Loving Frank: A Novel

I am a big fan of SLW’s architecture. Hard though to walk away from this book with warm fuzzies about him as a person. Genius at work doesn’t necessarily translate to an amazing family man. Mamah is a tragic character. I had a hard time sympathizing with her..Worth reading, but doesn’t fill one’s soul with joy…

Mamah, May-muh, Martha! She was born at the wrong time and wrong place! She was educated in Ann Arbor Michigan at the turn of the 20th century, had the pedigree of the upright Midwestern railroaders who valued work and honesty, married a decent and loving businessman-gregarious provider, had the tenacious intellect of a sharp librarian-school marm and suffragist-feminist, was a "looker", but she was too crazy in love with a man who would have given her the world but could not. Darn!Mamah Cheney could have had it all but she was sideswiped by her lust for life on the fastlane, the big ego of Frank Lloyd Wright, the promise of being the polyglot sidekick of Swedish born suffragist Ellen Key, and in the end, she had nothing for herself and her two (three including her orphaned nephew) children who she left behind to find love and fulfillment with the iconic architect.This fictional account of a love story gone tragically wrong and painful, leaves me reeling with wonder, I cannot help but raise some points that challenge thinking outside the home, domesticity, community, society and even world affairs.First of all, can a mother really be so wildly in love so as to leave her very young children behind to traipse all over Berlin, Italy and Japan to pursue finding herself and her paramour's budding career? Given that Frank Lloyd Wright was really brilliant (after the fact), was he really worth it? Her marriage to Edwin Cheney was flailing but was she really really that unhappy? She had little Martha with Edwin while she was consorting with Frank! I think it was a case of moral fiber fraying and falling dangerously to an abyss that she couldn't get enough fortitude to figure herself out of.Granted that it was the zeitgeist of women's emancipation and feminism, the attendant focus on lack of rights to get out of bad marriages, lack of equal pay for men and women, identity issues surrounding motherhood and caring for children, did Mamah really blaze into the forefront to liberate women of all ages for all time? Or did she just end up exonerating herself?Was her sacrifice worth the cause? Her alliance with Ellen Key's cause was almost a chance event in her search for herself and her raison d'etre for villyfying her home and turning her loved one's lives upside down. The Swedish suffragist had modern ideas about women's morality and new feminist roles, I think Mamah was eagerly quick to translate Key's ideas as seen through her private moral dilemma, adultery. In Berlin, Key was tagged as the "wise fool of the feminist movement", vacillating between being a protector of children and the essence of mothering as a human species-forwarding endeavor versus a woman's fulfilling her happiness through achieving her personhood through being allowed the choices and liberties to propel one's potential. I think Ellen Key was wise, period. In Nancy, France, she had told Mamah to find herself first, without Frank, and pursue her own niche in the world, otherwise Frank will just be another "diversion". It was Mamah who could not find her moral compass and was torn, time and time again between her love for her offspring and her love for Frank and herself. It is a pity that her "soulful" translations of Ellen Key's work coulda-woulda been heard by a bigger audience had she sent it to The Atlantic Monthly and not published with those who were affiliated with Frank Lloyd Wright's folios.Horan's skill in writing allowed for her characters to be heard, to be seen in both good and bad lights, she allowed all their foibles, their humanity to filter through the puritanical times when society was quick to judge moral turpitude. She allowed her readers to look for understanding and to be compassionate; that her characters were flawed, slaves for higher ideals of truth and beauty and most of all, love. But in being so, they chose paths that were dangerously selfish and hurtful to others.I will not be quick to say that the tragedy of Mamah's end in Taliesin is divine retribution, but simply a horrific event in the life that already has gone through baptism by fire, a fall from grace that happens when people are just going about their daily lives because people are the way they are, fallen from the very start.

The story is about the love between FLW and Mamah Bosthwick, while they were both married to other people.It is a compelling story about love, sacrifice, personal and professional development and tragedy. It is well written.

Well written book that captured my heart. I am a Frank Lloyd Wright fan and really enjoyed the romantic story that was such a scandal at the time. This is my second copy because I was going to visit Taliesen.

