brokentune
Written on Apr 25, 2018
Some books just aren't for me. This is one of them.
No rating, no regrets, but no more time spent on this one either.
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
- ISBN10 0349100861
- ISBN13 9780349100869
- Publish Date 1 November 1990 (first published 1 January 1920)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 11 March 2022
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
- Imprint Abacus
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 512
- Language English
Reviews
Some books just aren't for me. This is one of them.
No rating, no regrets, but no more time spent on this one either.
clementine
Written on May 8, 2017
The story is a little slow to really begin, but Dunn leaves a trail of tantalizing hints so it's not boring. The drugs, the shooter, Miranda - everything makes you want to keep reading.
It's a testament to Dunn's writing that Arty is both absolutely despicable and yet somehow charming. He charmed me, the same way he charmed all the Arturans. Even though I knew I should hate him, I couldn't fully.
All the plot threads worked so well together - Miranda, Miss Lick, the Arturans, the twins' pregnancy. There was just enough shown to be creepy and just enough left to the imagination to be completely horrifying.
This is definitely going to be one of my favourites.
ibeforem
Written on Dec 5, 2007
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."