I liked this book a lot -- particularly the present-day parts. The carnival family was great, but the whole thing lost a little momentum about three quarters of the way through. And even though his gift is pretty important to the plot, I spent a lot of time wishing that Chick had a more realistic freakishness to him, and not a deus ex machina talent that quickly moved the plot from the weirdly possible to the unbelievable.

[full review here: http://spacebeer.blogspot.com/2010/02...] ( )

In a word this book was disturbing. In two it was a train wreck. I haven't really got a clue as to how to write a review for this book because it was simply one of most bizarre books I've ever read - top spot either goes to this book or Chemical Pink by Katie Arnoldi. I don't know that I can say it was really well written or if it was just so strange that I had to keep reading to see what would happen next in this family of circus geeks (freaks). I seriously question the mind of the author to be able come up with this story. While I generally think that a story's ability to stay in my mind long after reading it is a sign of a particularly great book, I don't believe that is why I won't be able to shake the images that this book has burned into my brain. ( )

The best thing about the book, and the one that convinces me to overlook its fairly notable flaws, is the sheer commitment to creating its own universe. There are a few subtle and not-so-subtle clues as to when the action is taking place (obviously after car travel is commonplace, video tapes are mentioned at least once) but the time period is basically irrelevant. It's a book that demands the reader accept the morality of the characters on its own terms but also, especially with the wildly unreliable narration of Oly, accepts the reality of the book and its characters on its own terms. ( )

If you like dark, you'll love this. ( )

I do love to find the unconventional story. ( )

The fact that I didn't like Geek Love isn't because it was repulsive or offensive. In fact, that's where "the half of a star" to distinguish it from total crap comes from: I found it disturbing enough for me to go through half of the book looking forward of what will come out of this - and still distrubing enough, after I got bored and somehow managed it through the second half, not to erase it out of my memory in the near future.

The main problem were the storylines. There was ideas (freaks-normalcy, standards in society etc.), but they got lost somewhere under the effort to be repulsive. But Geek Love didn't succeed in being repulsive or provoke thoughts about adjusting to the society as a freak, because the people involved in the carnival weren't very human. Maybe they were made to seem like they've all lost their emotions and intelligence to drugs, but then, what's the point? Don't be a freak, because the only way to live is under the influence? Miranda was the only exception, but unfortunately a possibility to tell a story about a (mild) freak in the real world with real feelings was cut short. ( )

Al and Lil Binewski own a failing carnival, which they revive by creating a family of freaks though chemical abuse during pregnancy. Not just standard drugs, but pesticides, radioisotopes, and more. The story is narrated by their daughter Olympia, a bald albino hunchback dwarf, who often bemoans her relative normalcy (you should see her siblings). It's a fascinating look at not only carnival life, but how we view physical beauty in general. Do we really envy those who are completely normal, or those who proudly display their differences? The description is raw, shocking, and painfully vivid, but like a carnival freak show, you just can't look away. You have to keep reading, to get a better look, to see what they'll do next. This is not the sort of book that will appeal to everyone, or even most people, but I really enjoyed it. If nothing else, it was very different from most other things I've read. ( )

I've participated in LibraryThing's SantaThing program since it's inception. One year I asked for something bizarre, weird, or strange, and also gave assurance that I wasn't easily offended. LibraryThing member fyrefly98 (who also has a marvelous book blog) selected Geek Love by Katherine Dunn for me. This rather odd story was a fantastic choice. Not having been previously aware of Geek Love, I thought the book was much newer than it actually is, partially because of the cover design (which apparently caused quite a stir initially, appropriately flaunting it's unconventional aesthetics). Written in 1983 (and fully published in 1989) it was a finalist for both the 1989 National Book Award and the 1990 Bram Stoker Award. It took me nearly a year to get around to reading it, but I am so glad that I finally did.

Aloysius and Crystal Lil own and manage the Binewski Fabulon, a traveling carnival. When it looked as thought the business was beginning to fail, they set out to change matters and genetics. By combining drug concoctions and other dubious methods, they plan to create their own freakshow with their own children. There is Arturo, the enigmatic AquaBoy, born with flippers rather than limbs; the beautiful and charming conjoined twins Iphigenia and Electra; poor Olympia is only an albino dwarf with a small hunchback; and Furtunato, better known as Chick, unfortunately looks like a norm--but his mental powers are astounding. Geek Love is a story about a family not afraid of being different and who are quite proud of their uniqueness. But it also the story of their struggles as they grow, so fixated and obsessed with being special that it can only end in tragedy.

