Frankenstein

Last November, I downloaded Frankenstein by Mary Shelley for free from Barnes & Noble. Having never read the book, I chose the version deemed "unabridged and updated for modern readers." 

Appropriately for Halloween, my friend Lisa was reading it, and I was intrigued. 

Little did I know how my fascination would grow. I was about to take a deep dive, head first, down a Frankenstein rabbit hole.

The story was not at all what I expected when I finally began reading it this spring. The writing style is challenging as it is full of over the top Victorian sentiment, florid descriptions, and meandering sentences. I gave it a five-star review, with the following write-up on Goodreads, because of its formidable reputation. 

A classic piece of rambling, melodramatic, Gothic literature, so far removed from the Halloween-esque version of Frankenstein we’ve come to know. A ghost story indeed, about humanity's doomed attempts to play God.

I was very close to finishing the book when I went to visit Meredith and Andrew in Maine on Memorial Day weekend this year. It turned out to be rainy and cold, perfect for streaming two Frankenstein movies on Netflix. Our creature-double-feature began with Guillermo del Toro’s spectacular 2025 interpretation starring the new teen heartthrob Jacob Elordi as the monster. I loved it. 

[Later I was able to stream Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the 1994 film featuring Robert DeNiro, Kenneth Branagh, Helena Bonham Carter, and Tom Hulce, and I was not enamored by it at all, despite its obvious star power. Also, I still can't believe I've yet to view the Mel Brook's comedy Young Frankenstein, a spoof that brilliantly combines the Gothic horror and "monster mash" elements of the story.]

"I was working in the lab late one night

When my eyes beheld an eerie sight

For my monster, from his slab, began to rise

And suddenly, to my surprise . . ."

There are so many interpretations of this legendary tale, it makes my head spin. As I probed further, my desire to dissect all things Frankenstein started bordering on obsessive :) I had conversations with my son-in-law who had studied the book extensively in literature classes in college. Andrew recalled examining the themes of free will, grief, isolation, and hubris. Somehow I was never interested in stories about monsters and super heroes in school so I completely missed out learning about the rich literary and cultural significance of this genre. 

I was struck by how throughout the story, Victor Frankenstein refers to his creature by a variety of vile terms — dæmon, wretch, villain, devil, fiend — leaving the reader to ponder: "Who is the real monster in the tragic narrative?" The scientist's abandonment of his responsibility to nurture and educate his creation sets in motion the tragic trajectory of the plot. Caution, compassion, and care are integral components for humankind when asserting its dominance over the environment. A lesson just as important today as it was historically.

In addition, there is so much to unpack surrounding Mary Shelley’s esoteric life, the backstory of how and where the idea for Frankenstein was conceived, and the book's publishing history. First published anonymously in 1918 when the author was only 20 years old, it was speculated at the time that it was actually written by her fiancé, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. After his untimely death in 1822 at the age of 29, Mary republished a version she had revised. This reworking, published in 1831, addressed some of the criticism the original had received. In an introduction to the second edition, Mary challenged questions of authorship head-on. “It is not singular that, as the daughter of two persons of distinguished literary celebrity, I should very early in life have thought of writing…” 

Raised by parents who believed in free love and other scandalous ideas for the times, Mary and her half-siblings endured tumultuous upbringings. Her mother, the famous feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft, died only 11 days after giving birth to her daughter. Her father, William Godwin, a political philosopher and novelist known for his anarchist viewpoints, remarried when she was four years old. Mary's youth was not only marred by her own mother's early death but by a troubled relationship with her stepmother. Her romance with Percy Shelley, who was already married, was also a complicated affair. His first wife eventually committed suicide leaving behind two of the poet's children and being pregnant with a third. Only one of Mary and Percy Shelley's four children lived to adulthood, and Mary lost her own life to a brain tumor at age 53 in 1851. Grief and conflict seemed to follow her everywhere. 

Famously, it was in 1816 in Geneva, Switzerland that the concept of Frankenstein came to life. Mary and Percy Shelley, along with their infant son William, and Mary's stepsister Claire Clairmont were neighboring next-door to Villa Diodati, a mansion rented by renowned poet and man-about-town, Lord Byron and his personal physician, John Polidori. Trapped indoors during what came to be known later as The Year Without Summer, the group of five adults (Claire is often completely left out of the assemblage) socialized together extensively. One pastime included reading aloud volumes of German ghost stories, and spirited discussions centered on current events including medical advancements like reanimation. At one point, Byron challenged each guest to write their own ghost story. In her own words, Mary described her insecurity about being in the company of the esteemed male writers, and how one night a vivid waking dream led to her crafting the plot of her famous tale.

“I busied myself to think of a story—a story to rival those which had excited us to this task. One which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature, and awaken thrilling horror—one to make the reader dread to look round, to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart.“

Damn, she succeeded! Neither of the accomplished male poets produced anything of significance, but unbelievably, Polidori who was ruthlessly chastised by Byron and Shelley for his youth and literary inexperience, wrote The Vampyre (1819) and is credited with inventing the vampire genre. His life ended tragically two years later at age 25 (some say by suicide).