Set in the first decade of the 1900‘s, Loving Frank, by Nancy Horan is part soap opera, part Architectural Digest, part travel guide and a must read for feminists and Frank Lloyd Wright-ophiles alike. It’s easy to see how the uber-talented Wright struggled to make a name for himself and his Organic Architecture in the stifling mindset of the early 20th century. Wright, who liked to say he saw God in nature, strove to make his buildings so in tune with their natural surroundings it looked as though the buildings were birthed from the very ground upon which they sat. It’s also easy to see how an intellectual feminist, suffragette and very married woman, Mamah Borthwick Cheney, gave up everything she thought was hers: devoted husband, Edwin; two beautiful children; a warm relationship with her sister, Lizzie who had sacrificed much to put Mamah through college; and a cushy, affluent lifestyle in the suburbs of Chicago; and threw in her lot with Wright. Mamah was married -- one of the few options open to women at the time -- but not terribly happy. She’d turned over the raising of her children to their nanny and busied herself with women’s issues and lectures at the University, but couldn’t really find her niche. She and Edwin were more like partners who ran a home and raised children together rather than soul mates. Along came Wright, flamboyant, eccentric and completely self-assured in his craft, despite the lack of a formal architectural education, with charisma and genius out the wazoo. Married at the immature age of 19, Wright had six children with his wife, Catherine, and while Catherine threw herself into their children, Wright threw himself into his work and giving “his gift” to the world. Mamah loved Edwin in a way, but Frank’s marriage to Catherine had been a shell for years. Still she would not give Frank a divorce. Frank and Mamah’s relationship started innocently enough, he the up and coming architect with wild new ideas, and she the sublime intellectual with her feminist ideals and steady husband, the clients, yet the magnetism between Frank and Mamah was inescapable. A spark ignited, one that almost sent the lovers up in flames after the media in Oak Park got wind of the scandal They tried to fight it for the sake of their families, but the pull was too great so they ran to escape, these two highly individualized citizens of the world, to Germany where Mamah met the Swedish writer and feminist, Ellen Key a meeting that again altered her life. Mamah took a solo trip to Sweden to learn the language as a prerequisite to being hired to translate Key’s works into German and English and then she and Frank were in Paris, and Italy, and Japan and with much trepidation on Mamah’s part, finally back home to Wisconsin, Wright’s boyhood home, where he built Taliesin East, an architectural marvel and the first place since childhood that Mamah truly felt she belonged. At the time it was the consummate dwelling and encompassed all Wright believed about organic architecture. Perhaps in the 21st century, the lovers could have lived at Taliesin in peace, but the early 1900’s was not a broad-minded, forgiving time. That the book ends in tragedy is both shocking and expected. The world wasn’t ready for this kind of love, and maybe not even this kind of architecture, but their love, like Nature herself, was resilient, and the legacy lives on through Wright’s masterpieces, and now, Horan’s writing.

I was so glad the package came without damage and ready to read!

