Geek Love

The narrator of the story, Olympia “Oly” Binewski, describes her life growing up in a traveling carnival, the Binewski Fabulon. Her father—Aloysius, or “Al”—and mother—Lillian “Lil, Lily, or Crystal Lil”—deliberately bred their children to be carnival freaks through the prenatal administration of illicit drugs, poison, and radiation. The eldest child is Arturo, who was born with flippers instead of arms and legs and is known as Arty (or Aqua Boy in his carnival swimming act). Next came Electra and Iphigenia, or Elly and Iphy, who are beautiful Siamese twins joined at the waist and talented pianists. Oly is an albino dwarf hunchback who, because she is not sufficiently freakish, works as a barker to draw crowds to her siblings’ acts. The youngest child is Fortunato, who was born seemingly “normal,” so he had almost been abandoned as a newborn, but was saved when he displayed strong telekinetic powers. He is nicknamed Chick and is considered his parents’ masterwork. 

The chapter begins with the family in the trailer that serves as their living quarters. Al is telling the children the story of how he and Lil met. Al had inherited the carnival and Lil, formerly a proper Bostonian girl from a wealthy family, worked for him as a carnival geek (a performer who bites the heads off live chickens) and later as an aerialist.