Katherine Dunn wrote literary fiction about outsiders, family and the uneasy boundary between performance and exploitation. Geek Love follows the Binewski family, carnival owners who deliberately use drugs and other substances during pregnancy in an attempt to produce children with unusual bodies who can become attractions. Narrated by Olympia, the novel traces sibling rivalry, cult-like devotion and the family business through grotesque and darkly comic situations. Dunn's other fiction and journalism cover very different subjects, including boxing, but Geek Love dominates her literary reputation. The novel is strange, disturbing and emotionally complicated, asking how people define normality, love and bodily difference without offering easy answers. It fits cult fiction, family saga and transgressive literary fiction. Geek Love is the essential entry and should be approached as intentionally unsettling rather than as conventional circus fantasy. Read more Less
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