Name: Geek Love
ISBN: 9780375713347

Katherine Dunn

Aloysious and Lillian Binewski, the proprietors of a traveling carnival, attempt to reduce overhead by breeding their own freak show, with tragic results, in a new edition of the acclaimed cult classic. Reprint. 30,000 first printing.

Geek Love

Shoob 🧸

“Papa’s a genius,” I said stoutly. This was Binewski doctrine. 

“Heh heh heh,” went Arty’s belly. There was scorn in his eyes. It was familiar enough on his wide mug, but not toward Papa. He was trying to shock me. 

"If Papa had discovered fire," Arty sighed to the beat of his lifts, “he'd think it was for sticking in your mouth to amaze a crowd.... If Papa had invented the wheel ... he'd have laid it flat.. put a merry-go-round on it ... and figured that was as far as it went.... If he'd discovered America ... he would have gone home and forgot about it ... because it didn't have any hot-dog stands."

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.

A Novel

I don’t know whether to recommend this book or tell everyone to stay far away from it. It was long. It was suffocating. It was weird. It was so, so weird. 

Above all, Geek Love is immersive to the point of being cinematic. I could smell every location in this book. I could see every character in perfect detail and hear the timbre of their voices. The story could have been told in half the words had Katherine Dunn been willing to skimp on description but luckily she made no such sacrifice. 

A lot could be said about the themes of Geek Love, most notably the questions it proposes about religion, purpose, and the body. Some of these themes are engaged in a manner that I would call hyperbolic, but at a certain point it becomes farcically over the top in a way that circles back around to being genius. 

That’s why I’ll give it 4 stars even though the present-day timeline that takes up about a third of the book is painfully boring. Because that other two-thirds is so odd and unexpected and compelling. That present-day third does stick the landing in terms of theme and plot, the execution of it just dragged a bit for me on a pacing level. I’ll let it go, though. After some thought, yes, I recommend Geek Love and then when you read it let me know so we can talk about it. 

I don’t know whether to recommend this book or tell everyone to stay far away from it. It was long. It was suffocating. It was weird. It was so, so weird. 

Above all, Geek Love is immersive to the point of being cinematic. I could smell every location in this book. I could see every character in perfect detail and hear the timbre of their voices. The story could have been told in half the words had Katherine Dunn been willing to skimp on description but luckily she made no such sacrifice. 

A lot could be said about the themes of Geek Love, most notably the questions it proposes about religion, purpose, and the body. Some of these themes are engaged in a manner that I would call hyperbolic, but at a certain point it becomes farcically over the top in a way that circles back around to being genius. 

That’s why I’ll give it 4 stars even though the present-day timeline that takes up about a third of the book is painfully boring. Because that other two-thirds is so odd and unexpected and compelling. That present-day third does stick the landing in terms of theme and plot, the execution of it just dragged a bit for me on a pacing level. I’ll let it go, though. After some thought, yes, I recommend Geek Love and then when you read it let me know so we can talk about it. 

Truly one of the weirdest books I’ve ever read which is an accomplishment. I would get a little bored and then they’d drop a totally batsh!t line and I’d clock back in. Truly baffling, especially because I thought this would be about nerds.

Bowie 

Laura Mauler

This book was so NOT about angsty teen love (which is why my high school self picked it up), but rather about a family of genetic freaks and their love for each other. I'm really glad that it turned out to be the latter instead of the former because otherwise it probably wouldn't be worth remembering. As it is this is a very, very good book, one that randomly pops into my thoughts even though I haven't read it in years.

Dark version of the greatest showman with murder

Hannah Alexander 

Insane times 1000

Dark version of the greatest showman with murder

Read if you want to think

A National Book Award Finalist: This 'wonderfully descriptive' novel from an author with a 'tremendous imagination' tells the unforgettable story of the Binewskis, a carny family whose mater- and paterfamilias have bred their own exhibit of human oddities. (The New York Times Book Review) The Binewskis arex 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 US, 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. Praise for Geek Love 'If Flannery O'Connor had consumed vast quantities of LSD, she might have written like this' Literary Review 'The most romantic novel about love and family I have read. It made me ashamed to be so utterly normal' Terry Gilliam 'I felt electrocuted when I read that first page with Crystal Lil and her freak brood. I stood there in the bookstore and my jaw came unhinged. No book I've read, before or since, has given me that specific jolt' Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia

Richie B

5 out of 5 stars
I had been looking forward to reading this book for a while and when I saw it was available to borrow as an ebook from the library, I got it right away! A lot of the people I follow on here only thought the book was mediocre, so while I thought the premise sounded great I kept my expectations low. I was blown away. From the first chapter this book had me hooked! It took me about a week to finish, but it was interesting the entire way through.
 Let me give a brief summary for those who have never heard of this book: It is about a family who breed their own freakshow. Crystal Lil, the mother, takes various drugs and other substances in order to give birth to deformed children who will be raised to become acts in the show. The narrator, Olympia, is an albino hunchbacked dwarf and we follow her story through two narratives: one in the present and one during the past where we learn about her and her siblings life in the circus. Both narratives were very well done and I do not think I would have changed the book in any other way.
The writing style was great, the characters were incredibly written and developed, and the plot was fascinating. Although the characters and story were so bizarre, the author had a way of writing that made you feel incredible emotion for the characters and the problems they faced. This is definitely a book that you either love or hate, and I loved it to pieces. I wouldnèt recommend it to anyone because it is very gross and disturbing at times but I think that many people will enjoy it. I think it's safe to say that this is my favourite book of 2016, maybe of all time. I can't remember a book that I've enjoyed this much in a very long time.

3.5 stars

wow.

"Sometimes just looking at Al and Crystal Lil I wanted to bash their heads with a tire iron. Not to kill them, just to wake them up."

Melody Izard

I had forgotten about this book. Very strange. But strange is entertaining for me.