"The Auctioneer" by Joan Samson,

[babylonsister]

copyright 1975.

I bought it on eBay used for a buck (?), am a third of the way through, and I am blown away. Does anyone remember this? :scared:

And PS, I found out about this from comments in a blog, though I can't remember which one. And that first comment below? Not so much. It's scary for everyone, not just men.


http://www.amazon.com/Auctioneer-Joan-Samson/dp/1933618191

"A well-made piece of dynamite. . . . For all their talk, the author seems to be saying men will permit their souls to be carried away bit by bit and auctioned off to the highest bidder. Samson has written a suspenseful, engrossing novel with the most gripping and violent ending we've encountered in some time."-Newsday

"Really one of those books that once started you won't be able to put it down. You'll tell yourself that it couldn't happen here, but Joan Samson is such a skillful and convincing writer that it will hold you as spellbound as are the novel's characters themselves."-St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Harrowing tensions explode in a series of events that could happen anywhere, to anyone, just as they do to John Moore-whose days of freedom run out, who is stripped of his possessions, his courage, and his hopes, by the ominous presence of an insidious stranger impossible to resist.

Published to wide acclaim in 1976, but almost neglected since then, The Auctioneer is a bona fide classic of American literature. The story of John Moore, his wife Mim, and his mother, it is a gripping tale of greed in a small town being quietly overrun by auctioneer Perly Dunsmore. Acclaimed by writers including Stephen King, and an influence on King's Needful Things, The Auctioneer is here reprinted for the first time in thirty years.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

1. That book

is a classic, and I'm glad to learn that it's back in print.

It's brilliant. I'm glad you discovered it. What made you buy it? (I am always curious as to why people choose books.)

[babylonsister]

2. Ha! I just added why before I saw this post.

I saw someone's comment on a blog, and she/he was so persuasive I had to get it.

I bought an old copy, yellowed pages, smell! I'm using a bookmark for the first time in just about ever, so I can pass it on.

But who gets it, and who would appreciate it? That is the question.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

3. I give my read books to the local library.....

I get free books from my publisher - just email my editor when I see something I want and get it FedExed a couple of days later - so I've always got lots to go there (in fact, the library folks come and pick them up, saving me the trouble, which is really nice), but for used books - or brand new remaindered books - you probably already know about alibris.com.

Just tonight, I ordered a copy of "Alone In The Kitchen With An Eggplant," because I fell in love with the title, and when I checked it out at amazon, the subject matter - authors writing essays on dining alone - got my attention.

It's funny, isn't it, how we find books?

[babylonsister]

4. "Alone In The Kitchen With An Eggplant,"

:rofl: Hilarious!

Me, I also give the books back to the library, usually after I bought the used books from the library. 50 cents a pop, that's cheap and fun fiction I can leave wherever I am when we go somewhere.

I don't read many classics, but this one caught my attention. I bought 'Alas, Babylon' by Pat Frank new years ago, and I still haven't been able to go there, just by the description.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

5. I understand

I made the mistake of watching "On The Beach" a few years ago, and it was so disturbing.

I wonder if "Alas, Babylon" would look dated now. There was some of that in "On The Beach," but it was frighteningly timely.

You do know that the books the library sells are the ones they've culled out of their collections to make room for new issues? So you're just giving them double work, you scamp!

:spank:

[babylonsister]

6. Nuh uh. The books they sell are from people like me who

donate. Why would there be 3 DeMille "The General's Daughter" paperbacks otherwise.

I like DeMille, btw. Yea, I'm usually into the slasher anthologies. Who/what/when/where/why.

Maybe mysteries? I don't get the good stuff like you do.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

7. They do?

Your library works differently from ours. I like that idea.

I've never read any DeMille. But, I just stumbled across Jimmy Breslin's "The Good Rat," based on the cops who were just given life sentences for being Mob executioners in NYC. It's a terrific read.

