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highly recommended |
I was loving Loving Frank! 
This is the fictionalized story of the mistress of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Mamah Borthwick Cheney. She was a real woman who lived an interesting life, but certain private details are added to the facts to round out an enjoyable read. It wasn't a happily ever after love story, but Ms. Horan stayed true to what really happened to this woman in the early part of the century as she struggled against the norms of the times and the conflict within herself as a wife, mother, and woman in love. This was fascinating fiction.
Captivating, enlightening novel 
To put it simply, I absolutely LOVED Loving Frank. Nancy Horan is clearly a gifted writer in that she has a great command of the language but is also accessible to any reader. I couldn't put this book down. I knew very little of Frank Lloyd Wright and found myself searching the internet for photos of his architecture (it is frequently beautifully described in the book). No one in my all-female book club agreed with Mamah's decision to leave her children, but we all couldn't help but like her. Everyone said this is one of the best books our club has ever read in our nearly ten years! I love books that educate me AND entertain me. Loving Frank did both beautifully.
Entering another world
I found Horan's read to be a fascinating look at another world and culture. The events occur one hundred years ago, yet remain relevant in today's celebrity obsessed world.
Mamah Borthwick's story is a compelling one. It's somewhat astounding that her tale is so often relegated to a mere footnote or aside in the Frank Lloyd Wright story. But here, that slight is corrected as she stands front and center in this fictionalized account of her life. Horan does a good job of presenting Mamah's search for herself in the context of the times. Mamah's decisions all have huge repurcussions for herself, her husband, her children and her lover, but she's willing to risk all for the combined passions of finding herself and loving Frank.
It's interesting how in our modern world, taking time to find one's self is deemed meritorious and reasonable. Contrast it with the rigid societal expectations of the turn of the century. Add in an affair that warranted front page treatment, and perhaps the time is now.
Although the book can be a bit pedantic, and the passion that flamed this relationship merely treated circumspectly, it's definitely worth reading.
reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current.
So writes Mamah Borthwick Cheney in her diary as she struggles to justify her clandestine love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. Four years earlier, in 1903, Mamah and her husband, Edwin, had commissioned the renowned architect to design a new home for them. During the construction of the house, a powerful attraction developed between Mamah and Frank, and in time the lovers, each married with children, embarked on a course that would shock Chicago society and forever change their lives.
In this ambitious debut novel, fact and fiction blend together brilliantly. While scholars have largely relegated Mamah to a footnote in the life of America's greatest architect, author Nancy Horan gives full weight to their dramatic love story and illuminates Cheney's profound influence on Wright.
Drawing on years of research, Horan weaves little-known facts into a compelling narrative, vividly portraying the conflicts and struggles of a woman forced to choose between the roles of mother, wife, lover, and intellectual. Horan's Mamah is a woman seeking to find her own place, her own creative calling in the world. Mamah's is an unforgettable journey marked by choices that reshape her notions of love and responsibility, leading inexorably ultimately lead to this novel's stunning conclusion.
Elegantly written and remarkably rich in detail, Loving Frank is a fitting tribute to a courageous woman, a national icon, and their timeless love story.
From the Hardcover edition.
Books I have Read or Listened to Since March 30, 2008
2008 Tennessean Summer Books
frank, loving, novel
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