Geek Love
By Katherine Dunn

Not geek as in computer geek. Geek as in person (woman, in this case) who bites the heads off chickens. And later doses herself with arsenic and radioisotopes in order to spawn her own family of sideshow freaks. Grotesque, yes, delightfully so, but also high art. (Geek Love was a National Book Award finalist.) I read this book back before there was an Internet. It made me insanely curious about the author. The detail was so knowing and explicit. Had she herself worked the midway of some dying roadside carnival? I awaited the next novel. It never came. I could Google her right now, but I prefer to preserve the mystery.