[babylonsister]

8. Depends on your tastes. Mine are pedestrian.

:D

I wasn't even that aware of politics prior to 2000. I voted, watched the network news, life happened. But I knew, and was told by Dad, if bush got in, we'd witness Hoovervilles. How prescient was that?

I started paying more attention (unemployment happened), and got more involved, and perturbed.

I read mostly fiction but do draw the line at people like Danielle Steele. I do have standards. :)

[Tangerine LaBamba]

9. I read everything,

and my earliest memory - honest to doG - is hearing my father tell my mother that Truman had fired MacArthur. Years later, I'd end up working for one of the men who was in the Oval Office when that historical act occurred. How cool is that?

I've always been a political animal, but my reading is omnivorous. I write literary fiction, but today's fiction doesn't always thrill me. I'm staying with the classics, but then there is Jimmy Breslin, who is, I think, sensational. I'm a sucker for any kind of good story.

I applaud your standards. I once tried to read a Jackie Collins "novel." I couldn't get through it, but I did recognize a certain kind of genius there, just as I do in Romance novels, which are also impossible for me to read. To be able to write those things takes a gift I'll never - alas - possess.

You want my copy of "The Good Rat" when I'm done with it? Take a walk on the wild side of non-fiction?

See if you find this interesting: http://tinyurl.com/36w76l

[babylonsister]

10. You don't get it.

I enjoy your posts. What makes you think I wouldn't enjoy anything you write? And non=fiction? Ha! Sometimes, they are better or more riveting than fiction.

But literary fiction. Is that a new genre, or is that your column{s}? Sounds so nouveau.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

11. No, "The Good Rat" is by Jimmy Breslin

I'd never be so presumptuous as to send anything I wrote to anyone. I'm not that into myself.

Literary fiction is the stuff you find at the front of the bookstore, not under "Romance" or "Science Fiction" or "Westerns". It's a fancy way of saying I write the straight stuff. I only learned the phrase after my first book sold.

I also didn't know what a back story was, and when asked to write a blurb to go under my author photo, the only thing I could come up with was "She never met an anomaly she didn't enjoy."

So, read the link I sent you, about the Jimmy Breslin book, and if you think you'd like to read it, I'd be happy to send it along.

There's nothing nicer than being able to share a good read with someone who appreciates such a thing............

[babylonsister]

12. Hey, my friend. Did I share with you

that I'm originally from New Yawk, Lawng Island?

I know Jimmy Breslin, and I have always liked him. He's a trooper from way back.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

13. REALLY????

He's absolutely terrific. I've always been a sucker for dark Irishmen, anyway, but I didn't know your origins. Oh, that's funny.

I'll PM you when I'm finished with the book, and get your address. OK?

Do you watch "Real Housewives Of New York?" I'm hooked on all those "Real Housewives" shows, but Jill - from LawgIsland - is my favorite. Big surprise............

[babylonsister]

14. No I don't. I've seen 'OC Housewives' twice and it scared me.

I do watch 'Desperate Housewives'. Does that qualify? :D That and 'Brothers and Sisters', both my guilty pleasures.

[Sequoia]

17. Don't think that about romance novels.

Romance novels are pretty crappy and it's only a 3rd rate "gift", if that. My brain would cringe if I had to read a Jackie Collins book. I liked romance novels as a teen but quickly grew weary of all that cleavage and muscle bound men. I mostly liked them if they centered around a historical event, but come one, don't waste your brain on it.

[Sequoia]

15. Bookmark?

What do you mean you're using a bookmare for the about the first time? Do you normally just read a book from cover to cover and don't need one? That book looks interesting. Thanks.

[babylonsister]

16. No, I usually fold the page down where I stop, but this book

is pretty old-yellowed pages, etc. I want to pass it on so I'm being careful with it.

And no, I don't usually read a book from cover to cover. I have, but not lately.

And it was good. Scary good that it was so plausible.