Geek Love is primarily told in the first person by Oly, although the narrative occasionally slips into the third person. The text of personal notes, diaries, and newspaper clippings are also included. Overall, it seemed a bit disjointed, but it makes sense when at the end it is revealed that all of these material have been collected together--ultimately it's not so much a book as it is a box full of family memorabilia. The family dynamics portrayed are intense but really no different than what would be seen from a "normal" family. It isn't the characters' physical peculiarities that make them monsters, but their personalities and their actions towards one another and those outside the family. Sibling rivalry doesn't often directly result in physical violence, but the extreme mental and emotional manipulations are exceedingly harsh and damaging, especially those initiated by Arty. Despite the fantastical and often unbelievable nature of the story, at its heart it comes across as brutally authentic.

Geek Love is definitely not for everyone (I know of more than one person who was offended or utterly repulsed by the book) but I thought it was incredible. Generally, I was much more interested in the history of the Binewski family (which really is most of the book) rather than the "Notes for Now" sections which followed Oly and her daughter Miranda. The ending of the book did seem a little rushed to me, but the book as a whole was very well paced--I was completely engaged by the story and could hardly tear myself away from my morbid fascination. Appalling, disturbing, and bizarre, Geek Love is intense and not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach. It's been a while since a book has affected me to such an extent, but I was completely blown away. Geek Love has made a lasting impression; I'll certainly be thinking about it for quite some time and I'll definitely be holding onto my copy. Thanks again, Fyrefly!

Experiments in Reading ( )

I think in her attempt to pass along the moral of this story (don't judge a book by its cover), the author overwrote the characters. Yes, they were freaks and yes they knew this and yes they gloried in this, but... even keeping all this in mind, their behaviors were not believable. i.e. Just because they were freaks in the eyes of "norms" shouldn't have been reason enough to justify incest. It's like the author confused freakishness with an interest in incest which is along the same lines of confusing male homosexuals with pedophiles. One is a lifestyle/way one is born, the other is a sexual deviation.

Anyway, in general, the book is well written although near the 3/4 mark the story starts getting told via "documents" rather than by any of the characters which gave the sensation that the author couldn't figure out how to continue the story without resorting to such shortcuts.

Even though the characters are unbelievable in terms of "real life", within the story, they seem to be nicely developed. All in all though, I can only give this a 3 star (average) rating. ( )

Disturbing.

That's the only word I can summon to describe this novel. It was well written, and the concept of a side show "freak" couple purposely developing a brood of even more "freak" children (and putting their failed attempts on display in little jars) was a little too gruesome for me.

Some of the story lines were well thought out, and if you could get past the squeemish parts, there was an underlying story of what it meant to be a freak versus "normal" and what exactly makes one "normal".

I think the descriptions were written with the purpose to disgust and disturb, which makes me wonder who the actual audience is for this book. If I were to read it again (which is highly unlikely) I would feel much more comfortable with some heavy skimming of those parts and retaining a focus on the story development itself. ( )

Strange and wonderful novel full of interesting characters. This is one of the few books I've read several times. ( )

I am going to warn you now that this book is not an easy read. Not because of its choice of words or its style, but it will emotionally and mentally beat you up. I personally love books that make me feel, and this one runs the gamut from rage and disgust to sympathy and empathy. It definitely answers the age old question, “What do you do when your circus side show starts to lose popularity?” (Ok maybe YOU have never thought that, but I’m sure someone out there has), and this book’s answer is, “Breed your own, at what ever costs necessary.” And the Binewski family pays, and pays handsomely (pun intended).

Meet the Binewski family: Al and “Crystal” Lil run a circus… well they did, though over time the traveling circus has lost some appeal, and with exciting new acts being thought up all the time, they needed to think of something that no one could beat. Of all of the possible ideas they could have come up with, they decided that breeding their own freak show would be the most affordable, and likely the most crowd grabbing way to do so. “Crystal” Lil takes different drugs and radioactive materials during her pregnancies and the results are her five surviving children and menagerie of still born, but formaldehyde preserved less viable offspring. Read More ( )

Tried this one but I just couldn't get into it. I had a tough time getting into the story about a family of circus side show performers (carnies). I didn't find the characters to be very sympathetic just whiny and uninteresting. ( )

How do you review a book like this? There's an outrage on every page, and I mean that in only the most admiring sense. This vivid, surreal story features mutated individuals, but underneath all the lovely, diverting carnival atmosphere, is a scathing indictment on the Ameridcan focus on appearance. There are appalling, although true-to-life, events and consequences, but they're all seen from the inside out.

