Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
This dramatic work of historical fiction is about the love affair between Frank Lloyd Wright and one of his clients, Mamah Borthwick Cheney. Both married with children, they were drawn together as they planned the house that he build for Mamah and her husband, and in spite of efforts to avoid an affair, they could not deny that they had fallen in love. The resultant relationship between the two was both poetic and tragic, as they both had to sacrifice most of what they treasured in order to have each other. As they strived for honesty in love, they had to endure the anger and the judgement of others.
Admittedly, I judged them/her too. I confess that as I sympathized with her yearning for true love and for the freedom she craved to be with the man she loved, I was angry with her too for leaving her children for months at a time. And when she missed them, I couldn’t help but think, “Well, what did you expect??” But she was also searching for her own identity, in order to see herself as an individual and not just a wife or a mother (or a mistress). For this, I respected her.
And of course there is the fun of learning more about the life of the most controversial and admired architect in the U.S. His struggle between his life and his art is apparent and is thread through the story as well.
The many layers and the many controversies make this book a solid read. Definitely a thumbs up!
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