Geek Love - Wyrms.de

348 pages

English language

Published 2002

ISBN:: 978-0-375-71334-7
Goodreads:: 13872

(1 review)

National Book Award Finalist - Here is the unforgettable story of the Binewskis, a circus-geek family whose matriarch and patriarch have bred their own exhibit of human oddities--with the help of amphetamines, arsenic, and radioisotopes.

One of The Atlantic's Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years

Their offspring include Arturo the Aquaboy, who has flippers for limbs and a megalomaniac ambition worthy of Genghis Khan . . . Iphy and Elly, the lissome Siamese twins . . . albino hunchback Oly, and the outwardly normal Chick, whose mysterious gifts make him the family's most precious--and dangerous--asset.

As the Binewskis take their act across the backwaters of the U.S., inspiring fanatical devotion and murderous revulsion; as its members conduct their own Machiavellian version of sibling rivalry, Geek Love throws its sulfurous light on our notions of the freakish and the normal, the beautiful and the ugly, the holy and the …

National Book Award Finalist - Here is the unforgettable story of the Binewskis, a circus-geek family whose matriarch and patriarch have bred their own exhibit of human oddities--with the help of amphetamines, arsenic, and radioisotopes.

One of The Atlantic's Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years

Their offspring include Arturo the Aquaboy, who has flippers for limbs and a megalomaniac ambition worthy of Genghis Khan . . . Iphy and Elly, the lissome Siamese twins . . . albino hunchback Oly, and the outwardly normal Chick, whose mysterious gifts make him the family's most precious--and dangerous--asset.

As the Binewskis take their act across the backwaters of the U.S., inspiring fanatical devotion and murderous revulsion; as its members conduct their own Machiavellian version of sibling rivalry, Geek Love throws its sulfurous light on our notions of the freakish and the normal, the beautiful and the ugly, the holy and the obscene. Family values will never be the same.

2 editions

Michael Gouker reviewed Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

Review of 'Geek love' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

As one might expect this is not an easy read, but it does echo much about how willing people are to follow causes only to find themselves unalone. Some characters are fairly astonishing in their lack of empathy, but they are not reimagined. They are original.

The plot kind of ambles along and the destructive outcome is signalled all along. We are just waiting for the right time and are rewarded, but then there is the question of whether the characters made good choices, and honestly, the parameters they use have brutal values.