Rating: 
Summary: Enthralling & Disturbing
Review: i loved this book. as a writer i often found myself jealous of the way in which ms. dunn turns a phrase. as a reader i was completely consumed by this other world. the children of the binewski fabulon live in an enclosed world where the "norms" as they refer to the general public don't have much influence over their moral compass or ideals. this can be good for some but in the case of this family, all of thier inbread strangness and poison riddled genetics has terrible effects on the psyche of all involved. however i often found myself wondering about the characters who entered the situation and played along in the insanity. my only conclusion was that arty -- and really the whole carnie life -- was so powerful it sucked others into its reality. arty's meglomania completly consumes the will of all those around him and you find yourself hating him for being this way and angry with the family for enabling him. you have no choice but to get emotionally invested in these characters and they will live in your mind long after the book is done.
Rating: 
Summary: Great writing, okay story
Review: Katherine Dunn has chosen her narrator well. Oly, the hunchbacked albino dwarf daughter of a carnival huckster, has inherited her father's gift for gab and delivers the story with a swaggering, teasing style that draws you ever deeper into the darkness of her tale. There are really two stories being told here. The most important story is the tale of the Binewski's, the carnival family comprised of freaks, and the way the tightly knit family is slowly torn apart my the meglomania of one of the siblings, Arturo the Aqua Boy. Sibling rivalry is never more ugly as Arturo competes with his siamese twin sister Elly and Iphy to be the star attraction of the carnival. Not content with achieving superstar status and being worshipped by his fans, Arturo subjects Elly and Iphy to horrors I won't describe here, but which are about as vile as any villiany I've ever seen in any book. It's gripping in its awfulness, but there are times when I had difficulty believing anyone would go along with his terrible plans. The mother and father of the freaks, who start off as strong characters, become weak puppets in Arturo's scheme, and I'm never exactly sure why. There is a secondary, framing story regarding the dwarf in the present day trying to save her daughter from the schemes of a rich woman who gets her kicks by mutilating women. It's okay, but not as compelling as the carnival story arc. When Arturo and the Twin's story ended, I lost interest in the three chapters that follow to wrap up the present day framing story. The ending was deeply unsatisfying to me. I thought for a moment the story would have a twist ending, but it ends very predictably, and, I thought, pointlessly. Still, the power of the writing, the energy and daring, make this book well worth investing time in.
Rating:
Summary: Geek = Freak
Review: jumping back and forth from the past to the present, this is a story of being estranged and the weird bond shared by an even weirder family. the narrator takes you on a trip that is either so grotesque or so relateable, you are left feeling somewhat calmed and comforted despite the very obvious differences between the "normal" reader and the "freakish" book.
through the eyes of an albino hunchback dwarf, you get to know the inner workings of a traveling carnival, specificly the freak show. the trips to the past are full of crazy obstacles and the excerpts from the present act as a where-are-they-now aide. entertaining!
Rating:
Summary: literary gem
Review: Geek Love is one of the few books that has simultaneously satisfied my taste for intelligent writing and all things twisted. I have yet to find a book of similar caliber. Katherine Dunn's creativity and wit shine through in this raw examination of human nature. Connoisseurs of dark comedy will not be dissapointed.
Rating:
Summary: liberation in being loathsome
Review: A wild and wicked satire. Its inspired lunacy shines from the moment we meet the parents who decide to breed their own freak show, starring children conceived to be "defective" by design.
Author Dunn was ahead of her time with this spin on a genetically engineered master race--it is only recently that all couples could avail themselves of genetic technology in the pursuit of perfect babies.
Then, paradoxically (as was the case in Tod Browning's film "Freaks,") we see how decency abides in the deformed while so many of the "normal" characters are invisibly stunted or warped.
I generally avoid fiction like the plague (altho I enjoy Francine Prose, Ayn Rand, E.L. Doctorow and Judith Rossner). If you read and loved Jerzy Kosinski's "The Painted Bird," (YOU MUST READ IT) or Nabokov's "Lolita," you will pick up on Dunn's sensibility.
GEEK LOVE the best novel I have read in the past 20 years.
Rating:
Summary: Step right up...
