Loving Frank

- Nancy Horan -

Absolutely mesmerizing character study using the real life events surrounding the affair between Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick and the controversy that resulted when they left their respective families for each other, and turning it into a fascinating examination of what it means to be happy and what we should, could or would give up, who we would hurt and what we would sacrifice to have that happiness.

One of the most completely fascinating things about this book is the way that both Frank and Mamah, but more particularly Mamah, are portrayed as so intelligent, and we see how that intelligence almost becomes a weapon used against both herself and others around her, as she uses it to justify her actions and choices. Particularly in the words of the feminist writer Ellen Keys, Mamah finds the information and justification she needs to follow her heart and be with Frank, in the process abandoning her family and children.

Horan does an amazing of creating sympathetic characters who make huge mistakes and hurt many people but, by portraying them as people who think deeply and try to do the best they can, they become characters we sympathize deeply with, even as their actions seem selfish and occasionally self indulgent. In Mamah's case this is particularly true. A very intelligent women constrained by the times she was born into, Mamah is on a constant journey to transcend her time and place in society.

We see Frank primarily through Mamah's eyes, and consequently follow with her on her journey as she falls in love with his brilliant mind, and then gradually grows to see the eccentricities, extravagances, selfishness and self-indulgence that are just as prevalent in the man she knows. It is such a fascinating perspective on a brilliant, domineering, aristic personality, both flawed yet honest.

Knowing how the book must end (Mamah Borthwich, her children and several workers at their home, Talisien, were murdered by a crazed employee), I found myself slowing down my reading because I just did not want to get to the point where I knew this voice would be snuffed out.

Completely engrossing and challenging read - being drawn so much from real events, the characters were so three dimesional, strong minded, flawed and real, that I just wanted to know more, even when I disagreed with their actions and rationalizations.

I can already tell I am going to be looking for lots more material on Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick.