Amulet and “Sleepwalking”

Amulet opens with: “This is going to be a horror story. A story of murder, detection and horror” (1). This explanation by the narrator, Auxilio Lacouture, created, right off the bat, a sense of suspense and mystery that allowed readers to expect an exciting or thrilling story. However, in my opinion, the novel was the complete opposite. To me, the book ended up being narrated quite calmly and conversationally, with the odd sporadic or strange tone. 

The first story told is of when she was a cleaner and broke a vase, with which she “couldn’t stop thinking about” (9). She seems unsure of her words, other than the concrete fact that there was a vase present, a constant in the story she tells to readers. I am unsure of the relevance of this story in the grand scheme of things, but I progressed…

We then learn about the Mexican poets and the story of her entrapment in the bathroom of the university in 1968, which is repeated many times throughout the novel. This part was one of the only parts in the book that I actually found slightly stressful or thrilling, as was promised by the narrator at the beginning of the novel. She begins to describe herself as the “mother of all the poets” (22) as well as explains the loss of her teeth in this section of the book. 

Initially, I did not create the best relationship with the Auxilio, as I sensed a lot of uncertainty in her words, creating this lack of trust in what she was telling. For example: “I can’t remember exactly” (18), and her admittance of being untrustworthy on page 80. As a character, Auxilio seemed nosy, uncertain, observant, curious and self-conscious. I personally found Auxilio slightly irritating, which made reading the book difficult as I struggled to empathize or resonate with the narrator/main character. She had many stories, and her stories and trauma seemingly make up her identity. The main story with which she keeps coming back to however, is of the women’s bathroom and the descriptions of the tiles and the moon in relation to the university washroom. Time seems to stand still while she is in the bathroom, and as she navigates her trauma from her entrapment and bears witness to history, we are taken on a journey of her memories of the future and past. 

On page 112 of Amulet, Bolaño writes that Auxilio was “speaking like a sleepwalker”. I believe this really captures the structure of the novel and Bolaño’s writing as it had a quite random flow and was similar to a stream of consciousness. Bolaño’s writing creates this essence of sleepwalking and as readers we are witnessing the randomness of Auxilio Lacouture’s dreams/visions – or in this case the stories of her witnessed history. 

My question is: “Why do you think the book began how it began (“This is going to be a horror story”)? Were you disappointed when the book did not offer much “horror” or thrill? How do you think the book as a whole is related to the opening line(s)?