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Life Changing,
Dramatic,
Brilliant

2 reviews

Geek Love: A Novel
by Katherine Dunn

Published: 2002-06-11
Paperback : 368 pages
4 members reading this now
18 clubs reading this now
8 members have read this book
Recommended to book clubs by 2 of 2 members
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 amphetamine, arsenic, and radioisotopes). Their offspring include Arturo the Aquaboy, who has ...
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Introduction

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 amphetamine, arsenic, and radioisotopes). 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.

Editorial Review

A wild, often horrifying, novel about freaks, geeks and other aberrancies of the human condition who travel together (a whole family of them) as a circus. It's a solipsistic funhouse world that makes "normal" people seem bland and pitiful. Arturo the Aqua-Boy, who has flippers and an enormous need to be loved. A museum of sacred monsters that didn't make it. An endearing "little beetle" of a heroine. Sort of like Tod Browning's Freaks crossed with David Lynch and John Irving and perhaps George Eliot -- the latter for the power of the emotions evoked.

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Member Reviews

Overall rating:
 
 
by Linda B. (see profile) 09/29/19

 
by Lisa C. (see profile) 01/30/19

 
by Hannah B. (see profile) 10/18/17

 
  "Brilliant and Disturbing"by Pamela K. (see profile) 02/19/10

I have read this book several times and each time I become more connected to the characters. It's a disturbing story, but the moral of acceptance of ourselves is fascinating and very well written. I think... (read more)

 
  "Such deep, haunting characters"by Kerri F. (see profile) 05/08/09

I don't like circuses, and i don't go to freak shows, but this book was utterly fantastic. I read this months ago, but still find myself thinking about the characters, and how richly they were portrayed.... (read more)

 
  "disgusting"by diane c. (see profile) 05/31/08

It felt as if the author was simply going for shock value. A carnival family seeks to breed (with the use of horrible drugs and chemicals) their own circus "freaks.: The resulting characters are utterly... (read more)

 
  "i haven't read it but....."by beth g. (see profile) 03/29/08

i've heard it's really good!

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