Katherine Dunn, best known for her novel Geek Love, a National Book Award finalist, died last Thursday. She was 70 years old and besides two other novels, also published School of Hard Knocks: The Struggle for Survival in America's Toughest Boxing Gyms, a work of nonfiction that won the 2004 Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Award.
Published in 1989, Geek Love (available in paperback from Vintage) is the story of the Binewskis, a family of itinerant carnival owners. Al and Lil Binewski, the heads of the family, get the idea to integrate their business vertically and, through a regime of illegal drugs, poisons and radiation, breed their own sideshow. There is Arturo, the ruthless, megalomaniacal "Aqua Boy"; the beautiful, talented conjoined twins Elly and Iphy; Oly, the hunchback, albino dwarf and the book's narrator; and Chick, the kindhearted, outwardly normal boy who possesses the most powerful gift of them all. The novel jumps between two time periods: in the first, Oly recalls her childhood and the rise and fall of the Binewski clan; in the second, a much older Oly works to protect what little family she has left.
Readers who can stomach the darkness of Geek Love will find a cast of unique characters, splashes of dark humor and surprising moments of tenderness and warmth, all told through Dunn's incredible prose. --Alex Mutter