≡ PDF Gratis Geek Love A Novel Katherine Dunn 9780375713347 Books

Geek Love A Novel Katherine Dunn 9780375713347 Books

Download As PDF : Geek Love A Novel Katherine Dunn 9780375713347 Books

Geek Love A Novel Katherine Dunn 9780375713347 Books

Oh, this book. I started it the day that I found out the author had died -- I'd kept meaning to get to it, and that seemed as good a time as any.

I don't know what I expected, but it... wasn't this. Geek Love is about a family of "circus freaks" -- the Binewski clan, where each child was borne of love and a new cocktail of drugs: an albino hunchback little person (and our narrator); conjoined twins; a boy with flippers instead of hands or feet; and one normal-looking child who was almost abandoned. The plot jumps between the past and the present; the reader gleans a portrait of a family brought together with fierce love and loyalty and torn apart by jealousy and fear.

Geek Love isn't a perfect book (I was disappointed with the subplot involving Miss Lick; it seemed underdeveloped), and it's not one that I feel like I can recommend lightly, nor to most readers, but it does tell an amazing story that put me through an emotional wringer, leaving my heart thumping or with tears in my eyes, and every emotion in between. It's about the meaning of family, love, and (blind) devotion, and it's unlike any other family saga I've read.

I recommend it to anyone who has read this review and remains intrigued. It's not an easy book, or a light book, or a book of happy endings, but it is amazing, and worth the effort.

Started: May 13, 2016
Finished: May 21, 2016

Rating: 9/10


Tags : Geek Love: A Novel [Katherine Dunn] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b>National Book Award finalist</b> 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,Katherine Dunn,Geek Love: A Novel,Vintage,0375713344,Literary,Reading Group Guide,Carnival owners,Carnival owners;Fiction.,Circus performers,Circus performers;Fiction.,Domestic fiction,FICTION Family Life General,FICTION General,FICTION Literary,FICTION Magical Realism,Fiction,Fiction - General,Fiction-Coming of Age,Freak shows,Freak shows;Fiction.,GENERAL,General Adult,Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945),POPULAR AMERICAN FICTION,Reference General,United States,carny;family;carnival;deformity;oddity;sideshow;horror;geek;American fiction;literary fiction;magical realism;flippers;conjoined twins;Siamese twins;Elly;Oly;Chick;award winning books;national book award;dark humor;cults;humorous books;circus;funny books;humor books;disability;dark;fantasy;monsters;freak;freaks;freak show;dysfunctional family;geeks;religion;magic;fiction;novels;fiction books;literature;books fiction;realistic fiction books;magical realism novels;magical realism fiction,carny; family; Binewskis; circus freaks; carnival; deformity; oddity; sideshow; horror; geek; American fiction; literary fiction; magical realism; flippers; conjoined twins; Siamese twins; Arturo the Aquaboy; Iphy; Elly; Oly; Chick; award winning books; national book award; dark humor; cults; humorous books; circus; funny books; humor books; disability; dark; fantasy; monsters; freak; freaks; freak show; dysfunctional family; geeks; religion; magic; fiction; fiction books; literature; magical realism novels; magical realism fiction

Geek Love A Novel Katherine Dunn 9780375713347 Books Reviews

Geek Love is predicated on the concept that a second rate carnival operator would “create” sideshow freaks to bring in the customers. Not beyond the pale, as many such entrepreneurs have in reality maximized wounds, injuries or disabilities, or used “smoke and mirrors” of one sort or another to staff bearded lady tents with men in drag (a common practice using draft dodgers during World War II), or applied crinkly-drying glue to the skin of children to create alligator boys or harnessed a cripple with malformed legs to his or her sibling and voilà – instant Siamese twins.

In the case of the Geek Love’s Binewskis, however, the carny operator’s approach was to feed his inexplicably willing wife an assortment of drugs, chemicals, etc., during her pregnancies to literally generate any and every sort of deformity, thereby populating Binewski’s Fabulon Traveling Carnival. The failures occupied jars of formaldehyde displayed in their own show trailer. The “successes” included Aqua Boy, a torso with four flippers and a quick wit, tongue and mind; Iphy and Elly, the sexy, piano playing Siamese twins; Chick, he of prodigious mental powers; and Olympia, a hunchback dwarf who narrates much of the family’s story.

