billy reviewed Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
Review of 'Geek love' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
a disgusting and depraved work, plainly the product of a diseased mind. I love it
347 pages
English language
Published Oct. 29, 1989 by Knopf, Distributed by Random House.
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 disgusting and depraved work, plainly the product of a diseased mind. I love it
There's so much in this book that would normally lead me to deduct magical internet star points - some graphic bits I usually think of as pandering and unnecessary - but there is also more to this than I normally get in a novel. It's excellently plotted and paced, the characters are really rich and changeable, the world and its happenings are unlike any other I've read.
The 4 stars is based more on the quality of writing and interesting story telling rather than me actually liking the book.
I think I may actually come back to this, after I've digested it a little more. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the point of the book. Why did I read this? Why did Dunn write it? What is the purpose of reading something this disturbing? All questions I have yet to figure out. My reaction to this reminded me greatly of my reaction to [bc:Room|7937843|Room|Emma Donoghue|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1344265419s/7937843.jpg|9585076], in that the story itself disgusted me in many ways, but I couldn't put it down.
I will come back to this review. I think I may need to read it again, too.
People love this book and though I'm not one of them, it's obvious why. There's a uniqueness to it. It's not, as they would say in the text, a "norm," short for normal. Any book could have businessmen, narcissists, sexual explorers, murderers, journalists & crazy people (and this book has all of those.) Any book can be about families, cults, tragedies, coming of age (and this book is.) Any book can have an unreliable narrator (like this one.) But this one's narrator is a bald hunchbacked albino dwarf. This cult is about amputation and lobotomy. This is the story of a family of freaks. And so on. And the writing is good too--go read the quotes section if you doubt me.
So why don't I love it? Because once you take on the characters and situations this book does, you're under a lot of obligation to make good use of …
People love this book and though I'm not one of them, it's obvious why. There's a uniqueness to it. It's not, as they would say in the text, a "norm," short for normal. Any book could have businessmen, narcissists, sexual explorers, murderers, journalists & crazy people (and this book has all of those.) Any book can be about families, cults, tragedies, coming of age (and this book is.) Any book can have an unreliable narrator (like this one.) But this one's narrator is a bald hunchbacked albino dwarf. This cult is about amputation and lobotomy. This is the story of a family of freaks. And so on. And the writing is good too--go read the quotes section if you doubt me.
So why don't I love it? Because once you take on the characters and situations this book does, you're under a lot of obligation to make good use of it. And that is how this book ultimately fails. Not completely. But often enough. And the ending most of all. Should I spoiler it? Let me just say that it was worse than norm. It was subnorm. Tacked on to make a point. Insufficently motivated by the characters (the author should have at least tried harder because it could have worked at that level at least) and cutting short the developing relationship before it could get interesting in the easiest way possible.
Vividly imagined characters and surreal circumstances make this book a standout.