National Book Award finalistHere 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 … 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.
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One of the most original, bizarre and entertaining things I’ve ever read.
This one hit me from all directions! It’s creepy, horrifying, filled with love, hate, devotion and a sense of the unexplainable. I was fascinated with the concept of the “Arturan Cult.” Where individuals are so unhappy in life and want to be like Arty. So they start by have appendages, legs, etc removed by Dr. P. with help from Chick. They become …
I don’t know why, but it seems like every girl I meet has read and loves this book, yet most guys have never heard of it.
I ironically had it recommended to me by a girlfriend. A crazy one. Like bi-polar, put my dog to sleep, crazy. She was a sad mistake, but this book was not.
I’m a big David Lynch fan, and this book the novelization of a movie …
Wild ride from start to finish.
Well written, but the subject matter was a bit too out there for me. Be informed, this is not the sort of “geek” your expecting.
This is perhaps the most original book I have ever read. The plot surrounds a family living with a traveling circus, who begin their own freak show using their own children who were bred with various drugs and radioactive material to give them ‘freakish’ results, such as flippers instead of arms and legs, Siamese twins, and a telekinetic baby. A …
This novel is sometimes unclear, and pretty depressing. Ms. Dunn seems to be desirous of shocking us throughout her book. The characters aren’t likeable. I was compelled to read to the end, hoping for something redeeming. Not so.
Very strange and disturbing
I first read this book when it published. When I returned to it recently, I understood why I had spent twenty years thinking about it.
Very dark and depressing. I found myself dreading the next chapter..
Disgusting, sickening, can’t believe the 2, 3, 4, and 5 star review.
A very odd wonderful read
Good writing, intriguing premise. Just wasn’t for me.
The *only* book I’ve ever kept in ready supply for friends in need of a jump-start out of a reading rut.
Big Al wants to start a family circus beginning with a homespun midway. He and Crystal take a toxic aporoach to pre-natal care and voila!
Dunn didn’t put pen to paper for petty carny pranks though. Amidst sundry ‘special’ siblings plops …
Geek Love is a great book to read if your looking for something different. It will chane how you look at people who are “different”. And we’re all delightfully different.
This book is compelling, and repulsive, at the same time. It draws you into a very twisted world and holds you there, thinking surely it will let go and return to normalcy that never arrives. One of my favorite dark fantasy books of all time.
This is a seriously disturbing reflection of cult worship. Beyond that, there are a couple of exceptionally well-written and engaging passages; however, the remainder of the book was colored for me by the disturbing content.