Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

If you judged by the title, you would probably think that Geek Love was a romance about Dungeons and Dragons or hacking.  Yeah, it’s not.  I’ll tell you right now, there is little to no romance in this novel, and the word “geek” doesn’t mean what you probably think it means.  Did you know that the word geek used to mean a performer who bit the heads off chickens or other small animals?  Yeah, I didn’t.  It confused me a little at first.

Geek Love chronicles the life and trials of the Binewski family.  Having inherited a failing carnival from his father, Al Binewski decides to take matters into his own hands by genetically engineering his own freak show offspring.  Experiments on his wife with radiation and poisons yield up Arturo the Aqua Boy, Siamese twins Electra and Iphigenia, Olympia the hunchbacked albino dwarf, and Fortunato (otherwise known as Chick) whose specialties aren’t so immediately apparent.  We see the traveling carnival through Olympia’s eyes:  the redheaded girls who run the midway; the gradual transition of power from Al to Arty, as the Aqua Boy gains a faithful following of his own; the dueling personalities of the musical twins; Chick’s potentially devastating power counterbalanced by his wish to please everyone, and his fear of doing harm.  As the children grow up and the carnival begins to change, conflict mounts with Arty’s ambition to control every aspect of the carnival, including the lives of the people in it.

Dunn’s ability to make the reader feel for the characters was very impressive, although most of the characters were anything but lovable.  They all had very apparent flaws.  Arty was self-centered and controlling.  Elly had a hair-trigger temper.  Olympia was effectively a human doormat, and so was Iphy to a lesser degree.  Chick was extremely fragile and afraid of offending or hurting anyone, or even of allowing them to feel pain.  The reader begins to understand (if not agree with) each character on a personal level, and to feel for each one.  This is the type of book that will stick with you long after you’ve read the last page, and the characters will linger in the back of your mind for days, like paper ghosts.

Throughout the book, mingled with the character drama and poignant commentary on what truly makes a person freakish, is a steadily growing feeling of helplessness as the reader watches everything comfortable and familiar to the Binewskis slip away.  This is especially apparent from Oly’s viewpoint, as she seems to be the person who changes the least over the course of the story.  While the twins mature, Arty becomes more immersed in his amputee cult, Chick uses his supernatural talents to become a surgeon, and their mother Crystal Lil sinks into dementia, Oly keeps to her duties as the family workhorse.  At the ending climax, the reader finds himself wondering how things went so far off track.

I have to say that I adored this book.  However, even with as much thought and detail as was put into the rest of the novel, the ending was extremely abrupt.  The reader is left wondering, “Whoa, what happened?”  The entire climax is summed up in only a couple pages, with very little explanation given for the events that took place.  It segues awkwardly into a story that, up until that point, has been deliciously detailed and thoughtful.  It’s like ending a rich, gourmet meal with cheese-whiz on crackers.  It cheapened an otherwise wonderful piece of literature.

Other than the ending, I can’t say that I have any complaints against Geek Love.  It was a terrific, tragic tale.  I can see it becoming an all-time favorite in my library.