This archive report was first published on 1 October 2019.
Published in October 2019, Jeanette Winterson's novel Frankissstein is a bold and playful exploration of the intersection of technology and humanity. The book has been described as 'talky, smart, anarchic and quite sexy', with a narrative that frequently breaks the fourth wall.
Winterson's novel is not without its predecessors. Ian McEwan's 'Machines Like Us' was published earlier in 2019, while the Iraqi writer Ahmed Saadawi updated Shelley's novel with dark grace in 'Frankenstein in Baghdad', published in English in 2018.
Winterson's approach is distinctly her own, however. The novel is anchored in soliloquies that wear their intent and erudition lightly, and is peppered with witty one-liners and aphorisms.
At its core, Frankissstein is a novel about the human condition, and the ways in which technology is changing our relationships and our understanding of ourselves. As the character Victor says, 'Humans will be like decayed gentry. We'll have the glorious mansion called the past that is falling into disrepair.'
