Product Description

Previously titled Father of Frankenstein, this acclaimed novel was the basis for the 1998 film starring Sir Ian McKellen, Lynn Redgrave, and Brendan Fraser. It journeys back to 1957 Los Angeles, where James Whale, the once-famous director of such classics as Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, is living in retirement, haunted by his past. Rescuing him from his too-vivid imagination is his gardener, a handsome ex-marine. The friendship between these two very different men is sometimes tentative, sometimes touching, often dangerous—and always captivating.

This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #736364 in Books
• Published on: 2005-08-01
• Released on: 2005-08-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
"A fine novel.pointed, wry, observant, and wise. I virtually inhaled it in a single reading." (Peter Straub )

"Bram is, quite simply, the best American gay novelist going." (LA Gay )

"An engaging read.Bram's prose has an evanescent quality that evokes his protagonist's fading consciousness." (Bay Area Reporter )

"As compassionate as it is phantasmic. Bram constructs a compelling fictional narrative." (Independent Weekly )

"A glorious read from an intelligent and talented writer, and worthy of a space in your library." (Frontiers )

"A touching fictional portrait of old Hollywood and of one of the curious geniuses who made it what it was." (Alan Cheuse in NPR's All Things Considered )

"Witty, moving, entertaining, and enlightening. one of the most remarkable and satisfying novels to come along in quite some time." (Island Lifestyle )

About the Author

Christopher Bram is the author of eight other novels, including Gods and Monsters (originally titled Father of Frankenstein), which was made into an Academy Award-winning film. Bram was a 2001 Guggenheim Fellow and received the 2003 Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement. He lives in New York City.

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Customer Reviews

A Great Book With Extras
This is a great book, guys. I came from the angle of being a fan of old Hollywood, and if it's black and white, I've heard of it.

"Frankenstein" is by far the best of the Universal monster movies, and it has a lot to do with the subject of this novel: James Whale. The guy took the unwieldy, even boring, Shelley novel and pulled out the story of a sad monster and the redemption of its creator. He's also the reason why we have "Young Frankenstein" - so there's a lot to love about the guy.

The most intriguing thing about the novel, is the author creating a fictionalized "untold story" of Whale's final days - an act of literary bravado that could easily go wrong, but didn't, and it didn't in a big way. I'll spare you the plot synopsis because if you're reading this, you've already read that, but I will tell you this is a great book in the sense that college classes will make it required reading and the sense of being accessible to the masses.

Don't let anyone fool you: This is not a "movie book" or a "gay book" it's just a book; and a damn good one.

I really dig this particular edition for it's "postscript". It's the kind of stuff DVD extras are made of...an interview with the author, an after word and so on. As someone who invested the time to read the 300+ pages, it was great to hear directly from the author of how he came to tell this story, his thoughts on the movie based upon this book among other things.

Mark my words, soon you will see "Special Editions" of nearly every book you can think of...not just for the insights of the author or analysis of its historical context...but as a marketing tool by which we will end up buying our favorite books all over again. :)

Very different twist on a gay theme
Gods and Monsters (a.k.a. Father of Frankenstein) is a great novel on lots of different levels. It explores the gay world of Hollywood in the 1950s, the impossibility of overcoming stereotyping (can we say Joseph Heller?), and the way that the horrors of the First World War were morphed into a classic horror movie, among other themes.

But most of all, Gods and Monsters is about life and death. What gives meaning to life? Can one grow into life by being part of another man's death? Why is death so feared? These questions are all raised and adressed, although the answers are left for the reader to determine.

I have read many gay novels, and this one is a masterpiece. It transcends the genre and approaches the level of the great writers of our time. Well worth reading!

Good Read
I had no intention of reading this book. I felt I had ruined it by seeing the movie so it was shelved for years. Then I was doing something on my computer that took some rendering time. I reached for the closest book. "Gods and Monsters" was it. At first I read it lazily, thinking I only had a small amount of time to look at it so my concentration was non-committal. The computer finished what it had to but I kept reading. I was captured.

The book is about James Whale, the director of "Frankenstein" and other horror films, but you don't have to be a horror enthusiast to love this book. There is a slight "witch hunt" element surrounding Whale's homosexual life---and there is some indication by the author that he empathized with Whale. (He's gay and became obsessed with Whale's life, which is totally understandable--authors often become obsessed with topics for reasons they can't explain.) But you don't have to be a politically angry homosexual or horror lover or even a movie enthusiast to love this book.

Per chance while I was reading the book my husband heard a Podcast on Whale's life saying that this book was inaccurate. I was a little angry at that simplistic conclusion--the FACTS of his life for me are of no consequence. What's important is that the author here captures the essence of a life--a far greater skill in many ways than documenting the facts and often closer to the "truth".

You empathize with Whale. You understand that he had artistic talents and contributions he could have made as a director that were thwarted by lesser minds. He had the courage to walk away but the consequence was isolation and a bitterness that chased his lover and perhaps others out of his life.

Our poor gardener, strong and straight, finally learns to be a man through a queen. That's a powerful enough idea with its obvious paradox and lesson to be learned but I winced when I read the author's take on the character--that he called him Clay Boone because he wanted a good "white trash" name.

Being more closely affiliated with the white-trash side of the tracks and less with the glamorous side of the arts and theater, I found myself a little annoyed with Boone being so reduced. Here homosexuals play the role of the victim while enjoying the finest things life has to offer while the working class is labeled the oppressor and gets to get up and labor in their gardens yet another day. All the while the movie(s) ("Frankenstein") is full of insider, homosexual jokes that the naive workingman won't see because he is blinded by the sweat in eyes and knows no better but to get up and do it again and again. But he pays for the movie ticket, a small distraction from his futile life, and so I can't help but think perhaps Boone and his kind is the victim; the one really being laughed at and treated with contempt for what he is.

Nonetheless, it is a beautifully written book, filling you with empathy for these characters. Whether the facts are accurate or not I cannot help but believe I have an understanding of the person James Whale, and consequently a more powerful way of viewing others and myself.