I don't know if Katherine Dunn has published anything else, but "Geek Love" secures her a place in my pantheon of amazing, awe-inspiring authors. ( )

Amazingingly imaginative. This book is both engrossing and disturbing. Just when you get used to it, the author ups the ante. And as freakish as it is, she makes it all seem kind of normal, too. A must-read for anyone who loves books. ( )

This book was recommended to me by a colleague. I took her up on it because I liked a previous recommendation she made. We seem to have a similar taste in literature. (We both like weird, gory books, sometimes more disturbing than most people can stomach.)

Katherine Dunn's "Geek Love" is a novel about family. In this case, it happens to be a family of specially-bred sideshow freaks... but it's family nonetheless. The story is told from the perspective of Olympia Binewski, an albino, bald dwarf with a hunchback. But, if you can believe it, she's the plainest of the bunch. Her siblings include Arturo (the Aqua Boy), Iphigenia & Electra (the Siamese twins who are prodigies on the piano), and "Chick" (whose power is greatest of all). Olympia's only talent is her voice but having a knack for storytelling is not a money-making talent.

The story is told from two perspectives simultaneously: the main narrative (where Olympia is a teenager) is interspersed with notes from the present (where Olympia is a grown woman). In this dual voice, Olympia tells the story of how she came to shed the name Binewski -- which she once carried as a badge of honor -- for McGurk, as the name "Binewski" no longer wields the same power. Nowadays, "Binewski" is a name not to be uttered in public.

This book is brilliant, frustrating, sickening, and moving all at the same time. ( )

I had been looking forward to reading this book for a number of years. Unfortunately now that I have read it I am dissatisfied. I found the writing quite good with the writers ability to keep the reader invested in a story of unrelenting horror. I just was not in the mood for such a prolonged exposure to horror, hence the 3 stars. ( )

This is one of those books that I suspect caused quite a bit of buzz when it was released, but I'd never heard of it -- probably because I was only 11. I wasn't quite sure what to think when I started -- A book about carny freaks is one thing, a book about carny freaks who purposefully produce children with physical defects is quite another. And oh, what those children do! As ridiculous as it may seem to think of someone voluntarily cutting off parts of their body in devotion to a (cult) leader, you know there's enough crazy people in the world for it to be plausible. Oly ends up being such an unexpectedly touching character, and definitely the strongest of them all. I don't think there's a better way to depict the tone of this book and the twistedness than to post an excerpt. In Oly's voice: "I was born three years after my sisters. My father spared no expense in these experiments. My mother had been liberally dosed with cocaine, amphetamines, and arsenic during her ovulation and throughout her pregnancy with me. It was a disappointment when I emerged with such commonplace deformities. My albinism is the regular pink-eyed variety and my hump, though pronounced, is not remarkable in size or shape as humps go. My situation was far too humdrum to be marketable on the same scale as my brother's and sisters' -- --The dwarfism, which was very apparent by my third birthday, came as a pleasant surprise to the patient pair and increased my value." ( )

Thrilling and epic and strange saga of a literally nuclear family rendered in prose so opulent as to perfectly match the novel's baroque goings-on. Albino hunchbacks, strippers with tails, limbless egomaniacs who breathe underwater--the author continuously tops herself with infectious giddiness.

Where is Katherine Dunn now? Not that I don't understand her disappearance from the literary scene--this National Book Award Winner will be hard to top. ( )

I have read this book in the past and one of the things I found so fascinating was that the author even dreamed up these characters and this plot. I kept wishing I had someone right there to talk about the quirky things that happened. And there are a lot.....

I imagine this isn't a book for everyone. Some would find it very disturbing, but I'm a little odd myself, so instead of being bothered, just kept shaking my head in wonder.

One of the jacket blurbs says 'if Flannery O'Connor had con...more I have read this book in the past and one of the things I found so fascinating was that the author even dreamed up these characters and this plot. I kept wishing I had someone right there to talk about the quirky things that happened. And there are a lot.....

I imagine this isn't a book for everyone. Some would find it very disturbing, but I'm a little odd myself, so instead of being bothered, just kept shaking my head in wonder.

