Geek Love: A Novel

Katherine Dunn

May 2011 · Vintage

About this ebook

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 amphetamines, arsenic, and radioisotopes.

One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years

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.

Ratings and reviews

I read this book first many years ago, and remembered it as disturbing. Ha! That was mild and kind for this train wreck of a book that is stirring, disturbing and very hard to put down. What an unpleasant bunch with no chance at all to be anything but. Arty, based I believe on the real Lobster boy Grady Stiles, is one of the most stomach churning characters ever written and yet AL and Lil, who breed their own carnival acts are far, far worse. You just can't out this horror story down.

(finished approx. 1/10/12). Incredible weird story of life among circus freaks. The set up is so far "out there" yet the story telling is, for the most part, rather linear (the whole thing being one big flashback). It's a great story - maybe not a life-changing novel (i struggle to recall anything of real poignancy) - but I've never read as entertaining a story with such an incredible cast of characters. Really great read.

This was a book that I couldn't put down. I read it in one sitting (12 hours). I didn't give the book five stars because the ending was disturbing. I did, however, enjoy the read.

About the author

Katherine Dunn was a novelist and boxing journalist who lived and worked in Oregon. She is the author of three novels: Attic; Truck; and Geek Love, which was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Bram Stoker Prize. She died in 2016.