“The impossible, the clean and consistent. That is what you are in love with. Art is the only place you will find it.” says Wynand to Dominique (Fountainhead)Frank Lloyd Wright, the supreme architect. Mamah Cheney, his client’s wife. Their real-life love story.Mamah was a waiting-to-exhale housewife in a ‘stifle-a-yawn’ marriage with the bland, devoted and very cuckolded Edward. On the verge of her second pregnancy, she felt the spell of Wright’s charisma and artistic dynamo. The brazen affair quickly detonated two families (his six and her two children), made her a convenient ‘harlot’ for News headlines and wrecked his architectural career. Almost.I have a dismissive impatience for starry-eyed romances. Romeo-Juliet. Even Bridges of Madison County. They need a dose of humdrum, mundane domestic life, I thought. Bills, grocery, laundry,toilet-seat-up, income tax, dandruff.To be fair, Wright-Mamah survived admirably through most of the above. They made a 7-year life together, following their ‘decision made in harmony with the soul’ . He built Taliesin for her (Reminded me of Dominique’s Stoddard temple!). This idyllic home is also where Mamah’s skull was hacked with an axe, then doused in gasoline and set on fire, alongwith her 2 children, by a maniacal servant.Inspite of the irritating self-absorption of the protagonists, the Mamah who lingers on in the mind, is an endearing mix of steely resolve and innocence. She was fluent in German, French, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Latin.Then in the midst of a torn family and filthy headlines, she spent a summer mastering Swedish to translate Ellen Key’s Love and Ethics. And yet, as she admits ‘She had a grand ambition for life. All she did with it was to attach herself to a colossal personality, who would have made great work irrespective of her.’Guilty Confession to make. I kept trying to fit Wright into Howard Roark mold all through the book. (It was rumored that Roark’s integrity and fanatic self belief was modeled on Wright, as was his building-in-sync-with-Nature houses). Wright had the apt halo of eccentricity to match his artistic magic. He spent extravagantly and always had a trail of unpaid bills. He went into furious depression when his students ‘stole his ideas and took credit for them’. I expected more flair than the decidedly unoriginal ‘I am stuck in an unhappy marriage’ pick-up line. Incidentally, Ayn Rand did not form a favorable impression when she met him during Fountainhead research.Would the affair make headlines and scandalous gossip if THE Frank Wright was not involved? Maybe not.Would the book leave a bitter-sweet taste if not for Mamah’s chilling end? Maybe not.To put in a nutshell, a better way to fall in love with F.L Wright would be to see his Architectural genius.

Una gran historia muy mal escrita. Incompleta y aburrida, es una lástima porque la historia en si es interesante y es fascinante ver lo que hay escrito sobre ellos en internet.