Review: "Geek Love" is a novel that deals with the psychological vacuum found in cults and certain closed-set families. "Geek Love" tells the story of the Binewskis, a traveling carnival clan comprised of "norm" parents Lil and Al and their genetically-"encouraged" sideshow children. There's Arty, a.k.a. the Amazing Aquaboy, born with flippers for arms and a terrible case of the Napoleon complex; Elly & Iphy, the beautiful Siamese twin piano players joined at the waist (two hearts and one sex); Chick, the outwardly normal, overly-exploited telepath; and Olympia, the albino dwarf who narrates the story for the benefit of her daughter, Miranda, a "norm" fortunate enough to have been born free of the insular Binewski madness. The Binewskis are societal outcasts, always on the road, so the only constant they have to take root in is one another. Since their soil bed is so incestuously self-contained, it's not long before strange things start to grow. Arty, an angry, flippered ball of spite and jealousy, soon elbows his weak-minded parents out of the picture to become the new leader of the carnival family. Before long, he calls all the shots, and has everyone quivering in his tiny, mewling shadow. A little power isn't enough for the insatiable Arty, though, and he goes on to found his own quasi-religious cult, Arturism. The legions of Arturists willingly sacrifice their limbs to surgical amputation as a means of becoming more like their leader. Dunn cleverly implies that this insanity has as much to do with the cultists' burning need to follow as it does with Arty's fierce and oily charisma as a leader. The albino dwarf Olympia's unconditional love for her brother Arty is one of the most disturbing elements of the novel-especially since, as narrator, she's the character in which the reader is most closely enmeshed. In the Binewski universe, the bitter and nasty Arty not only assumes the role of god, but also becomes the object of romantic love for his younger sister. Olympia's need to love proves stronger than her need to see things clearly. The worse Arty's behavior progressively becomes, the more eager she is to excuse it. It's terribly frustrating as a reader to find yourself slowly pulled deeper and deeper into the claustrophobic heart of codependency. Olympia's narration comes to feel like a hypnotic meditation on the cruelty of attachment. But what makes "Geek Love" ultimately so compelling and terrifying is the familiarity of it all. There's something a little too universal about the vacuums and the emptiness that Dunn describes in this novel. I challenge any reader not to see some objectionable aspect of their own life reflected in this book. The ugly human behavior and emotion on display in "Geek Love" are the sort we'd rather publicly disown. So why is it we all end up lining up outside the tent with our money in hand, ready to take a good, long gawk?
Rating: 
Summary: Fence Sitting
Review: Geek Love is such an original work. It can't really compare it to anything else I have read. Others have outlined the outrageous story line here, so I don't feel the need to go into that. GL is one of the most challenging books I have ever read as far as just getting through it. I really had to struggle to complete it (and, honestly, I probably wouldn't have but my book club is reading it). The prose is brilliant, horrifying and hysterical. The down side? For me, I grew so accustomed to the gross-out freak factor that ultimately, I was pretty bored. I wanted more about Olympia and her pig-tailed daughter. I grew tired of the endless family drama scenes. Every book has to have its villain, right? But Arturo, the older controlling brother wore me out with his pseudo guru teachings. And Dunn really didn't have a good way of killing her characters off. There are many deaths in this book, but only one moved me (and I don't want to spoil anything for those intending to read it). I suppose that if one is into the most offbeat novel they can find then look no further. My fence-sitting on this book is because I can see how people could argue that this is a masterwork and how others could argue that it's a piece of trash. Both points are valid. But for me, ultimately, I was bored and wanting to get to something easier, more fun to read and more insightful than this offering gave me. And, I would not feel compelled to read any more from this author.
Rating:
Summary: A resounding yes...
Review: I came across this book by chance, a strange find my mother made at the local used shop which she mailed to me at home. I admit it, I was pulled in by the slightly malevolent and yet strangely enticing cover. But, once I started, I couldn't put this book down until I had read it straight through over the course of an entire day. Our story takes us to the rather seamy side of the Binewski Carnival Fabulon, where side-show exhibits are bred lovingly, the stranger the outcome, the more special the child - Papa Binewski's own rose garden, bred intentionally for beauty and exoticness. The major players are Siamese-twins, a midget albino hunchback (the narrator and purportedly least special of all the children), a flipper boy (Arturo the Aqua-boy), and the youngest child whose special trait lies unseen but always seething under the surface. Minor players include a dancer with a pig tail, the World's Fattest Baby, and a motley assortment of circus geeks, red heads, and fire-eater types. As the story unfolds it becomes progressively darker, the ambitions and neuroses of each of the family members leading them to become pitted against one another. As many reviewers before me have pointed out, this is not a happy story, but it is one hell of a wild ride and I would suggest it to a friend in a heart-beat. Provided, of course, that you are not afraid of clowns and circuses do not scare you. The writing style itself is for the most part eerily beautiful, but I found the ending to be extremely weak, feeling as though it had been thrown together at the last moment as if to meet an editor's deadline. It did not sound or flow the same way the rest of the book had - while it logically fit in with the rest of the story, the writing itself sounded very different and out of place, rushed, where everything else had been treated carefully and with time. I have not yet gotten around to reading any of Dunn's other works, but I look forward to having the chance one of these days.
Rating: 
Summary: I thought I was going to love this book ...
Review: but I didn't. I got the point, and I think the premise was ingenious, but it was such a wierd and twisted story about dull, self-indulgent, and mean-spirited characters (Oly excepted, mostly) that I just couldn't make myself care about it. I'm no stranger to either the wierd or twisted, but there just wasn't much to like in "Geek Love". Unlike my book group, which hated this book so much that not only didn't read it, they didn't even show up to complain about it (most unlike them), I found it compelling enough to finish. I kept hoping for a flash of wisdom or true beauty, but Dunn didn't deliver. Maybe my expectations were too high. I was sort of hoping that this would be another "Ballad of the Sad Cafe" and it so wasn't.
Rating:
Summary: wow.
Review: My god. I just finished this book yesterday and am still thinking about it. This (second to maybe John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany) might be the best work of fiction I've ever read. It was recommended for me because of my fascination with teratology and freakshows, and I was expecting some trite little biography about a geek or a pair of Siamese twins. Geek Love is NOT that. It's all my dreams and nightmares put into someone else's words. My only criticism is, I wish it were longer.
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