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A review by natashavand
The Auctioneer by Joan Samson
2.0
I had so many problems with this book and had it not only been 223 pages, I think I would have given up on it very early on. Had half stars been allowed, this book would have been a 1.5 stars. I rounded up only because I reserve 1 star ratings for books I DNF'ed or was forced to read in school growing up (like The Giver or Heart of Darkness).
My biggest complaint with this novel is that it is classified as a horror classic, one that has a cult following since it was out of print for so many years, and for the life of me I cannot understand how any of that is possible. First off, there's nothing terrifying in this book at all. The scariest thing this novel holds is that Moore and his mother are so jaded that they refuse to leave when their family is in danger and they only ended up with their lives being threatened because they didn't have enough of a backbone to tell the sheriff and this auctioneer that they can't come into their house every week and steal their stuff. Furthermore, how this book has a cult following is just beyond me. This was one of the most boring books I have ever read. It just kept repeating itself over and over until we got to the clumsy conclusion. I felt like I was in seventh grade all over again being forced to read All Quiet on the Western Front, except things actually happen in that book.
The family dynamic in this novel is so fucked. I'm pretty sure it implies that the father raped his wife when they were 15 and then continued to do so throughout their marriage, and that the grandmother knew and was okay with this fact. What makes this extra eerie is that these are supposed to be the good guys in the book! Except, really, it just comes down to the wife, Mim, telling her arrogant husband over and over that they need to leave Harlowe in order to protect their 4-year-old daughter from harm and from basically falling into poverty. Mim is 100% correct, and yet every time she says something reasonable, she is forcibly shut down by her asshole husband and his overbearing mother. This goes on for like 150 pages. "They've come to take the cows!" "But we need the cows!" "There's nothing we can do now. They've taken the cows!" and then they take the tractor, the guns, the bedroom furniture, the onions, EVERYTHING! And all of the characters just let this happen over and over!
***Spoilers***
So then we get to this crazy conclusion where we learn that everyone is just allowing the police and the auctioneer to just steal their stuff, and their CHILDREN, and only when everyone realizes that this is happening to everyone (even though they all have known that this is happening to everyone since like the fifth page of the book) they decide to kill the auctioneer (who, side note, impregnated a 14-year-old girl and stole her child for some weird reason). Lo and behold, the auctioneer is able to get away and they accidentally burn one of their friends in a house fire and BOOM! Book is over. Not sure if this saved the town, not sure what happened to the auctioneer, not sure how the marriage of our protagonists is going to evolve after we spent 223 pages to hear that everything worked out for the abusive, rapist husband. Also, what is this? 1880? I know the book is set in the early '70s, so why does no one have any electricity or phones or heating?!?! This book was so infuriating. Moral of the story: don't ever give up your cows and skip this book.
My biggest complaint with this novel is that it is classified as a horror classic, one that has a cult following since it was out of print for so many years, and for the life of me I cannot understand how any of that is possible. First off, there's nothing terrifying in this book at all. The scariest thing this novel holds is that Moore and his mother are so jaded that they refuse to leave when their family is in danger and they only ended up with their lives being threatened because they didn't have enough of a backbone to tell the sheriff and this auctioneer that they can't come into their house every week and steal their stuff. Furthermore, how this book has a cult following is just beyond me. This was one of the most boring books I have ever read. It just kept repeating itself over and over until we got to the clumsy conclusion. I felt like I was in seventh grade all over again being forced to read All Quiet on the Western Front, except things actually happen in that book.
The family dynamic in this novel is so fucked. I'm pretty sure it implies that the father raped his wife when they were 15 and then continued to do so throughout their marriage, and that the grandmother knew and was okay with this fact. What makes this extra eerie is that these are supposed to be the good guys in the book! Except, really, it just comes down to the wife, Mim, telling her arrogant husband over and over that they need to leave Harlowe in order to protect their 4-year-old daughter from harm and from basically falling into poverty. Mim is 100% correct, and yet every time she says something reasonable, she is forcibly shut down by her asshole husband and his overbearing mother. This goes on for like 150 pages. "They've come to take the cows!" "But we need the cows!" "There's nothing we can do now. They've taken the cows!" and then they take the tractor, the guns, the bedroom furniture, the onions, EVERYTHING! And all of the characters just let this happen over and over!
***Spoilers***
So then we get to this crazy conclusion where we learn that everyone is just allowing the police and the auctioneer to just steal their stuff, and their CHILDREN, and only when everyone realizes that this is happening to everyone (even though they all have known that this is happening to everyone since like the fifth page of the book) they decide to kill the auctioneer (who, side note, impregnated a 14-year-old girl and stole her child for some weird reason). Lo and behold, the auctioneer is able to get away and they accidentally burn one of their friends in a house fire and BOOM! Book is over. Not sure if this saved the town, not sure what happened to the auctioneer, not sure how the marriage of our protagonists is going to evolve after we spent 223 pages to hear that everything worked out for the abusive, rapist husband. Also, what is this? 1880? I know the book is set in the early '70s, so why does no one have any electricity or phones or heating?!?! This book was so infuriating. Moral of the story: don't ever give up your cows and skip this book.