One of the jacket blurbs says 'if Flannery O'Connor had consumed vast quantities of LSD, she may have written like this' I've never read OConnor, but it made me run out and buy something by her! ( )

Straddling the borderlands between realism, fantasy and horror, "Geek Love" deals with the remarkable Binewski carnival family: Arturo the Aqua-Boy, born with flippers but no limbs; the musical Siamese twins Electra and Iphigenia; the telekinetic boy-wonder Chick; and the long-suffering Olympia, our narrator, who is a bald hump-backed albino dwarf.

In an intriguing and stomach-curdling twist, the senior Binewskis (Al and Crystal Lil) deliberately created their family menagerie: intentionally ingesting drugs, poisons and radioisotopes during conception and pregnancy in order to ensure that their offspring would be sufficiently "unusual" to attract the freak-seeking carny crowds. The younger Binewskis have been - in one way or another - exploited by their parents and by the frightened and frightening "norms" of the world since before they were born.

The plot of "Geek Love" is a loose baggy monster, with turns involving tension between mothers and daughters, a crazed millionaire frozen-food heiress, and a bizarre cult that involves cutting off parts of your body. From the start, the reader just knows that it's not going to turn out well - melodramas rarely do. And "Geek Love" does outstay its welcome - it would have been better with about a third of it cut out. Dunn did speak to "the inner freak" in me - I really do think that everyone is born with a "tail" of one kind or another. However, I wouldn't want to be on a steady diet of this kind of fantasy - for me, a little of it goes a long way. ( )

I felt bad for poor Chick. It was a pretty good book. A little bit strange though, obviously, and very frustrating at times. But it was pretty good. I would recommend it. ( )

I adore this book! I've recommended to anyone who stood still long enough to listen. The great thing here is that just when you think it can't possibly get any weirder or any more disturbed it does, and it does it big. When your narrator is a hunchback albino dwarf, you know you're in for a ride. ( )

Citation: Dunn, K. Geek love. (1983). New York: Vintage Books.
Grade Level: 10-12; language
Category: Dystopia, not in the pure sense of the word but rather a dystopia of the lifestyle for the Binewshi family.
Read Alouds:
The back of the book.
4-10 The Binewski idea of a nuclear family.
18-21 present Day of Oly, who is telling the story.
56-63 The assassination attempt on the family.
All the newspaper clippings from Noval Snaderson’s notebook; spread throughout the novel.

Summary:This novel chronicles the Binewski’s nuclear family of traveling circus performers. The narrative is given from the point of view of Oly—an albino hunchback—and discusses the lives of her similarly unique parents, siblings, and her own daughter. The story progresses through the family’s relatively innocent conception into much darker territory, primarily concerning Oly’s megalomaniac brother, Arty, and eventually culminates in a catastrophic event which claims the lives of all but a few Binewskis.

Theme: Embracing those unique traits which characterize a person is an apparent theme in this novel. Another prevalent theme in the story is the role which family values play—both in the carnie lifestyle which Al and Lil made for the Binewskis as well as the mundane lifestyle which Oly wishes for Miranda.

Discussion Questions:
1. Why didn’t Oly tell Miranda she was her mother until after she died?
2. Do you believe the attempted assassin’s excuse for shooting was acceptable?
3. How do family values differ between the Binewski’s values and that of a normal family?

Reader Response: I think this would be an excellent addition to a modern literature course for eleventh and twelfth graders. It has a beautiful story that can make you laugh, cry, and even make you want to tear the pages out of the book in anger. This book could be taught with many other contemporary authors in a modern literary setting; however, coupling it with a classic work would be a difficult thing to do. ( )

This is one of those books that I remember fondly every time I think about it--except for the fact that it "disappeared" shortly after I lent it out to a friend. Geek Love is a story that unfolds in layers: on the surface, you've got a deeply engrossing story about sideshow "freaks." It's like watching a train wreck; you can't take your eyes off of the page. Go one step further, and it speaks of the humanity--or lack thereof--in all people...a basic and all-too-gritty morality tale. Even deeper than that, a careful read uncovers some pretty twisted religious metaphor that both elevates and exposes certain aspects of cultish behavior and the quest for the divine. Imagery is pulled heavily from Christianity, particularly Catholicism.

Keep an open mind, allow yourself to squirm a bit, and challenge yourself by reading this book. A grain of salt never hurt anyone. *smirks* ( )