Katherine Dunn (1) (1945–2016)

DNF. I’m not doing that to myself.

I asked my Facebook friends for book recommendations and added every one of them to my Want to Read list. This was recommended by someone I hardly know, who I now realize has far different tastes in books than I. (I have now removed this person’s other suggestions from my list. No hard feelings. Just very much not for me.)

Let’s just say I was expecting this to be a cutesy romance novel about nerds. I forgot about the antiquated origins of the word “geek.”… (meer)

Self-avowed bookworms will likely relate to the following dilemma. I always feel a slight sense of shame when I think back on a book that I ranked as 4 or 4.5 stars a couple years earlier but can barely recall the plot or any characters. My hunch is that this won’t happen with “Geek Love.” The incredibly strange storyline, built around a cast of bizarre characters (we’re talking about a hunchback, conjoined twins, a boy with flippers for hands and feet, among others) will most certainly stay with me beyond the 2020s. The themes are compelling. Dunn nudges readers to ponder the question of what is normal and to explore unusual family bonds. In the case of the Binewski family, a troupe of carnival performers, their “contact with norms (normal people) was in dashes and flashes.” I can understand why many readers were turned off — even repulsed — by some aspects of this peculiar saga. But it worked for me, keeping me engaged, curious and even morbidly entertained for the most part. So why not a 4.5 or even 5 star rating? “Geek Love” seemed to lose its footing in the final chapters. Candidly, I was ready for the story to end at least 50 pages before its dramatic conclusion. But when this strange yarn finally ended, the literary journey was time well spent.… (meer)