![]() ![]() When she presented this new manuscript, it was rejected by several different publishers, undoubtedly taken aback by its intensely grim humor and vicious introspection. ![]() She had not yet written Geek Love, but had published two novels to zero acclaim and nonexistent sales. But what a lot of the world wanted most was another novel from that extraordinary voice and lovingly twisted mind.ĭunn passed away in 2016 without finishing her long-promised boxing ode, The Cut Man, but her collected papers, currently housed in Special Collections at Lewis & Clark College, revealed a novel, Toad, that she’d written in the early ’70s when she was newly returned to Portland after an international romantic jaunt. Its black comedy, endless heartbreak, unforgettable characters, and emotional violence presented both dispassionately and lyrically won devotees around the word, including Hollywood. It described the indescribable and imagined the unimaginable. ![]() Nominated for a National Book Award, Geek Love threw a firecracker into the minds of a new generation of brainy outcasts. Sparkling as these were, the medium of fiction is where Dunn’s work transcends skill into magic. It’s been 34 years since the last novel by Katherine Dunn ’69 was published-the blockbuster success Geek Love-and in the meantime her fans have had to content themselves with a string of fascinating nonfiction on subjects from profanity to the mechanics of boxing. ![]()
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