My favorite pleasant surprise during my journey into the bowels of Frankenstein has been the second movie screened during the Memorial Day weekend mini-film-festival in Maine—Maggie Gyllenhaal’s 2026, The Bride! starring Jessie Buckley (of Hamnet) and Christian Bale. 

What a wild ride it is with so many references to earlier renditions of the story as well as a nod to the 1930’s gangster culture of Bonnie & Clyde. I’ll end with this line that I love from a monologue by a disturbed and agitated Mary Shelley as the movie begins. She’s describing her compulsion to tell another story, perhaps about a bride…for her monstrous creation.

“Darlings, something is cracking. The words are beginning to come. Is it a ghost story? A horror story? Or most frightening of all, a love story?” 

Stay tuned for my next excursion into the world of Frankenstein...         

I'm currently reading Love & Other Monsters by Emily Franklin, a novel that explores the complex dynamics in Geneva during The Year Without Summer, including relationships between Mary Shelley and her sister Claire Clairmont, Percy Shelley and Lord Byron, as well as between Claire, Byron, and Polidori!

The Frozen River

I finished reading The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon the night Wayne called me out of the blue to tell me he was missing his dad. We had a nice conversation, and then I couldn't get back to sleep so I stayed up until 11:30 pm (late for me) to gorge on this book’s conclusion.

Reading this book was a multi-step process for me. The journey began when Lisa recommended it, and I immediately put it on hold at the library. After waiting a very long time for my turn, I was not initially super impressed with the writing. 

Phase 1: I was definitely drawn in by the vivid depiction of a harrowing scene in the beginning: a body violently traveling down an icy, turbulent river in 1789 Maine. The story is historical fiction, which I love, but with a torrid twist and a mystery. At first I thought it was written with  a bit too much sensationalism for my taste. I like my historical fiction dry and boring, just kidding. But this felt like I was reading a grisly, modern, true-crime chronicle.

Phase 2: To my astonishment, I discovered the novel was based on a real woman, who kept an actual written diary chronicling her life as a midwife during the early days of America. Some of the book is fictionalized because many of the journal entries are sparsely detailed, but it is still a compelling commentary on early American society.

There is a nonfiction account of this story titled A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary 1785-1812 that I started to read but ran out of time before my renewal was rejected. I hope to pick it up again and learn more about this earnest woman. Published in 1990 by historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, the book is a Pulitzer Prize winner. A documentary version of A Midwife's Tale was produced in 1997 by the PBS series, The American Experience. I'm very annoyed that I have to purchase the DVD on Amazon for $19 or subscribe to PBS Documentaries for $4.99/month in order to watch it.

Phase 3: Naturally I turned to other sources to uncover more about Martha Ballard and her diary. Cool fact from Wikipedia, "Under a 1668 Massachusetts law, midwives were often asked to pressure young unwed mothers into naming the father of the child in the throes of labor, an action which Ballard frequently participated in." Maine, of course, was part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony at that time.

The provenance of the original journal itself is interesting as it turns out it ended up in the hands of "Ballard's great-great granddaughter, Mary Hobart, one of the first female US physicians to graduate from the New York Infirmary for Women and Children in 1884, the same year that she received the diary."

Eventually the journal found its way to the Maine State Library where it was unearthed by the historian Laurel Thatcher Urlich who began to piece together stories by cataloging journal entries and cross-referencing with other documents, bringing to life the post-revolutionary world of Hallowell, Maine.

Here are a couple of quotes, in Martha's own words that demonstrate her thoughts about her record-keeping. In the beginning of her diary she states, "Memory is a wicked thing that warps and twists. But paper and ink receive the truth without emotion, and they read it back without partiality." Towards the end, she concludes, "Or maybe—if I am honest—it is because these markings of ink and paper will one day be the only proof that I have existed in this world." The writer in me certainly relates to both of those sentiments.

One final note that touches my heart as a writer and a lover of history.

"I want the world to remember that small acts, done in love, matter every bit as much as the ones that make the newspaper and the history books."

The Full Moon Coffee Shop

 

The Full Moon Coffee Shop: A Novel by Mai Mochizuki is a seriously strange story which is the genre I seem to be migrating towards lately. I ended up finishing it rather quickly, despite its quirkiness and the awkwardness of the translation from Japanese.

I feel like I had a hard time connecting with the characters, except for the astrology-spouting cats who were the proprietors of the mysterious Full Moon Coffee Shop. The premise of the story is that the coffee shop would appear out of the blue throughout the book allowing the human characters insight into their inner feelings, based on the astrological advice from the cats.

