Title: Jigsaw Men
Author: Gary Greenwood
Date of First Publication: 2004
Place of Publication: PS Publishing
Type of Fiction: Novel
Characters: Victor Frankenstein
Themes: POSTHUMAN; MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER; RACE/POLITICS; BYRONIC HERO
Critical Summary: Jigsaw Men follows protagonist Detective Livingston as he investigates the missing daughter of an important politician, Danielle. The Detective is able to track the missing daughter through a porn video of her having sex with a ‘Jigger’ or ‘Jigsaw Man’ who’s distinguishing features are that he is a monstrous creation of Dr. Frankenstein and that he has six testicles. Through his investigation the two primary antagonists of the story, Coppleman and Lloyd, are revealed as jigsaw men, porno professionals, and violent terrorists. Detective Livingstone finds out that while Arnold Coppleman was the ‘monster’ in the porn video, Lloyd was the leader of the Discerning Films Distribution company who made the special brand of Jigger porn in which the missing girl appeared. This company and its owner are connected to a Anti-Old World Order terrorist group that has been trying to recreate Martian Heat-Rays. Eventually Detective Livingstone, with the help of his police officers and the missing girl’s sister, Candice, track Lloyd and Coppleman down.
While this investigation is going on Livingstone comes to understand that Lloyd and his terrorist enterprise plan to bring both the technology of the Jigsaw Men and the Martian Heat-Ray to America, where the atom bomb is their only claim to destructive power. He eventually tracks them down and thwarts their plan to smuggle the technologies to America, but in the shootout, Candace dies.
In this setting, Victor Frankenstein is a mentioned character who, in the past, developed the monstrous creatures known as Jigsaw Men or Jiggers. These monsters in the books are depicted much as the Creature is in Frankenstein. They are seen as subhuman, serving as soldiers for countries, and there is a strong racial prejudice against them by most characters in the story. This is emphasized by the use of the derogatory term ‘Jigger’. This draws back to the emphasis on the Creature’s physical deformity and the lothing of society. Frankenstein himself was almost empathetic for the creature, but once he looked at its ugliness again he felt disgusted.
With the commonplace presence of the nearly immortal Jiggers there is a strong theme of the Posthuman. In this world Doctor Frankenstein’s animation process is duplicated by countries that offer reanimation to their wounded and dying soldiers. In this sense, there is a whole subgroup of the population that exists past a human state.
Finally, the theme of the mad scientist is subtle in Jigsaw Men because it applies to the rarely seen antagonist Lloyd rather than the protagonist as in Frankenstein. This theme is characterized by a scientist who loses his morality in pursuit of new technology. In Frankenstein this is portrayed in Victor’s overeager creation of the Creature without thought of consequences. In Jigsaw Men, Lloyd seeks the Martian Heat-Ray technology for his country’s gain but cares little about who he hurts in procuring this technology, or the dangerous ramifications for the rest of the world that this would surely mean.
Administrative Notes: William Flatin, CSUF; Dr. David Sandner, CSUF (editing); Sam Drake, CSUF (editing)