Loving Frank: A Novel by Nancy Horan Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Loving Frank: A Novel
Book Review: great love story
Summary: 5 Stars
i loved this book. what a great love story. it was hard to believe that it happened so many years ago. they were both so far ahead of their time.i cried at the ending.i couldn't put it downBook Review: Ones need to fulfill intellectual and physical desires trumps matrimonial and maternal responsibilities
Summary: 2 Stars
seems to be the mantra of Mamah Borthwick, linguist, intellectual, translator, wife, mother of two, and mistress of Frank Lloyd Wright. The author created this work of fiction by piecing together historical facts from newspaper articles, the writings of Mr. Wright (on architecture), and of Ms. Borthwick (translations of Swedish feminist Ellen Key's works) as well as the content of ten letters written by Borthwick to Key. Although there is little to complain about in the writing save a few clich?s: Maymah's thoughts about Frank (p 25), "I am putty in your hands, so quickly," feelings about him (p 34), "She loved him with every cell in her body," and Frank's words to her (p 128), "You make me want to be a better man," Maymah's thoughts and actions are so self-centered and self-serving that this book reads like one long lesson on the consequences of a life selfishly-lived. In one of few moments of clarity, she wonders how she has become so accepting of her own improper behavior considering (p 32), "She had always thought herself a deeply moral person," yet agrees with a passage of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's (p 33), "It is not sufficient to be a mother; an oyster can be a mother." Her disdain for motherhood comes in spite of the fact that her children are cared for by a nanny, so much so that when her daughter becomes sick during a train trip, she thinks (p 58) "What would Louise do?" The book jacket states that she is "forced to choose between the roles of a mother, wife, lover and intellectual." She chooses the roles of lover and intellectual, and abandons her three-year-old daughter and almost seven-year-old son at a friend's house with whom they've been visiting, to be with Wright, telling the children (p 83), "I'm going on a small vacation...One just for me." The children don't see their mother again for two years. She ponders explaining her choice to her children as (p 140) "not...a cruel self-indulgence" but "an act of love for life" and believes that the kids might end up "...better off, with four happy parents." Late in the novel after a fight with Wright, she tells him (p 302), "The children are what matters now." Yeah, right. What transpires during the children's next visit to Mamah's and Frank's home, Taliesin, may never had happened had she made different choices. This story of a woman who chooses fling over family is, frankly, fluff. Better: Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, There is No Me Without You by Melissa Fay Greene and Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.
Book Review: Wow!
Summary: 5 Stars
A transplant to WI I wanted to read about one of its own. I was blown away by this man's life and could not put the book down. It would be great for bookclub discussion. Book Review: Loving Mamah
Summary: 5 Stars
If you thought you had read everything worth reading about Frank Lloyd Wright, think again. This is by far the most moving portrait of the man in his milieu, yet his giant personality is eclipsed by that of Mamah Borthwick Cheney. It is incredible to think that Wright lived for another 45 years after Mamah's violent death and yet that most biographies give this period of his life short shrift. One can only wonder what would have happened had Mamah lived. An absolute must-read.Book Review: Frank Llyod Wright the Europe adventure
Summary: 5 Stars
I was especially interested in Frank Llyod Wright's time spent in Fiesole, Italy as we know the house that he stayed in. By all accounts this book accurately describes Mr.Wright's nature and his artistic integrety and energy.