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Frankissstein

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Frankissstein

2019 | Fiction & Poetry | LGBTQ+ | Science Fiction/Fantasy

***LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019***

From 'one of the most gifted writers working today' (New York Times) comes an audacious new novel about the bodies we live in and the bodies we desire

In Brexit Britain, a young transgender doctor called Ry is falling in love – against their better judgement – with Victor Stein, a celebrated professor leading the public debate around AI.

Meanwhile, Ron Lord, just divorced and living with Mum again, is set to make his fortune launching a new generation of sex dolls for lonely men everywhere.

Across the Atlantic, in Phoenix, Arizona, a cryonics facility houses dozens of bodies of men and women who are medically and legally dead… but waiting to return to life.

But the scene is set in 1816, when nineteen-year-old Mary Shelley writes a story about creating a non-biological life-form. ‘Beware, for I am fearless and therefore powerful.'

What will happen when homo sapiens is no longer the smartest being on the planet? Jeanette Winterson shows us how much closer we are to that future than we realise. Funny and furious, bold and clear-sighted, Frankissstein is a love story about life itself.

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Jeanette Winterson
Published by Penguin Random House/ Jonathan Cape
Literary Fiction

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Images And Data Courtesy Of: Penguin Random House/ Jonathan Cape.
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ClareR

Added this item on Aug 6, 2019

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ClareR (5824 KP) rated

Aug 6, 2019  
Frankissstein
Frankissstein
Jeanette Winterson | 2019 | Fiction & Poetry, LGBTQ+, Science Fiction/Fantasy
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
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A novel with a lot to think about!
I feel a sense of satisfaction having finished this book. I loved it, and I can really see why it has made the Booker Prize longlist (2019).
It is set in two different timelines. The first begins in 1816 with Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley (actually, before they were married), Lord Byron, Mary’s stepsister and Byron’s lover, Claire Clairmont and Polidori, Byron’s doctor. During a particularly wet two weeks on Lake Geneva, Byron sets them all the task of writing a horror story. And so Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is born.

In the modern day, we follow Ry Shelley, a transgender doctor, Victor Stein (a ‘mad’ scientist), Ron Lord (a very successful sexbot producer), Clare (a staunch Christian, who seems to be working undercover in the most unlikely places!) and Polly Dory (a journalist for Vanity Fair. Do you see what she did here? It took me a couple of ‘chapters’, sadly! This is the Frankenstein of the modern age. Where Mary Shelley was terrified at the idea of creating a living man from parts of the dead, Victor Stein in the present day wants to preserve the brains and thoughts of the dead - and it’s equally terrifying.

Mary Shelley and Ry Shelley are very similar (the same, but in different times?) characters, even though they are in two very different times. Mary is at the mercy of her female body - she falls pregnant and loses two babies before she has the third who survives. Ry is trying to change his body from female to male so that he has control over it. But society has very fixed ideas about these characters in both timelines.

It’s a very current book with mention of Brexit and Trump, but I think it will hold up well in the future because it is so well written, and it has a lot to say about society and gender.
I thoroughly enjoyed it - and now I’m going to go and find more books in Jeanette Wintersons back catalogue!

Many thanks to Penguin Random House/ Jonathan Cape and NetGalley for a copy of this book (which I actually went and bought as well - it needs to be sat on my bookshelf!)
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