Amulet

Amulet by Robert Bolano gave such a unique delivery on Latin American history through an unusual narrative. The book’s narrator, Auxilio Lacouture, recounts her life memories as well as her experiences with her poet friends as she finds herself in the difficult situation in which she must hide in a bathroom to escape an invasion of her university. Like many others, I also found the starting lines of this book attention-grabbing. Bolano did well making the hook as intriguing as it was to initially pull the reader into his book. Though the introduction specified the book’s “horror” nature, it is not however the typical genre of horror we see in media nowadays. I found the history that was told, as well as the life stories of Auxilio, to be just as scary because it is a horrifying situation a lot of people in war-torn countries find themselves in. She recalls many happy memories she had with her poet friends, and I thought that the contrast of her recalling some of her more colourful memories to being in a hideout, uncertain of her life and just merely trying to survive was saddening.

Though I enjoyed the historical aspect and unique storytelling of this book, I found myself not necessarily too drawn to the main character as the stories she recounted were often told in a sporadic way (though this might have been intentional). I often thought that throughout the book, it read as if you are talking to a friend and telling stories in an informal way. Though this made reading the book easier and faster because of the lack of convoluted writing style, it was not enough to keep me too engaged with the text. The plot itself was interesting, but the intermittent and often very detailed way of describing things as a form of pacing did not help me stay focused too much on the book. Although, this might have been because I read the book in one sitting very quickly.

One part of the book I also found worth noting, however, was who Auxilio focused on as she recalled her memories. The detail was in her friends, and not so much herself as she looked back at her moments with. I often found myself reading more about the people in her life than merely just the main character of the book. Which brings me to my question – as Auxilio was confined to the stall trying to survive, what were some coping mechanisms she adopted throughout the invasion? I think that perhaps her predominantly recalling memories of the people she admired was one of them.