Geek Love Author Katherine Dunn Has Died At 70
LatestKatherine Dunn, the author of the darkly beautiful, disturbing, surreal carnival novel Geek Love, died on May 11 at age 70. Her son told Willamette Week the cause was complications from lung cancer.
Geek Love inspired legions of obsessive, devoted fans, many of whom became writers themselves. It tells the story of a traveling carnival family, the Binewskis, self-described “freaks” born with unique and bewitching bodily eccentricities made possible by their mother Lillian ingesting a variety of wild chemicals. The book begins as a dreamy, quirky, charming portrait of family life on the road and descends into rape, murder, despair and an obsessive cult centered around people who want to cut off their own limbs. It’s one of the best novels ever written, the kind of book that takes up perpetual residence in your dreams.
Born in Kansas, Dunn lived most of her life in Portland, Oregon. She wrote her first two books, Attic in 1970 and Truck in 1971, while she was traveling through Europe. In Ireland, she had a son, Eli Dapolonia, and returned home with him. She published Geek Love in 1983 and then became a bit of a mystery in the Harper Lee vein, not publishing a work of fiction for more than 25 years.
In 1989, Dunn announced another novel, the Cut Man, but despite several planed publication dates, it never appeared. A portion of it was published in the Paris Review under the title “Rhonda Discovers Art,” but it’s unclear whether the finished book will ever see the light of day. She mostly declined to discuss the book: “I don’t want to talk about it,” she told Willamette Week in 2000. “I’m too superstitious.”