The wisdom of the cats who projected horoscopes into the night sky and referenced the zodiac signs, planets, and natal charts of the visitors to the shop, was responsible for putting in motion the novel’s happy ending. The story’s structure was a bit jarring because some key information wasn’t revealed until very near the end. 

The resolution seemed somewhat quick and contrived, and I’m actually left wondering if I missed something. Overall a unique read that has me wanting to revisit my own natal chart and review what planets reside in my celestial houses.

I finished reading this book on the plane to Sarasota, Christmas 2024!

Fairy Tale

Too long! If there is another world you get to by climbing down a spiral staircase in a backyard shed, I hope it’s more interesting than the one Stephen King has created in this Fairy Tale. 

While the reality-based part of the plot held my interest because I sympathized with the 17-year-old protagonist, once he descended down that staircase, I couldn’t suspend my disbelief enough to engage with the otherworldly events taking place. Even though I’m a huge fan of escaping from reality, I found myself wishing Charlie would just return to the real world and leave the abominable fantasy land behind.

Foster

When asked about his favorite writers at a talk I attended recently, Andre Dubus III, who wrote The House of Sand and Fog (which I loved) and (the more recent) Kindness, mentioned Irish author Claire Keegan, known for her emotionally penetrating short stories and novellas. Such high praise from Dubus led me to download Foster since Small Things Like These was unavailable. 

Sparse writing that is nonetheless saturated with a profound depth of sentiment and insight, is the hallmark of Keegan’s writing style. The portrayal of a family struggling financially forced to surrender one of their children to live with relatives is powerful and moving subject matter. I empathized with the child who describes her circumstance this way, “I am in a spot where I can neither be what I always am nor turn into what I could be.”

Edit 1/11/26: I just watched a sweet movie on Hulu called The Quiet Girl, based on this book. The film captures all the atmosphere and tension of the book, and the visuals provide even more context to the complex relationships between the characters. Closely following the plot of the book, the tender story’s poignant ending fills the viewer with empathy and melancholy.

 

Shades of Grey

Oh yeah, sometime in 2012 I read the first two books from the Fifty Shades Trilogy by E L James. One would have been enough. I paid too much money for them and read them on my iPhone because I just haaad to discover for myself, why, as this June 2012 Dailymail.co.uk headline screams 'Mommy porn' Fifty Shades Of Grey outstrips Harry Potter to become fastest selling paperback of all time!

Entertaining and titillating, for sure, but ultimately an over-the-top, guilty-pleasure read.


The SNL skit was funny, though.

My America / Dear America / My Name is America

In an attempt to jumpstart my job enthusiasm by investing myself in the curriculum, I decided to brush up on some Revolutionary War historical fiction during our winter break. I brought home three selections from our school library.

1. Five Smooth Stones: Hope's Revolutionary War Diary by Kristiana Gregory LEXILE 640


2. The Winter of Red Snow: The Revolutionary War Diary of Abigail Jane Stewart by Kristiana Gregory LEXILE 870


3. The Journal of William Thomas Emerson: A Revolutionary War Patriot by Barry Denenberg LEXILE 950

Stones is the account of nine-year-old Hope living in Philadelphia spanning from January 15 to December 27, 1776. It is a is a quick, easy read with historical references to George Washington, General William Howe, King George, Thomas Paine's Common Sense, Patriots, Tories, Quakers, the Continental Congress, Declaration of Independence, Valley Forge, as well as colonial schools and chores. The five smooth stones refer to the Bible story of David and Goliath and serve as a metaphor for the uneven struggle between the intrepid Patriots and the powerful English army.

In Red Snow, "Eleven-year-old Abigail presents a diary account of life in Valley Forge from December 1777 to July 1778 as General Washington prepares his troops to fight the British." This book offers a more graphic description of the hardships suffered by the colonists and the soldiers and delves deeper into the character of General Washington and Mrs. Washington as well as the hearts and souls of the working class Patriots like Abigail's family and friends. As I told my own children, "Imagine the horror of marching through snow for miles with bloody feet as the ill-equipped Continental soldiers did?" It's also difficult to imagine how the average person survived in colonial times without central heating and other comforts that we take for granted today.

Will's Journal highlights the conflict between the colonists and the British soldiers in pre-Revolutionary War Boston. I can't describe it better than this review from the School Library Journal:

This first-person account of a 12-year-old boy makes the world of Boston in 1774 come alive. William Thomas Emerson, an orphan, has found work with the kind proprietor of a tavern. In his journal, the boy describes the practical and moral difficulties that citizens of that city encountered on the eve of the Revolution. He writes of food shortages, patriots, traitors, and deserters, and describes daily life, public punishment, and medical treatments. Denenberg engages readers with a bit of intrigue, but it is the integrity and humanity of ordinary people that make this book inspirational. An epilogue summarizes the lives of the characters introduced and includes historical reproductions and a brief account of the actual events that followed the year covered in the journal. Quality historical fiction that should attract a wide audience.
Ann M. Burlingame, North Regional Library, Raleigh, NC
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