![]() ![]() I can understand why some people would consider it voyeuristic, but Geek Love provides no easy answers, only raising complex issues. It forces readers to question the assumptions that non-disabled people are “normal” and that disabilities are negative and deviate from the norm. ![]() As a disabled teenager, it was one of the only books I’d read where most of the characters have disabilities. This book reverses the typical non-disabled gaze, forcing us to see the circus performers from their own perspectives, not the spectators’. ![]() The Binewskis use words to describe themselves that would be considered ableist today, but that’s the point: they’re reclaiming them and taking pride in their identities. However, this book might be almost impossible to film or best left to readers’ imaginations.įor many readers, the subject matter is too controversial, bizarre, and shocking. Several directors have expressed interest in movie adaptations over the years. The family’s bonds are often fraught and complicated but remain close. Their brother Arty, born with flippers, becomes a cult leader. Parents Al and Lil Binewski deliberately genetically engineer their children to have rare disabilities and mutations, creating a family of circus “freaks.” They include the narrator Olympia, who has albinism and dwarfism, conjoined twins Elly and Iphy, and Chick, with no visible disabilities but telepathic powers. Katherine Dunn’s polarizing 1989 novel Geek Love, which was nominated for the National Book Award, tells the story of an unconventional family. ![]()
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