I’m sure many of you are sitting on the edge of your seats wondering when I’m going to finish this book already. Here is my list of excuses:

1. In spite of being a quick study, I’m a slow reader. Slow and careful wins the race.
2. I can’t sit and read for long periods of time. I get restless and want to watch the news or a movie on TV.
3. I had to proofread a copy of my upcoming book of short stories, a galley of which arrived while I was reading Frankkissstein.

So here is my takeaway: Frankkissstein is essentially two parallel narratives, one in the present day by a man who was born a girl who calls himself Ry. Some of the other characters think this is short for Ryan, but it’s actually Mary. And one by Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, written in the early-to-mid nineteenth century.

Ry is trans and a medical doctor. They have had their breasts removed, but has kept their vagina intact. (Boy, it’s hard to write clearly about new gender pronouns!) This is important to know, because Ry has an affair with Dr. Victor Stein, a research scientist who is trying to find a way to download the data from a human brain to a computer. And then upload it into another vessel (a body that could be a super human, or even have wings).

The Mary Shelley of 1816 writes the Frankenstein story, partly on a challenge from her housemates and partly out of the boredom of being cooped up during a long, unceasing period of rain in a large house on Lake Geneva with her husband Percy, Percy’s pal George Gordon Lord Byron, Claire, Mary’s half-sister and Byron’s mistress, and a Dr. Polidori. The two narratives alternate chapters and keep the story moving along.

The story―if there is one―is both a love story and one that posits many speculations about robotics, keeping consciousness alive (maybe forever), and gender identity. Although it may sound dry and boring, it’s not.

Ms. Winterson’s brain is a miraculous mechanism in its own right, and she plays with visions of the future evolution of humans in ways that are both arcane and entertaining. In short, this was a fun, fascinating read.