The Amulet

It is 1965 and Dean Howell and his peers are in military training in Fort Rucca, Alabama, knowing that since the Vietnam War is just truly heating up, that it is a matter of time before they see enemy action in a Southeast jungle--action from which they might not ever return. A freak accident, however, saves Dean from being shipped overseas when his rifle, manufactured in his own small home town of Pine Cone, Alabama, explodes in his face with hideous repercussions. Weeks later Dean is a vegetable lying at home, looked over by his angry, revenge-seeking mother, Jo, and his wife, Sarah who works at the very same rifle plant where the defective gun was made. She comes home every night to care for her husband and mother-in-law who won't lift a finger to help, but whose tongue is in constant use--blaming "the whole damn town--layabouts and whores--the draft board, and the factory" for her son's fate, especially Larry Coppage whose inability to give Dean a job failed to keep Dean out of the draft.Days later, as "silent, searing flames consumed three walls of Larry and Rachel Coppage's bedroom... a fire that was sure of itself," a fire that will kill the entire Coppage family, Rachel Coppage does nothing to save herself, her husband, or her children. She barely reacts to the intense blaze at all as she admires herself and her new necklace in a piece of shattered mirror. The curse has started.The Amulet (re-issued by Valancourt Books with an Introduction by the noted writer Poppy Z. Brite) was the first of several entertaining and well-received horror novels by Michael McDowell (1950-1999). With The Amulet McDowell has produced a fairly typical horror novel with some notable exceptions. As the cursed amulet jumps from victim to victim like an alien that invades a human body only to exit that form and select a new host when its previous host dies, the amulet leaves behind a slew of bodies--so much so that the small town of Pine Cone is soon without enough coffins to bury the dead--when there is enough of the victims left in need a coffin for burial. McDowell's choice of a small town setting where the citizens take pride in the manufacturing of rifles used by the U.S. military in Vietnam is both ironic, due to the injury that befalls Dean Howell, and colorful. McDowell brings to life his rural town setting and the "good, hard men and women, with their dusty, barefooted children, whose lives were so difficult" that live there as he brilliantly captures the dialogue and speech of the inhabitants of Pine Cone complete with local colloquialisms, dialect, and grammatical errors. Most entertaining is McDowell's rap on small town gossip and rumor. As one gruesome tragedy after another befalls Pine Cone residents before "the facts" are released via the newspaper, word is passed from person to person with lightning speed relating what they have heard about the deaths. "Much of the gossip was patently false, and made up to fit the strangeness of the events" and is oftentimes illogical, yet taken as pure, unabashed truth. The residents of Pine Cone are not exactly known for their skepticism.The exception to the lack of skeptics in Pine Cone would be Sarah Howell and her best friend and neighbor Becca Blair. Feeling trapped and scared and also feeling remorse and guilt, Sarah begins to have a growing unease and suspicions about the cause of the deaths in Pine Cone. Although initially hesitant, Sarah's friend Becca decides, if for no other reason than to torment Jo Howell whom she does not like, to stand by Sarah's side to learn what is happening in Pine Cone. McDowell's portraits of these two women are quite convincing. Equally intriguing is their pursuit of the truth: what, if anything has Jo Howell done and how and what is the amulet's origin? Further, what actually lies behind what appears to be the comatose, vegetative Dean Howell whose head remains covered in bandages with only a black hole for his mouth through which he is spoon fed? Is he part of a deadly, supernatural conspiracy with his malicious mother, or is he mere silly putty in human form?Adding to the delights of The Amulet is the author's use of black humor. The coincidental way in which the amulet gets passed from person to person, some of the vivid, snide, and downright hateful descriptions of people by characters who have the amulet in their possession and who are about to become murderers, and even some of the deaths themselves (of both the murder victims and their murderers) as shocking as they can be, are actually quite humorous (remember, McDowell is the same guy who wrote the screenplay to Beetlejuice!)McDowell keeps readers well entertained with The Amulet. A blurb on the Valancourt cover has Stephen King praising McDowell as "The finest writer of paperback originals in America today." Indeed, there are times when The Amulet will remind horror fans of Stephen King's Bachman books (in content, tone and writing style. The curse in Thinner immediately comes to mind.) The climax of The Amulet is also reminiscent of King's horror story, "The Mangler" (included in the collection Night Shift in 1978) except on steroids. It is during this climax that readers will finally lose track of the body count and the very end of the novel is a surprising, nasty, sardonic pleasure--the perfect conclusion to a fun read.

"The Amulet" came today and I'm looking forward to a re-visit, especially since I don't remember plot particulars, just that I was absolutely crazy about it back in 1979 and bought every McDowell horror that came out afterwards -I remember one was a generational series ("Blackwater", the Poppy Brite intro sez, about a levee, a river, and sand, I believe) that came out spaced apart in six paperbacks and I remember haunting Walden's every week so I wouldn't miss the next installment. I didn't know until scanning the intro that the author was gay (and just read on this page he died of AIDS in 1999); it wasn't something one mentioned professionally, even a decade after Stonewall. McDowell had it all over Stephen King as far as I'm concerned and is right up there with Tennessee Williams and well above Truman Capote when it comes to Southern Gothic with a worldly-wise gay "sensibility" one needed to survive the urban jungles back then. In 1979, I worked with a gal named Jeannie who liked to drink as much as I did at the time and who was also a voracious reader. I raved about this book to her, lent it to her, and it was returned with her raves, as well. I remember quizzing her ("How did so-and-so die?", "What happened when...?") and she answered every one. That fall I took another job in another department and lost track of Jeannie, who never married and lived with her mom, until I read in the paper her mother found her dead one morning. Jeannie had the same problem Barbara Payton had and died the same way (I believe Payton was also discovered in the family bathroom by her mom, dead at 39, about Jeannie's age) but it wasn't until the over-sized soft cover (give me the old paperbacks any day altho this one has a nice feel) arrived today that I remembered I gave "The Amulet" to Jeannie and she died not long after...

I love this book. It's got everything a paperback horror novel should have: atmospheric creepiness, suspense, unsettling characterizations,sudden and shocking graphic violence, and a sly streak of wild humor. The last chapter is one of the most chilling in the history of recent horror fiction. Michael McDowell is an under-rated gem of an author.

I wasn’t impressed by the description of this book. This didn’t sound like quite my cup of tea…. But baby…. The execution is fantastic! Only critique is I wish there was a little more to the ending but this was fast paced once it got going and gory. Horror fans will be pleased but don’t expect too much to be cleared up in the end.

I loved this book. It has every thing. Good characterisation, fast plot, scary and funny and riveting. Highly recommended.

I thought it was a well written, fast moving book. I just wish I could discuss the ending with someone.