Loving Frank: A Novel Paperback – April 8, 2008

I found this story thoroughly fascinating. It is not a book about architecture but about a very famous married architect that had a torrid affair with a married, fairly wealthy, very educated woman that made headlines in its day 1911-1914 in Chicago. If this happened now, it would be plastered all over the tabloids, internet and TV! It is a story of lust, love, abandonment, travel and living in Europe. It is about the suffragette movement, the European contemporary art movement (Bauhaus). But is a story of 2 very selfish people, self-absorbed with little regard for the families they are leaving behind in their quest for Frank L Wright's success and her "finding herself", could she live with him? like a little trial run. She wouldn't want to leave her comfortable family with 2 young children officially if this romance didn't work out. As exciting as this story is, based upon true events, it was terribly sad to see how many lives were ruined and scarred from their jaunt to Berlin and other European places trying to escape the publicity they were creating. All along they felt they were being tormented and harassed by the press, that they were the victims. This book appears to be well-researched for the actual events of the two main characters even though it is a novel. I will not spoil the ending, but this must have been some scandal in its day especially for anyone in Chicago during that time. I would highly recommend this as a very interesting book, a piece of our architectural history and the precursor to the "women's movement" and "women's liberation" ideals.

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.

Thinking that Loving Frank was a historical biography about Frank Lloyd Wright and becauseI I was familiar with his architectural style and buildings, I decided to spread my wings a bit into this genre.

“I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current.”

This caught me from the very beginning and is the crux of the story. Loving Frank is not about Frank Lloyd Wright as it is about Mamah Borthwick Cheney... a mother, a wife and a woman amidst the growing women’s movement in this country. Frank was a spoilt child who was doted upon by his mother and he grew up to be a self centered and arrogant man with extraordinary talent and a gift but still doted upon by his mother. Yes, he had many good qualities and attributes; but it was Mamah who brought these out in him. Loving Frank was not easy for Mamah.

Reading Loving Frank is not easy for the reader either. One has to put aside personal feelings and judgement of Mamah. If you can do that, I think you will find something well worth reading.

* I suggest that you read Loving Frank FIRST and then go to Wikipedia and look up Frank Lloyd Wright. I think this will help the pieces to fall into place without spoilers.

I mostly enjoyed the first third of this book, and found the last third to be unexpected and riveting. Overall, the story is well-written and interesting; however, I became downright bored with the middle part of the book, massively tired of both Frank and Mamah, and just wanting the story to "get on with it." I found myself skimming whole pages, something I don't do if the story keeps my interest alive. All-in-all, it's worth reading, and I do think it would make a wonderful movie. As a side note, if this story paints an accurate picture of Frank, he was far from likable.