The Auctioneer
Ratings9
Average rating3.5
One of the finest horror novels of the 1970s chills a new generation of readers
In the isolated farming community of Harlowe, New Hampshire, where life has changed little over the past several decades, John Moore and his wife Mim work the land that has been in his family for generations. But from the moment the charismatic Perly Dinsmore arrives in town and starts soliciting donations for his auctions, things begin slowly and insidiously to change in Harlowe. As the auctioneer carries out his terrible, inscrutable plan, the Moores and their neighbors will find themselves gradually but inexorably stripped of their freedom, their possessions, and perhaps even their lives ...
A chilling masterpiece of terror whose sense of creeping menace and dread increases page by page, Joan Samson's The Auctioneer (1975) is a rediscovered classic of 20th-century fiction. With echoes of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" and Stephen King's Needful Things, Samson's novel returns to print at last in this long-awaited new edition, which features an introduction by Grady Hendrix (Horrorstör, Paperbacks from Hell) and an afterword by the author's husband.
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The Auctioneer is having a bit of a renaissance at the moment. Much lauded at the time of its release, the untimely death of its author left it being forgotten before a string of recent rereleases have brought it back into the discussion. This is a classic take on the city versus countryside. Set in small town rural America, it plays on the sense of community that is present in those type of places and the ease there is for it to be abused.
In this story we follow a family living on the edge of a farming community. When a slick city person moves to town and asks for donations for an auction to raise money for improving the police force, they donate generously. This community spirit becomes the mechanism of self destruction in the end as the levers of power are gradually coopted by the newcomers and the community ripped apart.
This is a slow burner of a novel. It focuses very much on the horror that humans can do to one another, how easy it is for institutions to be corrupted. Clever in its own way, it unfortunately did not really hit the spot for me. I can respect what it does, but it was just a bit too slow for me.
It's not a bad book, but I probably would've liked it better as a short story because parts of it feel a little tedious and padded out. Still, I liked the characters and the overall story. A solid read.
Aptly compared to Shirley Jackson and Sherwood Anderson, this bit of New England horror kept me up at night until I finally was so wound with anxiety I had to put the book down, put on a relaxing podcast, and stare at my ceiling. Motifs of fragile masculinity and capitalism dealt with in ways that still resonate today.
