The Binewskis live in a world of their own so much so that any abnormal behavior they exhibit is accepted by the reader (at least I did) as normal - the Binewski normal. What could possible go wrong in a family like this?īut without going into unnecessary details (and spoilers - you’d have to read it to get your fabulon ticket’s worth!), I just handpicked some bits and pieces of the story that struck me to the core. Olympia is an albino hunchbacked dwarf with a textbook case of middle child syndrome.Īnd Fortunato may be a “norm” on the outside but is actually a telekinetic force to be reckoned with. The father is the circus manager, the mother is a retired “wild woman” performer, and the children are products of experiments, deliberately designed to be born with abnormalities.Īrturo is aqua boy, and what he lacks in limbs he makes up for scales and flippers and megalomania.Įlectra and Iphigenia are conjoined twins who also happen to be very talented musicians. In this novel, there is not one, not two, but a whole family of geeks. In Katherine Dunn’s novel, a geek refers to circus folk in what, in this day and age, is usually referred to as a freak somebody with an abnormality who, instead of being ashamed by it, openly flaunts it, even makes a living out of it. The only type of geek I knew was the eyeglass-wearing, deodorant- not-wearing admin of a fandom website. The introductory line in itself already put me off with its use of “geek,” “dreamlets,” and “noggins,” all in one sentence. When I read the first few pages of “Geek Love,” I wasn’t sure I’d make it to the end. I just had to keep the momentum up, keep that magic realist train chugging. I didn’t know how badly I missed fiction until “The Master and Margarita” reopened for me an escape from the mundane. I was mostly reading non-fiction - the news, travel guides, spiritual reading books - cute childish attempts at becoming a better adult. ![]() In my one-and-a-half years’ stay in Dubai, I can probably count all the fiction I’d read with one hand. This book, but especially the scene of Satan’s Ball, reawakened in me a ravenous appetite for fiction once more. The 400-page novel took me a lot more time to read than was necessary, because my copy was heavily annotated (and I also found myself digging even deeper on certain characters and themes). I came across it in one of the many book recommendations I’d read online.Īt the time, I was in the middle of Mikhail Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita.” My raw, honest, and immediate reaction to Katherine Dunn’s “Geek Love.” So instead of passing off this blog as a book review, I will present this more as a reaction paper. I felt that, after all is said and done by literary canons leading all the way back to Plato, I have absolutely nothing significant to contribute. ![]() This is something I’d stopped doing after studying - and consequently being intimidated by - literary theories in the university. In what might as well be a break from tradition, I have decided to write about a book right after I finished reading it.
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