Frankisstein by the great Jeanette Winterston, is a brilliant reworking of Mary Wolstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein, which retains both the gothic horror of the original and adds a wholly modern spin to the tale. Literary, queer, feminist and thought-provoking, Frankisstein was a fabulous read for late nights, while rain slammed against the window.

Jeanette Winterston, stands among the giants of 20th century literature.  Many lesbians of my generation read Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit as one of their very first experiences with “queer literature.” I actually saw the television drama based on the novel first. I didn’t read the book until years later, long after I had become familiar with lesbian writers from an earlier epoch. But when I saw that Winterston had a new novel, one that was an homage to Frankenstein (a novel with which I have a complex history, full of love and hate and irrelevant circumstance that colored my feelings about the book- even writing these sentences has triggered the most extraordinary set of memories and emotions within me,) I immediately put it on my to-read list. Then my dear friend Editor Ed suggested it to me, so I bumped it up the list. I’m so glad I did.

The book tells the same story in two bookend parts: Part one is a rainy sojourn by the shores of Lake Geneva, as Percy Bysshe Shelley and George Gordon, Lord Byon, midwife Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s birth of Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus (a subtitle which modern publishers seem to have dropped, which is not only a shame in terms of the novel’s genesis, but also is relevant to Winterston’s book.) The second part of the story takes place in contemporary setting, beginning at a tech Expo where Ry Shelley, a trans man, is involved with AI visionary Victor Stein and meets Ron Lord, a man who makes intelligent sexbots. Other characters are also given 21st century ciphers. Interstitially, we visit Bedlam, the infamous madhouse in London, built in the 13th century, for some fabulous multilayered storytelling.

These varied pieces are sewn together with crude, visible literary stitches – a phrase that took me solid minutes to write, despite its inevitability.  ^_^

My favorite scene is one that I consider the most fictitious – a magnificent scene in which Mary meets Ada Lovelace, the daughter of her old…friend(?)… Byron.  But what captured my heart was a conversation between Victor and Ry, when Victor asks if Ry likes his body and Ry replies, “Yes, very much. I had it custom-made for me.” I swooned.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

This book will appeal to the literary among you, and make you want to (re)read Frankenstein, (and possibly enjoy it this time), the writers among you, as it will inspire you to do literary fanfic, all the queer lit readers and feminists among you, which basically covers all my friends so if this book is not your boom, you’re obviously hate-reading Okazu. ^_^