Novels from Jeanette Winterson are never dull. Her latest novel, Frankissstein, comes in two integrated parts. The first, in which Winterson, using Mary Shelley's voice, effectively relates Mary's backstory and the creation of Frankenstein, following the famous 1816 Lake Geneva gathering with Mary's lover, Percy, Lord Byron, John Polidori and Mary's stepsister Claire Clairmont. The second, and less successful part, is an exuberant, over-the-top, retelling of Frankenstein. Through an alternate past and present chapter framework, Winterson relates "the quintessential story, which is how we relate to one another".
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The modern version is told from the perspective of transgender medical surgeon Dr Ry (shortened from Mary) Shelley, who develops a relationship with celebrated AI brain specialist Professor Victor Stein. The reimagined leading characters include outrageous Welsh sexbot entrepreneur Rod Lord, echoing the Byron role, who is funding some of Victor's research, Polly D, a Vanity Fair journalist and Claire, an evangelical Christian. Winterson spends a lot of time documenting Rod's booming sexbot industry, allowing his voice to express her comments on contemporary society. Ron argues that with a sexbot behind every Catholic altar, there would be no need for priests to abuse orphans and choirboys. The AI sexbots come in every colour, race and size, including a 1970s feminist version called Germaine, but only "rented by masochists and a few University professors" .
Despite the subtitle, there is not much actual love about, although a form of love evolves after Ry begins an affair with Victor Stein. Like the sexbot descriptions, their relationship is decidedly unerotic, supplemented by the descriptions of Ry's physical transformations, including her much enhanced clitoris. Frankissstein could well be a leading contender for the 2019 British Bad Sex Book Award. Winterson emphasises the blurring distinctions between male and female. Gender fluidity and roles are explored as well as attempting to define what it is to be human, reflecting Mary Shelley's Victor. Winterson says she wanted to take readers into the "wild world of AI and robotics, which is going to happen without most people even realising that their entire universe has changed forever".
Like the 'monster' original, Frankissstein is a mixed body of parts. It's a heady, intoxicating mix, but one in which the narrative flow and coherence often lapses to accommodate the societal messages from Winterson. Victor, when accused of madness, responds what is sanity when we have "Poverty, disease, global warming, terrorism, despotism, nuclear weapons, gross and equality, misogyny and hatred of the stranger".
- Colin Steele is a Canberra reviewer.
- Frankissstein - A Love Story, by Janet Winterson, is published by Jonathan Cape
