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A review by vacantbones
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
3.0
Well, I'm not too sure what I should say about this one because it seems like all that could be said has already been done. And I can absolutely see why - such a dark, twisted novel, full of loathsome and cruel characters, loaded with taboo subjects like incest, mutilation, deliberately birthing children with disabilities for the sake of running a freak show. . . There's a lot to unpack here.
I thought that Geek Love was beautifully written, and while I understand that many of the critiques surrounding this book have to do with the horror lurking in the minds of people like Arty or his minions, I was refreshed by the complexity of each character. At times I loathed our narrator, Olympia, but I was also able to empathize with the nature of her life and how it impacted her. I was pleased with the gradual undoing of the whole operation, told in a magnificent recap of events. But I also had a few problems with the book.
I'm guilty of having shifted my rating scale so that anything under a 4 is "meh," but I want to re-calibrate this scale for Geek Love. I am giving this 3 stars and saying that I enjoyed it and would recommend it. I didn't care for the present-day portions of the book - I liked that we had a window into the current lives of the characters, but I also thought that the way it was written slowed down my interest in the book. I strongly believe that we could've gotten a very similar, trimmed read if the author had only included 1 or 2 chapters from the present. I also wish that the pacing of the book had been a bit more escalated. The major events in the book had such wonderful impact (thinking specifically of the pain and tragedy that stems from the beginning of the Bag Man's story until the end), but at times I felt like they didn't match the more languid pace of the writing before it. This isn't to say that the book is boring , by any means, because it certainly isn't.
I feel like, love it or hate it, this book is so iconic and would say that everyone should give it a chance. You'll walk away with something, even if it is fury that you picked this one off the shelves.
I thought that Geek Love was beautifully written, and while I understand that many of the critiques surrounding this book have to do with the horror lurking in the minds of people like Arty or his minions, I was refreshed by the complexity of each character. At times I loathed our narrator, Olympia, but I was also able to empathize with the nature of her life and how it impacted her. I was pleased with the gradual undoing of the whole operation, told in a magnificent recap of events. But I also had a few problems with the book.
I'm guilty of having shifted my rating scale so that anything under a 4 is "meh," but I want to re-calibrate this scale for Geek Love. I am giving this 3 stars and saying that I enjoyed it and would recommend it. I didn't care for the present-day portions of the book - I liked that we had a window into the current lives of the characters, but I also thought that the way it was written slowed down my interest in the book. I strongly believe that we could've gotten a very similar, trimmed read if the author had only included 1 or 2 chapters from the present. I also wish that the pacing of the book had been a bit more escalated. The major events in the book had such wonderful impact (thinking specifically of the pain and tragedy that stems from the beginning of the Bag Man's story until the end), but at times I felt like they didn't match the more languid pace of the writing before it. This isn't to say that the book is boring , by any means, because it certainly isn't.
I feel like, love it or hate it, this book is so iconic and would say that everyone should give it a chance. You'll walk away with something, even if it is fury that you picked this one off the shelves.