- Hardcover: 360 pages
- Publisher: Hamish Hamilton Ltd (31 Aug 1989)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0241126274
- ISBN-13: 978-0241126271
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,688,336 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
If Flannery O'Connor has consumed vast quantities of LSD, she might have written like this. (LITERARY REVIEW )
A book of bizarre and brutal beauty, guaranteed to wring from you horror and heartbreak by turns... (COMPANY )
Riveting and extremely well-crafted. There's a real philosophy behind it where it actually touches on the profound. (MARGARET FORSTER )
A novel that everyone will be talking about, a brilliant, suspenseful, heartbreaking tour de force. (PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
A book of bizarre and brutal beauty, guaranteed to wring from you horror and heartbreak by turns... (COMPANY )
Riveting and extremely well-crafted. There's a real philosophy behind it where it actually touches on the profound. (MARGARET FORSTER )
A novel that everyone will be talking about, a brilliant, suspenseful, heartbreaking tour de force. (PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Product Description
The story, lurid, lyrical, half-mad, of Mister Binewski, Crystal Lil and their bizarre offspring, a home-bred freakshow: Arturo the flipper boy, Siamese twins, the dwarf Albino and Fortunato the boy with psychokinetic power. A very strange parable of family happiness.
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First Sentence
When your mama was the geek, my dreamlets, Papa would say, she made the nipping off of noggins such a crystal mystery that the hens themselves yearned toward her, waltzing around her, hypnotized with longing. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
When your mama was the geek, my dreamlets, Papa would say, she made the nipping off of noggins such a crystal mystery that the hens themselves yearned toward her, waltzing around her, hypnotized with longing. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book restored my faith in modern fiction. If you're sick of writers with their heads up their own posteriors writing about how difficult is is to be a rich, succesful writer READ THIS. If this book had been written in the 1930s-50s it would be a Classic read alongside Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Greene etc. If Russell Hoban, James Thurber, Joe Orton and William S Burroughs had got together to write a book it might have been something like this - but probably not as good. It is usually a mistake to try to explain the plot to anyone because it just sounds like some sort of disgusting freak-fest that should only appeal to teenage boys. I just insist that people read it and 99% of them have been hooked from the first page. Dunn writes as though the characters are real people to her - so they appear real to us. The book has a sort of contagious magic about it, I felt happy for a week after finishing it, but it was a "sad" happiness; I had lost the wonderful world I had been drawn into but I felt changed by the experience (a cliche, but true). I thought I would never again feel like I did as a teenager when discovering Graham Greene, or Tolkein, or CS Lewis, or E Nesbitt, but Geek Love made me fall in love with books again. Just one warning: if you read it you will want to buy 10 more copies for your best friends - so it could end up being expensive. Katherine Dunn is truly a genius.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I really cannot recommend this book highly enough. I was completely drawn in to the story and could hardly put it down. Very clever and original and I will definitely seek out further offering from this wonderful author.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I first heard about this book via a song called 'Geek Love' by a band called Bang Bang Machine. (as far as I'm aware, the song is based on the book) The song talks of what is to 'love but never be loved'. Years later I came across the book, and from the minute I picked it up I couldn't but it down.
It really does explore the nature of human relationships - of love, of family, and of societies non-acceptance of anything not of the 'norm'. Katherine Dunn really has written a powerful account of what it is to love somebody/something and never really be loved in return. And although the book is centered around 'geeks' it tells a story of human emotion that everyone - even perfect looking humans can relate too.
It really does explore the nature of human relationships - of love, of family, and of societies non-acceptance of anything not of the 'norm'. Katherine Dunn really has written a powerful account of what it is to love somebody/something and never really be loved in return. And although the book is centered around 'geeks' it tells a story of human emotion that everyone - even perfect looking humans can relate too.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Love is the word.
I was told to read this book and after reading the back cover I wondered what on Earth I had got myself into. I changed my mind after reading the first page. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Smeatooo
Almost perfect
This book has inspired me to write my first ever amazon review, as I loved it so much that the one issue I had with it disappointed me greatly. Read more
Published 22 months ago by RuthB
Far from Ordinary
This book is about Art and Lily Binewski, a couple who decide that through genetic experimentation they can create a family of circus freaks. Read more
Published on 16 Jan 2010 by Kelly Irish
Please write more books, Ms Dunn
A fantastic book. It's been a few months since I read it, but I also remember, like one of the other reviewers, feeling sad that I would soon have finished it, but not being able... Read more
Published on 9 Dec 2008 by Mrs. J. Vartholomeou
Geeks Know a Thing or Two About Love
I really wanted to love this novel, especially because it was my choice for this month's Book Club. The premise is brilliant: a bald, albino dwarf by the name of Olympia Binewski... Read more
Published on 18 May 2008 by Oliver Redfern
My favourite book ever.
I cannot say enough beautiful things about this book. I honestly can say it moved me in a way no other book has ever done it. Read more
Published on 25 Aug 2004
A stunningly fantastic read
I was recommended this book by a work colleague and I'll listen to her recommendations again. An absolutely fantastic story, poignant and extremely funny. Read more
Published on 4 Feb 2003 by Alex Lamb
En- gross-ingly Beautiful
This book was recommended to me by Amazon. It took me a few weeks and searches to actually buy it. I'm so glad I did as it was the most terrifyingly original book I think I have... Read more
Published on 20 April 2001 by "cidersand"
Undiscovered Classic
When i tried to describe this book to a friend, her first reaction was predictable 'gross!' then i let her read it and she soon saw the brave and intelligent exploration of human... Read more
Published on 1 May 1999
Extraordinary insight into the formation of the human psyche
Almost no-one has read this book, but it is at least as fine as many well-known modern classics.
The heroine, daughter of a wealthy Boston family, runs away and marries a circus... Read more
Published on 20 Mar 1999
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