We are treated by Oly to a normal family’s affections and squabbles, though “norms” is their term for the unwashed and uninteresting masses, and to their evolution both as individuals and as entertainers. At moments it’s almost endearing. The reader begins to contemplate his or her own acceptance of all God’s creatures, regardless of their “handicaps.” The writing is smooth and convincing, though perhaps Dunn waits a bit long before revealing the moral rot festering rather close to the surface in this band of miscreants.

The arts of persuasion, psychology, and manipulation are contrasted with the minor insanity suffered by too many everyday people desirous of a path in life and of acceptance by their fellows. The ending is strained, somewhat unsatisfying, and yet one is left with serious issues to mull over – between bouts of OMG hilarity.
I read Geek Love because it's one of Karen Russell's favorite novels. She read it when she was 15. If I had read Geek Love when I was fifteen, especially if I were fifteen in the early nineties (instead of late nineties) I might have enjoyed it a lot more.
The story centers around the Binewskis, a family of "freaks" (conjoined twins, boy with flippers, hunchback albino, telekinetic) who runs a traveling carnival. It reminds me of an R-rated Sam & Max Hit the Road. For a book so full of weirdness and magic and blunt honesty (all things I really would have appreciated at fifteen) it didn't hold my interest much at all. And I'm not sure why. But the sheer imagination behind the book compelled me to read the whole thing, if only so I could move on to something else.
Something about the language deterred me, and made the book feel a lot longer than it was, and sometimes I had to go back and re-read paragraphs just to figure out what was going on. Also, the ending fell flat for me.
I can see how the book was influential in shaping the craft of one of my favorite authors, but it didn't have the same affect on me, in my grizzled old age.
I don't give this book 5 stars because its deserves 5 stars, I gives this book 5 stars because it is the most strange, most unusual, most impossible book I have ever read. It took one wildly creative mind to come up with the ideas that put this book together. And I enjoyed every crazy minute of it. It took my mind on a circus rollercoaster of a ride of a lifetime I'm inclined to never forget. Its one of those books that startle the mind into the impossible and make it possible and wakes up your minds and says hey, can you do that? Is that possible? And keeps you reading to find out if theres a trick or neat little fancy idea behind whats going on. And the book keeps the mind working. All thru to the end and even past that. It makes you think and wonder and then you find joy here and there. You find yourself laughing at this and that. Shocked or startled by something that is so awesome you have to smile, maybe chuckle, maybe put the book down and giggle a while. These moments exist. As do the sad ones. Where your heart melts and you want to cry. You hurt for a character and just want to cuddle them and hold them and cry with them. Its just that kind of book.
Oh, this book. I started it the day that I found out the author had died -- I'd kept meaning to get to it, and that seemed as good a time as any.

I don't know what I expected, but it... wasn't this. Geek Love is about a family of "circus freaks" -- the Binewski clan, where each child was borne of love and a new cocktail of drugs an albino hunchback little person (and our narrator); conjoined twins; a boy with flippers instead of hands or feet; and one normal-looking child who was almost abandoned. The plot jumps between the past and the present; the reader gleans a portrait of a family brought together with fierce love and loyalty and torn apart by jealousy and fear.

Geek Love isn't a perfect book (I was disappointed with the subplot involving Miss Lick; it seemed underdeveloped), and it's not one that I feel like I can recommend lightly, nor to most readers, but it does tell an amazing story that put me through an emotional wringer, leaving my heart thumping or with tears in my eyes, and every emotion in between. It's about the meaning of family, love, and (blind) devotion, and it's unlike any other family saga I've read.

I recommend it to anyone who has read this review and remains intrigued. It's not an easy book, or a light book, or a book of happy endings, but it is amazing, and worth the effort.

Started May 13, 2016
Finished May 21, 2016

Rating 9/10