Shudderingly Good!

I admit I am biased about this book. I read it as a teenager and it was one of my formative experiences. However, I would not be so biased if it were not genuinely great. This is a novel which plumbs parts of human experience that are not usually dealt with so bluntly. For example, it has things to say about body anxieties that are almost unheard today. And it has one of the best portrayals of the concept of the horror of the ordinary that I have ever seen. It is what I point to when I want to explain that concept to people who have never felt it.

Let me put it this way, I have read this book at least five times in the last five years. Then I downloaded this audiobook, and I have listened to it twice in the last two weeks. It is just that good.

If you are not in the mainstream, if you are a freak, you owe yourself this book. Really.

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29 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

A Must!

I have been waiting for 3 years to get this book on Audible! I'm not into books about the circus or the people in them but this isn't a "circus" book. (If you've read "Water for Elephants" I consider that a book about the circus and not terribly interesting.) This book is about being human and how we treat others when all we see is the outward appearance and don't consider the person on the inside. Katherine Dunn has created a menagerie of characters that defy your imagination. They are so real yet your mind will shutter at the thought of their actual existence. I can't recommend this book enough to everyone who loves literature, great literature. I had my book group read this and they couldn't believe how much they loved it and how much we continue to bring it up year after year. If you ever saw or know about the Showtime series "Carnival," I recommend that as a tame yet wonderful companion. The only negative thing I have to say is that Katherine Dunn doesn't have a book for you to read after this!

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15 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Unpredictable

This was a captivating book. I hated to arrive at work or at home because I would have to stop listening and get on with real life. The characters in this book were so abnormal, but they became a real family as time went on. Just when I thought it couldn't get any more strange, something else would happen. It was a little disconcerting at the very beginning, but once I got into it and really listened to the characters, not just thinking about how insane it was to manufacture a freak show, I enjoyed the book and the relationships very much. I do recommend this book.

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14 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Bizarre - Captivating - Intense!

I just finished listening to this book and am missing it already - I loved the ending but I didn't want it to end! If you are squeamish or averse to foul language then prepare to be horrified - if you are a bit twisted and used to graphic detail then prepare to be horrified as well (in the best way possible!) The story is intricate and chock full of sub-plots that move along at a perfect pace with the overall plot line. The narrator does a great job of relating the personalities and feelings of the characters, although the male voices are a bit off (however it's hard to fault a female narrator for not being able to pull off deep male voices with great success). Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will definitely be checking out other titles by this author.

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13 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

'Geek Love' Lives Up to Its Reputation

'Geek Love' is a rare piece of fiction, one that lives up to its highest praise and proves wrong its detractors. Of all the novels and stories I have read that are included in the growing cannon of "transgressive fiction", 'Geek Love' is both the greatest of those works, and the one that is most truly transgressive. It is a novel that explores what it means to be a freak. What is a freak? Who makes somebody a freak? How does a person become a freak? What is the life of a freak like? Do freaks love? Why are so-called normal people both repelled and grotesquely attracted to freaks? Katherine Dunn explores all of these questions and more with a refreshing candor and a remarkable amount of compassion.

Aside from being a powerful exploration of freakdom, the novel is also the chronicle of a family that is, in their own highly unorthodox way, as all-American as any other. As I listened, I experienced both the thrill of their rise and the pain of their disturbing disintegration.

Where Christina Moore, the narrator of this title, is concerned: I do not think I have ever heard a more lively or enthralling performance of an audiobook. Christina Moore brings each character to life through changes in pitch, cadence, tone, and diction. Her voice captures and conveys perfectly the range of emotions felt by the characters and draws the listener into the story, appropriately enough, like a slick and experienced pitch-man.

After listening to the final words of this novel, you may be disturbed, you may be heart-broken, but you will most definitely not be the same as you were when you started. That is a guarantee from my lips to your ears. So plunk down your two bits and step on in because you won't believe what you're about to see.

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11 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Intriguing story but not gripping

This book took me forever to finish. It was an incredibly different, and strange, book but it definitely dragged on in spots for me. Frequent time/plot changes didn't help. You'd get involved in the story of the main character's adult life issues with her daughter, and then it would go back to her childhood for hours, so hard to stay involved at times and tough to keep characters straight. However, very thought-provoking and a different way to look at life, but full of a lot of characters who were 'ugly' inside so at times hard to feel a lot of sympathy. Overall, I'm glad I listened to it, but I didn't feel good at the end.

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9 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Terrible!!

Would you try another book from Katherine Dunn and/or Christina Moore?

Not a chance. I think the writing was terrible. The characters were too poorly written for me to have any interest in what happened to them. I feel that the author was using the grotesque to sell books. I was actually upset by the time wasted listening to this thing.
Clearly, many people like this book. It is not for me.

Would you be willing to try another one of Christina Moore’s performances?

Nope. I feel like the voices were over done and really hard to listen to.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Funny question! Mostly anger and disappointment.

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6 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Love it!

i thought this book was brilliant, terrible, awfully, at times painfully brilliant. Ms. Moore has a lovely voice and tells the story beautifully.

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6 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

almost dnf

Story line jumped around. Writing went from bare bones descriptions to gross overuse of adjectives. Plus none of the characters were at all likeable.

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4 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

There is nothing out there like this amazing book.

This is my most favorite book in the entire world and this fourth or so reread of it did not change my opinion. GEEK LOVE, written in the ’80’s, satisfies all of my reading needs. It is character driven, the plot is highly disturbing and it always hurts my heart even when I know what is coming but I LOVE it so very much.

I could tell you all about the plot and the dastardly and innocent characters that inhabit the pages but this book is something you must experience on your own. The twists and the turns should come as a surprise and a terrible shock to the system or you won’t get to live out the full impact hidden within the pages of Geek Love. I will only say that it is most definitely not a romance, despite its name, and that it might crawl under your skin and stay there for a very long time. Give it a read and tell me what you think!

The audiobook version I listened to was narrated by Christina Moore and I thought she did the story justice, imbuing the words with innocence and with rage and despair and narcissism when called for and it was called for often!

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4 les gens ont trouvé cela utile