. I can not recommend Wighdal’s “Jung's Demon” highly enough.

I have read quite a few books in my life but only rare birds of pray left on me a deep impression like Wighdal did with his "Jung's Demon". It is truly an unforgettable book, transgressing genres, borders (at times the book reads like a travelogue; at times like a diary of a madman) and boundaries alike. "I’d be happy if my memories would help even one single human being to either heal or kill," wrote Wighdal or his alter ago, the murderer. "Jung's Demon" treads on cognitive dissonance subtly but with brutal efficiency. Never before was I so skilfully pulled in an inner hell, feeling both great compassion and wild anger of one being incapable of resisting the lure of Wighdal's powerful storytelling. Book is delightfully spiced up with author's enviable erudition, experience, and significant sensitivity (I especially appreciated the unexpected dark sense of humour and numerous film references). And yet, it is a soul-shattering book of profound horror, raw and authentic; it should come with a warning. At first pass I wasn't able to finish the read, it was just too much for me (I went to a psychotherapist the morning after I've watched Kubrick's The Shining for the first time) but then I felt compelled to go back to it, too intrigued to mind.

When I bought this book I was very excited, I though “finally something different from the whole victim point of view.” However I was extremely disappointed. The concept of the book overall was great but it was poorly executed, which is a real shame. The excessive use of figurative language makes it hard to differentiate what is real from what is just an overly vivid example. The description of the books makes it seem like one is going to be able to empathize with the main character and feels bad for him, despite what he does. But the book simply makes it impossible to understand what he does and therefore impossible to empathize with him. Basically the books author failed to portray the characters emotions in a comprehensible way that was easy to understand for the reader. The whole idea of the suicide notes and the mix narrators and points of views just increases the level of confusion this book provokes. In conclusion, I was promised a psychological understanding of what goes on in a serial killers mind and received jumbled up notes and confusing phrases that left more questions than answers.

I read this ARC over several months. First dropping it as incomprehensible then returning with a nagging thought that I missed something. I repeated this action many times. Now that I've finished i feel somewhat haunted. Is that good or bad?

Jung's Demon is truly a gripping, trenchant tale. To paraphrase Kundera, it's an unbearable intimacy of madness. A witty, thought-provoking book. It is also filed with self-effacing irony and subdued, sometimes twisted, sometimes painful humor. Once I started reading it, I could not put it down. Highly recommended insight into a tortured human soul.

I just read this book's review on Amazon.com (USA) and felt compelled to share it instead of my own. Mine is a headline that says it all: “The opposite of love is not hate. It is power." October 12, 2019 Verified Purchase I have read quite a few books in my life but only rare birds of pray left on me a deep impression like Wighdal did with his "Jung's Demon". It is truly an unforgettable book, transgressing genres, borders (at times the book reads like a travelogue; at times like a diary of a madman) and boundaries alike. "I’d be happy if my memories would help even one single human being to either heal or kill," wrote Wighdal or his alter ago, the murderer. "Jung's Demon" treads on cognitive dissonance subtly but with brutal efficiency. Never before was I so skilfully pulled in an inner hell, feeling both great compassion and wild anger of one being incapable of resisting the lure of Wighdal's powerful storytelling. Book is delightfully spiced up with author's enviable erudition, experience, and significant sensitivity (I especially appreciated the unexpected dark sense of humour and numerous film references). And yet, it is a soul-shattering book of profound horror, raw and authentic; it should come with a warning. At first pass I wasn't able to finish the read, it was just too much for me (I went to a psychotherapist the morning after I've watched Kubrick's The Shining for the first time) but then I felt compelled to go back to it, too intrigued to mind.

Despite the author's palpable mental anguish and a scarecrow like, disturbing cover, his tormented mind kept his sense of humor intact. That was a real surprise coming out "Jung's Demon." He mixes gruesome murders with ancient myths - I particularly loved a story of Erix, Aphrodite’s son set in Erice, Sicily - and than wraps it in a thin layer of humor, obfuscating nothing. His humor induces smiles, winces and chuckles rather than laughter and made us think. Is the demon really in all of us, waiting for right circumstances to unleash its devastating power?

Suspenseful, exquisitely paced, and darkly funny, written with refreshing intelligence and all too painful humanism, a must for lovers of food and travel, relationship addicts, movie lovers, students of the human condition (psychologists, also), artists of all kinds, magical realists, and other hopeless romantics.