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The Women Hardcover – February 10, 2009
Purchase options and add-ons
- Print length464 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherThe Viking Press
- Publication dateFebruary 10, 2009
- Reading age18 years and up
- Dimensions6.3 x 1.55 x 9.36 inches
- ISBN-100670020419
- ISBN-13978-0670020416
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Product details
- Publisher : The Viking Press; First Edition (February 10, 2009)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 464 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0670020419
- ISBN-13 : 978-0670020416
- Reading age : 18 years and up
- Item Weight : 1 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.3 x 1.55 x 9.36 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #366,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,513 in Biographical Fiction (Books)
- #20,129 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- #23,035 in American Literature (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

T. C. Boyle is the author of eleven novels, including World's End (winner of the PEN/FaulknerAward), Drop City (a New York Times bestseller and finalist for the National Book Award), and The Inner Circle. His most recent story collections are Tooth and Claw and The Human Fly and Other Stories.
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Brief, brief summary, no spoilers:
The title "The Women" refers to the 3 main lovers/wives of famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. The story of each woman is prefaced by an "introduction" by one of Lloyd's apprentices, a Japanese man named Tadashi Sato. (Wright's first wife is discussed, but she doesn't get a separate introduction.)
In his narration, Tadashi tells of his arrival at Taliesin, Wright's magnificent home in Wisconsin. Whereas his tale goes in chronological order, the story of the women does not.
And that's one of the things that made this novel so memorable for me - we see characters at different points in time, through their own eyes, and through those of others. This also helped make the foreshadowing and sense of menace so palpable. When I finished that last page, I felt like I had been through an experience - and I had that wonderful reader "high" that comes with finishing a wonderful, thought-provoking book.
I do have a couple of quibbles - I am not sure how I felt about the narration by Tadashi. I think the book might have been better without it. It felt a little disruptive - as if it were from a different story, both in mood and in content.
Also, I thought one of the characters, Miriam, was almost cartoonish in her portrayal as a villain. She definitely helped give the book some of its best moments, but she never felt real to me because she consistently acted the same way, and always against her best interest. Mind you, I know there are people that do that, but she never sprung to life for me, and I could never see anyone being friends with her, lest marrying her.
All in all though, this was just a terrific read. I recommend reading it with Loving Frank, by Nancy Horan. I think that The Women is the better book, but the experience of reading one right on the heels of the other is very rewarding and fulfilling.
Recommended, especially for book clubs.
*** Note, I read this on a Kindle, and missed the footnotes when Tadashi was narrating. Be sure to read them because they add to the enjoyment of the book. (And as to how to easily access the Kindle footnotes, just check out the first comment to this post.)
Having some familiarity and appreciation of his work, I was clueless as to his life, which from the Great War until his death in the 1950s was a tabloid editor's dream come true. Rupert Murdoch would have paid the man royalties for the number of papers his tawdry, tragic and tacky relationships sold. Following is an outline of some of the circumstances: If you don't want to know, DON'T read on. Twenty years into his first marriage, 6 children later FLW notices he's a genius and his wife's a bore. Naturally, that entitles him to break up and pursue the very modern and truly fascinating Mamah Borthwick Cheney.
Her truly gruesome end opens the door for my personal favorite--mad as a hatter Miriam Noel--morphine addict and sometimes sculptress who make Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction seem tame by comparison. Fortunate to get out of the relationship with all of his reproductive parts intact, Wright ends his life with the disappointingly hypocritical Olgiavanna, a pale shadow of the women who came and conquered before her. And a nasty busy-body to boot.
The author has done a ton of research and The Women shines because of it. The reincarnations of Wright's masterpiece, Taliesin, is well and beautifully told. I have two criticisms of the book, which others may not feel warranted. First, the section about Miriam (who happened to be my favorite character) is too long. It could be cut by a third. Second, while Wright is occasionally portrayed as selfish or egotistical, he is cut a great deal of slack and mostly comes off as your dutch uncle.
Personally I think he was a much nastier and much more overtly selfish SOB who exacted a price to be in his presence. The author and I can disagree about this but if you're going to portray the women in his life--i.e., Frank from their POV, Boyle could have or should have been harder on the person (not the genius--there's no doubt about that). As I said though, others won't agree. Or think parts too long. The Women succeeds many levels but two that are seemingly contradictory: informative and titillating. Enjoy!
Top reviews from other countries
When I found it was non fiction I had to go back, could these women be even more real? Every word held a different flavour and packed a bigger punch, esp the role of desire and it’s consequences in the lives and worlds of each of them.
An exceptional and enlightening read.
I can't help thinking that he took all of the credit for a lot of 'his' well known designs, but which his apprentices came up with!
The "women" are HIS women, his wives and mistress. The lines between fact and fiction are blurred and much of the joy in reading Boyle's narrative heightened by the desire to disseminate the actual from the imaginary. A little research certainly satisfies the veracity of time and place and some of the more macabre events, and the author's elegant prose makes for a sparkling tableau.
The cast of characters is grotesque! Wright - the integrity of his work at odds with an egomania that lets little room for moral reflection. What then is genius if not such contradiction? And the damaged women he was drawn to, that he loved and discarded, or they of him, what is it then to be the appendage of this genius?
A sweeping, blistering tale of an America of long ago, that lives still in its creative genius, and its passion to celebrate and destroy that genius. Monstrous and humane. Frank Lloyd Wright IS America. I loved this story and recommend it gladly. (PS: Where are the Coen brothers!)









