Geek Love (1989) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

show spoilers

Summary edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

show spoilers

• Olympia Binewski (McGurk): Main character; an albino, hunchbacked, bald dwarf
• Arty: Arturo Binewski; Aqua Boy, master manipulator
• Chick: Fortunato Binewski; the "normal" Binewski kid
• Elly: Electra; one half of the Siamese twin sisters
• Iphy: Iphigenia Binewski; one half of the Siamese twin sisters
• Crystal Lil: Martriarch of the Binewski clan
• Papa: Al Binewski; patriarch of the Binewski clan
• Mary Lick: Daughter of Thomas Lick and heiress to a frozen dinner industry fortune
• Horst: The Binewski Fabulon's cat handler
• Norval Sanderson: A reporter
• Jonathan Tomaini: Iphy and Elly's piano teacher
• Miranda: Orphaned daughter of Oly "Hopalong McGurk" Binewski. Artistically talented, beautiful, and independent, but not deformed enough to be kept by the Binewski Fabulon.
• Zephir Mcgurk: An electrician and handyman for the fabulon.
• Vern Bogner: Add a description of this character.
• Dr. Phyllis: The resident physician of Binewski's fabulon. She is very clean and meticulous (always wearing white) but may be covering up her past.
• Mumpo
• Al Binewski: Owner of a traveling carnival.
• Olympia Binewski: The narrator of the story.
• Grandpa: His ashes ride in an urn at the head of the Fabulon's train of trucks and trailors.
• Crystal Lil Binewski: Al's wife and Olympia's mother.
• Alma Witherspoon: The first follower of the Arturans
• Arturo (Arty) Binewski: Also known as 'Aqua Boy'. Son of Al and Crystal Lil
• C. B. Ford
• Linda
• Thomas R. Lick: Father of Mary Lick
• Teddy
• Peggy
• Miz Z.: The new head administrator of the Arturans.
• Logan M.

Quotes edit see section history

• “But when I saw you lovely girls I thought to myself, maybe there's more to life yet”

• “Freaks are like owls, mythed into blinking, bloodless objectivity.”

• “There are those whose own vulgar normality is so apparent and stultifying that they strive to escape it.”

• “It is, I suppose, the common grief of children at having to protect their parents from reality. It is bitter for the young to see what awful innocence adults grow into, that terrible vulnerability that must be sheltered from the rodent mire of childhood.”

• “Grownups can deal with scraped knees, dropped ice-creams cones, and lost dollies, but if they suspected the real reasons we cry they would fling us out of their arms in horrified revulsion. Yet we are small and as terrified as we are terrifying in our ferocious appetities. We need that warm adult stupidity. Even knowing the illusion, we cry and hide in their laps, speaking only of defiled lollipops or lost bears, and getting a lollipop or a toy bear's worth of comfort. We make do with it rather than face alone the cavernous reaches of our skulls for which there is no remedy, no safety, no comfort at all. We survive until, by sheer stamina, we escape into the dim innocence of our own adulthood and its forgetfulness.”

• “There are those whose own vulgar normality is so apparent and stultifying that they strive to escape it. They affect flamboyant behavior and claim originality according to the fashionable eccentricities of their time. They claim brains or talent or indifference to mores in desperate attempts to deny their own mediocrity. These are frequently artisits and performers, adventurers and wide-life devotees. Then there are those who feel their own strangeness and are terrified by it. They struggle toward normalcy. They suffer to exactly that degree that they are unable to appear normal to to thers, or to convince themselves that their aberration does not exist. These are true freaks, who appear, almost always, conventional and dull.”

  Arty

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• It is, I suppose, the common grief of children at having to protect their parents from reality. It is bitter for the young to see what awful innocence adults grow into, that terrible vulnerability that must be sheltered from the rodent mire of childhood.

  Highlighted by 17 Kindle customers

• We need that warm adult stupidity. Even knowing the illusion, we cry and hide in their laps, speaking only of defiled lollipops or lost bears, and getting a lollipop or a toy bear’s worth of comfort. We make do with it rather than face alone the cavernous reaches of our skulls for which there is no remedy, no safety, no comfort at all. We survive until, by sheer stamina, we escape into the dim innocence of our own adulthood and its forgetfulness.

  Highlighted by 17 Kindle customers

• Grownups can deal with scraped knees, dropped ice-cream cones, and lost dollies, but if they suspected the real reasons we cry they would fling us out of their arms in horrified revulsion. Yet we are small and as terrified as we are terrifying in our ferocious appetites.

  Highlighted by 16 Kindle customers

• “The truth is always an insult or a joke. Lies are generally tastier. We love them. The nature of lies is to please. Truth has no concern for anyone’s comfort.”

  Highlighted by 13 Kindle customers

• If all these pretty women could shed the traits that made men want them (their prettiness) then they would no longer depend on their own exploitability but would use their talents and intelligence to become powerful.

  Highlighted by 10 Kindle customers

• The hope you get from religion is a three-ring, all-star hope because the risk is outrageous.

  Highlighted by 9 Kindle customers

• Just being visible is my biggest confession, so they try to set me at ease by revealing our equality, by dragging out their own less-apparent deformities.

  Highlighted by 9 Kindle customers

• There are parts of Texas where a fly lives ten thousand years and a man can’t die soon enough.

  Highlighted by 8 Kindle customers

• If you can change, you can also end. Death had always been a theory to me. Now I knew. The terror hurt good and I nursed it and played it like a loose tooth.

  Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers

• They thought to use and shame me but I win out by nature, because a true freak cannot be made. A true freak must be born.

  Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Mariposa
• Portland
• Carina
• Texas
• Oregon
• Boston
• Nebraska

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Family dynamics: Describe this theme.
• Beauty vs. Monster
• Religion and Power
• Fetishism
• Identity as Performative vs. Innate: How you perceive yourself as a person can vary between your performative and innate identifiers - personality traits, the actions you take, etc.
• Differences: What do you do when you are faced with someone who is so significantly different from yourself?

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Katherine Dunn (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Finalist - National Book Award
• Bram Stoker Award (Finalist, 1989: Novel)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Add a note to help parents select a book for a child.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Authors, A-Z › ( D ) › Dunn, Katherine
• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › United States
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Women's Fiction › Domestic Life
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Reading Group Guides

Books That Influenced This Book edit see section history