Loving Frank: A Novel
by Nancy Horan
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Book Reviews of Loving Frank: A Novel
Book Review: Flight as a Response to Stifling Patriarchy
Summary: 5 Stars
Everyone wonders how Maymah (may-muh) Cheney could have left her husband and children to run away with Frank Lloyd Wright. The answer is that she wanted to be a "person". A married woman of that time entered into a role that was prescribed by the church and by the patriarchy. She could not be herself, and she most certainly had to play the "role" of dutiful wife. For a woman who was educated and intelligent enough to question the ruling paradigms, it was immensely suffocating.
Maymuh is like the main character of =The French Lieutenant's Woman=. Once you do something big that is a serious break with convention, such as leave your husband and children or get pregnant out of wedlock, then you are shunned by the patriarchy and the church and the women who support patriarchy. Then, since you are now in a wasteland, outside of mainstream society, you are finally free to make your own decisions and grow as a person.
Nothing has changed. It is the same way now, especially during the ascendancy of evangelical fundamentalism during the Bush administration. Women are still put into the same "roles" that Maymah was in, they are discouraged from making their own reproductive decisions, and premarital sex for women is stigmatized. Women are still regarded as sexual objects and caretakers only, virgins or whores, and they are discouraged from questioning the patriarchy.
These attitudes hurt all of us, not just women. They warp children and women, and they keep men from experiencing the love of a woman that is freely given, not coerced.
Maymah loved her children. She wanted them to have, as an example, a mother who was living an authentic life. Still, the book addressed the "cost" of Loving Frank: not being able to see her children whenever she wanted, being shunned by society, and finding out that Frank had some flaws that were hard for her to live with.
Maymah is interesting only because she refused to follow the rules that kept her from being a person. If she had stayed in the role that the culture assigned, we wouldn't be reading about her at all.
Book Review: A very satisfying, intriquing, page-turning read....
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a very interesting account, a combination of what is known historically and what is plausible supposition based upon research. It takes a truly gifted writer to make a success of something like this - it took Horan seven years to write the book, and it was time well spent, as the truth, more interesting than fiction, linked with the fiction is really melded seamlessly. Horan doesn't spare Frank Lloyd Wright, whose arrogance, self-indulgence and disdain for those less talented comprise a character who is very difficult to warm to. Sometimes you just can't imagine how it would be possible to love such a selfish boor - and, what's more, to leave one's children and relatives and have no regard at all for what would happen in their lives as a result. That's what keeps the pages turning right up to the end.
You'll come away with a different view of FLW and you can't help but feel strongly that no matter what the degree of talent a person possesses, it doesn't excuse him for all the havoc he wreaks in the lives of those around him. He does love Mamah, though, and there are moments of intense sweetness and caring - and there must have been enough of them to cement her attachment.
It's great to read a really different book from time to time - it's difficult to find a unique story these days - one that doesn't really ask you to make a judgment. This love affair just was, and it was at a time in history when there were very strong feelings about women who showed any tendencies to stray from the established path. It took a ton of courage to follow one's heart in those days, as women were meant to sacrifice their own hopes and dreams in favor of just about everyone else. So, as you read this book, you'll find yourself saluting Mamah's chutzpah and, at the same time, wondering how on earth she could bring herself to do the things she did. And, you'll hate Frank one minute, and shake your head the next, wondering how he became the kind of person he was.
I'll remember Loving Frank, and put it on the shelf of those I plan to read again in my old, old age.
Book Review: Fabulous read!!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
WOW!
I do not know if I will be able to review this book properly or give it all the props it deserves. This is a time when I wish I was really good with words and fully express how great this book was and how it really touched me. I guess, those words will have to be enough. I just hope they do it justice.
I have been wanting to read this for some time, as I am quite fascinated with Frank Lloyd Wright, but know virtually nothing about him except that he was a BRILLIANT architect in a time when people wanted gaudy and pretension and not brilliance.
