mlynes 's review for:

Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson

3.0

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A stunning first half that fizzes along both in ideas and story, I was completely absorbed. The prose is superbly judged. Then Winterson completely loses control of the narrative. The plot stalls and the ideas become a repetitive echo chamber. And then, as though grasping around for material, we are suddenly transported to various historical moments which are really there to make political comment. The ironic commentary on Brexit becomes tiresome, and the finale is spectacularly misjudged. At the half way mark I thought I was reading one of the books of the century, by three quarters I was skipping. This is not in the same class as Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Us. Not the first time the Booker has made a huge mistake.