Oak Park, Illinois, USA, Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts. Mamah Borthwick verlässt Ehemann und Kinder, um mit einem anderen Mann zu leben. Mutig? Verwerflich? Jedenfalls damals ein Skandal. Nancy Horan schildert den Ablauf sehr einfühlsam, spannend, nachvollziehbar, detailliert ohne Übertreibungen. Man hat oft das Gefühl, danebenzustehen, fast schon Gedanken lesen zu können.Und Mamah Borthwicks Liebhaber ist Star-Architekt Frank Lloyd Wright, der ebenfalls Frau und Kinder sitzen lässt. Horan erzählt eine wahre Geschichte, ausstaffiert mit erfundenen Details und Dialogen. Man lebt wirklich mit den Figuren, kennt ihre Spleens und ihre Räumlichkeiten, ahnt ihre Reaktionen und Gedanken im voraus. Alles klingt wie eben erst passiert und völlig plausibel.Oder fast plausibel. Die Briefe und Dialoge wirken manchmal zu geistreich, zu elegant, zu komponiert, aber das steigert den Unterhaltungswert dieses historischen Romans von 2007, bei dem fast jedes Wort perfekt sitzt.Mitunter packt Horan etwas zu viel Bedeutung in einzelne Gespräche, wenn sie die Gefühle der Hauptperson bloßlegen will; oder in einzelne Ereignisse, wenn Mamah Borthwick sich selbst mit der Gretchen-Figur in einer Faust-Oper vergleicht. Das Thema Frauenbewegung erscheint etwas leitartikelhaft. Freilich, Horan beschreibt zwei hochintelligente, kultivierte, gebildete und zugleich sehr emotionale, kreative Menschen, die sich unerschrocken gegen den herrschenden Komment stellten - ein dankbares Thema für eine interessante Erzählung.Horan erzählt im Prinzip chronologisch, nutzt aber vor allem in der ersten Buchhälfte viele Gelegenheiten zu schnellen Sprüngen in die Vergangenheit, um dann gegen Ende des (stets kurzen) Kapitels wieder in die erzählte Gegenwart zu schwenken. Das wirkt auf den ersten Blick kurzweilig und elegant, verwirrt aber öfter auch, wenn sie Geschehnisse mischt, die mehrere Jahre auseinanderliegen. Allerdings gibt es fast keine Andeutungen auf noch bevorstehende Ereignisse. Ansonsten wirkt der Roman blendend konstruiert: Dialoge, Gedanken, Zusammenfassungen und Detailschilderungen fließen nahtlos.Verblüffend, wie Deutschland in diesem Roman erscheint: Bei ihren Berlin-Aufenthalten 1909 und 1910 empfindet Borthwick Deutschland offenbar als toleranten, freigeistigen Platz, in dem auch Exzentriker in der Gesellschaft willkommen sind. Einmal sitzt sie unweit von Kaiser Wilhelm im Hotel Adlon.Horans Buch verkaufte sich gut in den USA und erhielt gute Besprechungen. Die meisten Profi- und Hobby-Rezensenten diskutieren jedoch vor allem das Leben der Figuren - auch das Ende wird genannt - und gehen kaum auf Qualitäten oder Schwächen des Romans ein.Aufmerksam wurde ich auf Horans Buch erst durch die Lektüre von T.C. Boyles The Women (vier Sterne), ein historischer Roman, der ebenfalls von Frank Lloyd Wright und seinen Frauen handelt. Offenbar wussten Boyle und Horan nichts voneinander; Boyle wurde später fertig und las Nancy Horans Version der Geschichte bewusst nicht.Beide Autoren kamen auf ihr Thema, weil sie täglich Lloyd-Häuser sahen: T.C. Boyle bewohnt ein Wright-Haus in Südkalifornien; Horan lebte in Oak Park, Illinois, das Wohnviertel mit der höchsten Dichte an Wright-Häusern, einschließlich der früheren Wohnhäuser von Wright und Borthwick. Meine Taschenbuchausgaben der beiden Bücher haben ähnliche Titelbilder, die mit dem typischen Stil der Wright-Fenster spielen.Im Vergleich zu Boyle wirkt Horans Roman reifer, sensibler, er befasst sich etwas mehr mit Wrights Architektur und zielt weniger auf Knalleffekte. Horan schildert weit detaillierter, weil sie einen kürzeren Zeitraum als Boyle behandelt. Sie skizziert auch Nebenfiguren sehr plastisch, aber nicht effektheischend, und sehr intim beschreibt sie die Beziehung zwischen Borthwick und ihren Kindern, die Borthwick zugunsten Wrights verlässt.Ich habe beide Bücher auf Englisch gelesen und hatte bei Horan weniger Vokabelprobleme, weil sie nicht mit Exotikwortschatz prunken will. Meine Loving Frank-Ausgabe von Ballantine richtet sich an Lesezirkel und enthält mehrere kurze Nachworte und ein längeres, interessantes Interview zur Entstehung des Romans. Die Internetseite mit dem englischen Romantitel zeigt historische Fotos und zwei kurze, halb interessante Videos zur Autorin und zu Oak Park.

Um gleich mit der Tür ins Haus zu fallen: Ich finde diese Geschichte faszinierend! Die Liaison des avantgardistischen Architekten Frank Lloyd Wright mit Mamah Cheney muss in der damaligen Zeit und in den sozialen Kreisen der Beteiligten wirklich unerhört gewesen sein. Der Einsatz, vor allem von der verheirateten Mamah, Mutter zweier Kinder, war enorm.Die Autorin erzählt auf fesselnde Weise und man merkt, dass sie dabei äusserst gut recherchiert hat. Dummerweise habe ich mich dazu hinreissen lassen, neben der Lektüre immer wieder auch im Internet Informationen und Bilder zusätzlich zu suchen. Dabei bin ich natürlich auch auf den dramatischen Ausgang des Ganzen gestossen, was ein bisschen so ist, als wenn man bei einem Krimi irgendwann das Ende vorweg liest.Nichtsdestotrotz habe ich das Buch von Anfang bis zum Schluss mit grosser Begeisterung gelesen, auch wenn in der zweiten Hälfte die eine oder andere Länge zutage tritt.

Googling the architect gives away the ending to this very interesting true story. Recommended - especially for a good bookclub discussion.