To some extent, this story is about him. And what he was about, and his total and complete passion with building and the lines and spaces he was obsessed with. But, this story is mostly about Mamah (MAY-mah)Borthwick Cheney, a lovely HIGHLY-EDUCATED (in a time when women just weren't educated at this level as a rule, and gifted with languages) society woman, who (when her husband suggests they build a new house) meets and then falls in love with FLW and engages in an affair with him. This book is the story of their love affair and how it completely and utterly shocked the world and forever changed their lives and those who were in it.
Weaving fact and fiction together masterfully, the author uses what she researched and what she made up very well. Without the notes at the end telling you what is fact and what is fiction, you would believe it was totally fact. And for the most part, it is. People are added here and there to fill in the gaps, but this IS a true story. These two people existed (though little is found about Mamah in FLW's stories at his houses and workshop)and loved in a time when loving outside of marriage was a HUGE taboo. I completely fell under the spell of this book and it has stayed with me for days since. I just cannot get this remarkable woman out of my mind. And why I cannot agree with WHAT she did, I totally understand WHY she did what she did. What wouldn't we do for true, complete love??
FABULOUS READ!!!!!!
Book Review: Brilliant writing; a truly tragic ending.
Summary: 5 Stars
I live in NY and have been to the Guggenheim Museum several times. I knew it was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and knew a little about him, mostly about his organic approach to architecture. This book is the story of Wright's love affair with Mameh Borthwick Cheney, an affair that had tragic consequences.
In 1903 Frank Lloyd Wright was hired to design and build a house for Edwin and Mameh Cheney. The two began an affair and in 1907 they left their respective spouses and children and ran off to Europe, becoming the fodder for scandal sheets for many years.
Very little is known about Mameh Borthwick, few pictures of her survive and many of her writings have disappeared, but Nancy Horan has done a remarkable job in creating a fully realized character in this fictionalized account of her life with Wright. Mameh was an extremely bright woman, educated, fluent in several languages and a firm supporter of the burgeoning Woman's Suffrage movement. Living within the confines and mores in the early 20th century seemed to stifle her and she felt that she was not living her life but observing it passing her by. In Frank Lloyd Wright Mameh felt she had found her soul mate and was willing to give up her marriage and family in order to be with him. They lived in Europe and returned to Wisconsin where Wright built his famous home Taliesin, where after several years their life together came to a startling ending.
I was very taken by this book almost from the start, despite the fact that in general I don't like books about adultery. Although the book is a love story it is in no way a romance book, it is about the genius of the egotistical Wright but more so it is Mameh's story that will captivate you, in particular her naiveté in believing that her choice would eventually be accepted by society and her family. The ending is shocking and made me cry, not something I do often while reading. This was a very compelling story and beautifully written, and I recommend it very highly.
Book Review: NOT LOVING FRANK
Summary: 2 Stars
LOVING FRANK
This book was the pick for book club; otherwise, I would have never finished it. I am glad I did finish it though and found out everything that happened in this tragic love affair.
I have seen TV shows and heard about Frank Lloyd Wright and the beautiful homes he created with his gift for architecture. What I didn't know was about the man himself and how he affected so many lives - not necessarily in a good way.
This is the story of his affair with Mamah Borthwick Cheney. He is hired to create a home for her and her husband; long story short, the two end up in love and having an affair. Cheney leaves her husband, along with her children, to be with Wright. Wright is also married with children.
The book is good in the fact that it tells the story of the Wright/Cheney affair in detail. How the two left their spouses, children, lives to create a new one. Back in the early 1900's women hardly had any rights -- it surprised me that women didn't even have the rights to their own children. Cheney's husband kept their two children when she went off with Wright.
While full of history and the facts of lives about Wright and Cheney, I found myself plodding through this book, not caring much about any of the characters. Frank Lloyd Wright was portrayed -- and quite rightly so -- as a very selfish man, seeming to care only about his work and himself. While he seemed to love Cheney, she gave up everything to be with him and I found myself wondering if he ever really appreciated the fact that she gave up so much for him.
I generally enjoy fictional history, finding it an appealing way to find out about the past and the lives of the people involved. However, this book was a bit too tedious with cardboard characters that I found I didn't really enjoy knowing.
Thank you.
Pam