Loving Frank: A Novel
by Nancy Horan
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Book Reviews of Loving Frank: A Novel
Book Review: Thank Goodness it's 2009, not 1909 (to see all my book reviews, go to beansbookblog.wordpress.com)
Summary: 4 Stars
Despite looking at a lot of Frank Lloyd Wright's work in various house books, I knew little of his personal life other than the fact that his ideas were different and ahead of the times. This work of historical fiction focuses on Wright's relationship with his mistress of 7 years (and former client), Mamah Borthwick Cheney. What a story and what a scandal they were! Though she ultimately got a divorce from her husband (Wright didn't until many years later), they made headlines for years. The Chicago papers at that time (roughly 1907 - 1914) reminded me of the current National Enquirer, filled with yellow journalism. Mamah essentially left her husband and children to live and travel with Wright and to pursue her own career interests, mainly translating the work of Ellen Keys, an early pioneer in the `Woman Movement'. Mamah and Wright were truly soul mates and sacrificed many obligations and reputations to remain together, both abandoning kind and supportive spouses who made them feel 'suffocated'. I found myself oscillating back and forth between empathy and anger toward Mamah. On the one hand, she had the courage to forge out on her own at a time in America when women had few rights or choices, but on the other hand, she simply walked out on her children, leaving her husband and sister to raise them and to explain their mother's abandonment. Ultimately she does begin to reconnect with them, but who knows if she could ever have been a real mother to them. This is a fascinating story that pulled me into their world, and now I have a much keener interest in Wright's work, especially Taliesin, Midway Gardens, and The Imperial Hotel in Japan, all of which come to life in the book.Book Review: Strangely Passionless
Summary: 3 Stars
For a novel whose subject is a passionate affair between our most famous architect in the U. S. and a brilliant feminist who was ahead of her time, the novel is strangely passionless. I think the failure is in the dramatic construction; if it were more like a play with much more conversation and interaction between Maymah and Frank, I think it would have been more lively. As it is, it is more philosophical and intellectual than dramatic; I had to force myself to read a certain amount in order finish it for bookclub. I think the author was constrained by the actual arc of their story which didn't really follow a dramatic line rising to a conflict with a resolution. Yes, the ending is dramatic, but it doesn't do much to add complexity or meaning to the story. I think a lot of women like the story because it espouses a kind of romantic feminism (as opposed to angry male-bashing feminism of the 60's and 70's) which sees partners as soul-mates, with love as the highest value, so high that the" truth" of the love frees the couple of responsibility of hurting others and places self-actualization above traditional values of home and family. Related to this theory is the notion that rules and laws and made for the average man or woman, and those who are exceptional need not abide by society's codes. I think in reality that Frank Lloyd Wright was probably a narcissistic personality who needed someone to admire him, who took what he wanted, and that the whole relationship wasn't as ideal as portrayed by the author. However, I do think that an artist's work should be judged independently of his personality and character. Although he was our most influential architect, he is not my favorite.Book Review: Not really loving Frank.....
Summary: 3 Stars
I just finished reading Loving Frank. I was surprised that it has become such a hot book to read, especially among book clubs. I imagine that it is due to the fact that it is historical fiction with romance, scandal, and even murder...such excitement! New author, Horan may have just gotten a lucky break by picking a person/topic that has elements that in today's society are appealing if not celebrated. But honestly, I think the book was just "ok", not any literary masterpiece here. (Confusing at times, characters lacked depth, motive, it needed more reworking in places, even though the auther rewrote it after she claimed the first attempt was no good.) But what also made it hard to read, and I suppose even to write, was the fact that most books have some main character that you want to like, and are cheering for... you want to see their "transformation". Both Maymah and Frank were not lovable, rather, so disturbingly egocentric that it was hard for me to even read the book. I felt myself becoming angry while reading it, and didn't care for them or their story. No transformation,they just became more pathetic. However, because Frank became a such famous figure, and because of the fact that it was for my book club, I kept reading...but inside I felt these megalomanics didn't even deserve my time reading about them. I recently read another book by a new author, which was infinately better written. Also historical fiction with the same elements...romance, murder, what a book! Everyone that I tell to read it falls in love...The Tea Rose, by Jennifer Donnelly. This auther has a true gift. I cannot wait to read more books that she will write.
Book Review: does not meet the hype
Summary: 2 Stars
I live in a city with a FLW masterpiece - Grady Gammage Auditorium. Its a lovely place to see a show, but otherwise I have never been interested in the architect. Someone in my book group suggested this one and I thought it would be a good way of learning about this man, very famous in our state. Well, I suspect there are better ways, because this one wasn't it.
At the beginning, when the two first met and fell in love, I was quite entralled with the book. When she made her decision to go to Germany, I didn't approve but this is after all history and I went along for the ride. But after that it just fell apart. Between her angst at the reaction her scandal brought (which she should have known would happen), her needing to find herself, and her angst about how she hurt her children (but still stayed in Europe) put me off. I got very little of what sparked this love affair and what kept it going; what was it about FLW that made her leave her life and children, and to stay away even tho she pined so much for them? There was nothing in the book that showed anything about FLW except as an egotistical, lying genius who spent money he didn't have. I would have loved to have seen another side of him, to find out what drove him, but again there was nothing in the text to answer the questions. The narration became repetitive and rather boring. The ending was quite a shock, and I felt badly of course for her. But that didn't help me have much sympathy or respect for the woman.
There is a new book out by TC Boyle called The Women, about FLW's three wives, and Mamah. I started it and it already feels like the book I am looking
Book Review: Quite an intriguing story...
Summary: 3 Stars
As a designer living in Los Angeles, FLW looms fairly large in my world as a general influence on the architecture and aesthetic of the 20th century. I don't know much about him, but I know I can't throw a rock without hitting a FLW building, FLW furniture at the flea market, or some kind of design element influenced by him. Therefore, even on a base level, it was interesting to read this book just to glean some insight on the history of his career, if only for the period of time he was with Mamah Cheney. However, I found myself enjoying the novel purely for the fictionalized aspects of the relationship as well as the elements of truth.
The thing that always gets me about biographies is that somehow, they are all the same. Perhaps it's the lives that are chosen to be depicted, or just the structure inherent in describing the course of a life, but they always follow the same pattern, a sort of rise-fall-rise so we're left with the idea that we should be elevated by how this person pulled themselves out of the pit to end in triumph. Interestingly, this is not the case with this book, which might also be its problem. I had no idea who Mamah Cheney was, much less about her life works and what happened at the end of her life, so things were somewhat of a shock to me because they lacked the typical rigid structure I've always found in biographies. Mamah's actions happened with little preparation and played out with even less understanding. This might be the way it actually happened, or, by the author's own admittance, it might not; but regardless, it was a curiously jarring series of events culminating in a truly bizarre conclusion.