Geek Love

I love when a book surprises me. This one did so. It was also exceptionally heartwarming even with its darkness.

Geek Love is an odd, fascinating book that has nothing to do with Star Wars. It takes upon a form of a memoir of Olympia Binewski, an albino dwarf, written for her daughter Miranda. Olympia and her siblings, - Aqua Boy, Siamese twins, and a telepath - are all products of their parents' grotesque experiments conducted in order to save their travelling carnival from bankruptcy. They live a happy life together enjoying their uniqueness, until their older brother grows up to realize his own power and ambitions.

Arturo the Aqua Boy's self-destructing nature became evident since his early childhood, starting with his attention dependency and feats of cruel jealousy. In attempt to punish those who might have strayed from his worship, Arty hurt and tortured them, afterwords feeling agonizing guilt that pushed him further into madness. His sisters Elly and Iphy experienced that first hand. Those close to Arty could never predict when they'd fall out of his favour: Doctor P and Arty's cult followers met their demise just because of that unpredictability of his nature. Yet nobody dared to stop him, or maybe they simply chose to stay blind. Olympia herself worshiped her brother, and even admitted to love him dearly because she could see that ugly cruel side of him.

I enjoyed Katherine Dunn's intricate language very much, even though it took me a chapter or two to get used to. Her open-minded and often shocking narrative practically glued me to the book, as I found myself often unable to put it down for hours. Dunn's careful attention to details is a prime example of how to write a masterful novel. I loved the idea that all girls who work for the Binewski family must be redheads. This insignificant to the plot fact enriched the setting of the book and made it easier to picture the exotic world of the travelling carnival. I would recommend Geek Love to anyone who is not afraid to look at the beautiful side of ugly and vice versa.

You can't judge a book by its cover, but even though this book was excellent its cover made me wince every time I picked it up.

/Geek Love/ is the story of a carny family, whose children are all diffent in their own way -- fins instead of hands, Siamese twins, an albino dwarf and a boy who can shape matter with his mind make up the complete cast. Although this element could have easily run away with the plot, it is not what the book is about. Rather, it explores everything from family dynamics, sibling rivalry and most important, the reversal of the perceived value of being normal.

Katherine Dunn's writing drew me into the world immediately -- she has a strong gift for engaging the imagination, which ultimately is what makes this book successful. After I bought this book, I noticed it was also an audio book and think it would be fantastic in that format.

Read this if you are looking for a break from the typical novel and are open to exploring why we carry the social archetypes that we do.

If you're looking for something off the beaten path, this is it. I don't think any writer has ever ventured into a sideshow environment with so much imagination and warmth. Meet the Binewskis, a carnival family that strives for unique qualities in their freaks. Sometimes, this story is about the strange world of the carnival, but more often it delves into the dimensions of family, and how important these bonds are. This is a story that sticks with you - in good ways and bad.