Mary Modern

by Camille DeAngelis

Book Overview

A remarkable debut novel, Mary Modern weaves modern science with an old-fashioned love story, and turns an unflinching eye on the joyous, heartbreaking, and utterly unexpected consequences of human desires.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307352587
• ISBN13: 9780307352583
• Release Date: July 2007
• Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books
• Length: 350 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.6" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

AMAZING! A new fav!!!

I absolutely LOVED this book!!! I work at a library and just randomly picked it up when it came in. I am a huge gothic literature fan. And if you are a big Frankenstein fan you will instantly see some links in this book!!!! The book does make you think about where our world and science is heading to. I really wanna know more about Godfry!!! I will be reading more by this author!!!

Problems with the "science"

First, I have a lot of trouble with an author who names her leading male character Grey Poupon. This man is supposed to be a professor of Latin studies. I don't think it's funny. Second, the idea of bats being flushed from hedges in the middle of the winter is absolutely ridiculous. For all sorts of reasons. Third, neither this author nor her editor have a rudimentary understanding of biology. The idea that a placenta in any setting could pulsate is just stupid. The idea that a placenta could be removed intact from a uterus while keeping it attached to a fetus the size of a four year old child and then be hooked up to the inside of a metal tank makes me want to scream. That is was supposedly accomplished by a lab technician without even an assistant doubles me over in hysterics. And oh, I really love the boyfriend's first attempt at intrauterine insemination. How he managed to find her cervix, insert the probe, plop in the embryo while she guides him is rich indeed. To think Lucy survived this entire procedure without any anesthesia. On her web page the author states that the accuracy of the science is insignificant. She claims that Mary Shelley cared nothing about scientific knowledge when she wrote the story of Frankenstein. The author claims that her idea of DNA having memory is the driving force behind her plot. Who is the monster here? Who, indeed?

Grim(m) Tale

Welcome to 25 University Avenue, where a romantic old mansion, filled with memories, hides lab equipment capable of cloning the dead. Meet Lucy Morrigan, a bright scientist and her professorial boyfriend, Gray. When Lucy finds she cannot conceive she uses her father's womb simulator to clone her dead grandmother, hoping to create the daughter she cannot have from the woman she loved. But when the experiment goes awry, it's not just Lucy's hopes that are susceptible to destruction, but her job, her boyfriend's trust, her mentor's friendship, and her very memories... Mary Modern is a fairy-tale story, splendidly gothic in setting and scope. With beautiful details and deft humor, the author drew me in to a page-turning tale whose ending had more twists and turns than the story mansion's labyrinth. A fantastic debut. I look forward to reading more from Ms. DeAngelis.

Sort of modernizing of Dr. Frankenstein

In New Halcyon, Massachusetts, twenty-eight year old biogenetic researcher Lucy Morrigan shares her family mansion with her boyfriend Gray. The house built in 1882 needs major renovation that Lucy ignores; just as she pays little attention to the rooms filled with the artifacts of the four generations of Morrigan who have lived there. In fact the only modern place in what some less kind folks would say is the Morrigan mausoleum or gentler people museum is the off limit to Gray basement that Lucy's late dad converted to a secret laboratory. Her efforts to become pregnant the old fashion "Bonobo" way has failed as she is infertile. Thus Lucy who wants to birth the next generation turns to an apron containing dried blood from her deceased grandmother. Lucy clones her grandma and places the elixir inside her womb. However, within the first trimester, a pregnant Lucy is whale size humongous so her friend Megan, experienced via being married to an ob-gyn surgeon, performs a C-section to remove the fetus from Lucy and place it in a machine emulating a womb. Six months later, Mary is born as a twenty-two years old with a memory that ended in 1929. However, a minister hears rumors of MARY MODERN and demands the cloning of Jesus or he will bring the fires of hell (the modern day mob - righteous protestors) to Lucy's dilapidated mansion. A sort of modernizing of Dr. Frankenstein, MARY MODERN is an entertaining thought provoking thriller that asks readers to consider the consequences of cloning famous humans. The story line is at its best when Lucy plays the role of Dr. Frankenstein competing with her creation for the affection of Gray. Mary's adjustment to seven plus decades of life is probably too easy, but no one will care as Camille DeAngelis will have her audience debating the ethical and pragmatic implications of cloning from varying perspectives. Harriet Klausner