3 ratings (4.67 avg)
2 reviews

Petra McQueen

Add friend

http://petramcqueen.blogspot.co.uk/

Petra’s Bookshelves

to-read‎ (0)

currently-reading‎ (1)

read‎ (2)

http-wheredoallthedeadpeoplego-bl‎ (1)

Stats | More…

Petra is Currently Reading

Petra McQueen rated a book it was amazing

Geek Love

by Katherine Dunn

bookshelves: currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in July 2011

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Petra McQueen said: " ‘Geek Love’ is a repulsive book and I love it. Alf Binewski, owner of a travelling circus, gives his wife, Crystal 'Lil, a concoction of drugs aimed at making her have deformed babies. They are breeding their own ‘freaks’. Many of the babies die but ‘Geek Love’ is a repulsive book and I love it. Alf Binewski, owner of a travelling circus, gives his wife, Crystal 'Lil, a concoction of drugs aimed at making her have deformed babies. They are breeding their own ‘freaks’. Many of the babies die but those that survived have spectacular deformities: Olivia, the narrator, is a bald albino hunchback; the twins are co-joined and Arturo is born with a fin and flippers and no way of looking after himself. When Chick is born the family is disappointed at his normality and almost leave him at a petrol station until they discover he has paranormal powers and can move objects through space and suppress pain.

The strongest willed character in the family is Arturo. He uses his disability to become a main attraction and gives sermons. A cult movement gathers around him. People have operations so that they become just like Arturo and cannot fend for themselves. Later Arturo offers them lobotomies as a sure-fire way to forgetting their troubles.

The book is insanely overblown, but I return to it again and again. It is very well written. It took Dunn ten years to write, and although occasionally she misplays the gruesome aspects it is a fully believable novel. I also enjoy the philosophical and anthropological questions the book raises about why people behave as they do. Both Al and Arturo act like Gods. Al designs his children, loves them only if they are in his grand plan: much like my vision of the Old Testament God. Arturo is also god-like: tempting people with inertia and lack of responsibility. Is regression, slipping into the realm of babyhood, what we want more than anything? Someone to care for us no matter what?

Despite my best attempts to ignore it, the book also works for me at some subconscious level. My ambivalence about doctors and their capacity for giving life and death is tied up with my fascination of Al’s behaviour. Al made futures with little thought for the consequences. Maybe in Arturo I see a little of my brother. A tyrant in a wheelchair? Someone to love and fear for? And like the cult followers in the book, have I been drawn into the lobotomy of depression rather than face up to life as it is with all its cruelty and pleasure?

Maybe I am thinking too deeply – it is, after all, a bloody good story. ...more "

Jul 11, 2011 05:12AM · see review