katherine dunn

"I was born three years after my sisters. My father spared no expense in these experiments. My mother had been liberally dosed with cocaine, amphetamines, and arsenic during her ovulation and throughout her pregnancy with me. It was a dissapointment when I emerged with such commonplace deformities. My albinism is the regular pink-eyed variety and my hump, though pronounced, is not remarkable in size or shape as humps go. My situation was far too humdrum to be marketable on the same scale as my brother's and sisters'. Still, my parents noted that I had a strong voice and decided I might be an appropriate shill and talker for the business. A bald albino hunchback seemed the right enticement toward the esoteric talents of the rest of the family. The dwarfism, which was very apparent by my third birthday, came as a pleasat surprise to the patient pair and increased my value. From the beginning I slept in the built-in cupboard beneath the sink in the family van, and had a collection of exotic sunglasses to shield my sensitive eyes" (8).

This is Olympia (Oly), the main narrator of the novel, explaining her family situation, the Binewskis, a carny family in the freak show business. I read that Tim Burton is planning to make a movie out of it. I wonder how he'll do it! "Geek love", a fascinating novel!