Loving Frank: A Novel
by Nancy Horan
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Book Summary Information
Author: Nancy HoranEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-04-08
ISBN: 0345495004
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780345495006
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
- Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
Book Reviews of Loving Frank: A Novel
Book Review: A Constructed Scandal
Summary: 4 Stars
Nancy Horan's historical novel about the scandalous affair between Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick is an interesting debut she should be proud of.
The Good:
- The historical events and personal drama are appropriately balanced; after reading the novel you feel as if you have learned about Frank Lloyd Wright's history as an architect, but have also obtained an interesting perspective on his and Mamah's personalities.
- Another note on history, Nancy Horan must be given credit for the amount of research put into the text, both in regards to her characters and the actual events described.
- The novel is full of struggle, with multiple viewpoints represented. Mamah and Frank deal with the backlash of abandoning their families, Frank's money troubles are clearly depicted, and the role of women during the beginning of the 19th century is discussed in great deal, with Ellen Key's philosophy used as a vehicle.
The Bad:
- Nothing about the novel stands out as far as the actual prose. Given the characters and context, I think Horan could have been a bit more creative with her narrative decisions. In the beginning it seems as if she might veer away from the standard linear, but ultimately decides not to.
- The diary angle is unnecessary and only partially executed.
The Ugly:
- The cover. I'm sorry, but it doesn't match what's inside.
As a whole, the positive exceeds the negative, as the story itself kept me reading. I must defend the text against those that argue with the characters' decisions- keep in mind this is based on a true story, therefore Horan didn't feel at liberty to rewrite Frank and Mamah's past.
Summary of Loving Frank: A Novel
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.So writes Mamah Borthwick Cheney in her diary as she struggles to justify her clandestine love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. Four years earlier, in 1903, Mamah and her husband, Edwin, had commissioned the renowned architect to design a new home for them. During the construction of the house, a powerful attraction developed between Mamah and Frank, and in time the lovers, each married with children, embarked on a course that would shock Chicago society and forever change their lives.
In this ambitious debut novel, fact and fiction blend together brilliantly. While scholars have largely relegated Mamah to a footnote in the life of America's greatest architect, author Nancy Horan gives full weight to their dramatic love story and illuminates Cheney's profound influence on Wright.
Drawing on years of research, Horan weaves little-known facts into a compelling narrative, vividly portraying the conflicts and struggles of a woman forced to choose between the roles of mother, wife, lover, and intellectual. Horan's Mamah is a woman seeking to find her own place, her own creative calling in the world. Mamah's is an unforgettable journey marked by choices that reshape her notions of love and responsibility, leading inexorably ultimately lead to this novel's stunning conclusion.
Elegantly written and remarkably rich in detail, Loving Frank is a fitting tribute to a courageous woman, a national icon, and their timeless love story.
Advance praise for Loving Frank:
"Loving Frank is one of those novels that takes over your life. It's mesmerizing and fascinating-filled with complex characters, deep passions, tactile descriptions of astonishing architecture, and the colorful immediacy of daily life a hundred years ago-all gathered into a story that unfolds with riveting urgency."
-Lauren Belfer, author of City of Light
"This graceful, assured first novel tells the remarkable story of the long-lived affair between Frank Lloyd Wright, a passionate and impossible figure, and Mamah Cheney, a married woman whom Wright beguiled and led beyond the restraint of convention. It is engrossing, provocative reading."
--Scott Turow
"It takes great courage to write a novel about historical people, and in particular to give voice to someone as mythic as Frank Lloyd Wright. This beautifully written novel about Mamah Cheney and Frank Lloyd Wright's love affair is vivid and intelligent, unsentimental and compassionate."
--Jane Hamilton
"I admire this novel, adore this novel, for so many reasons: The intelligence and lyricism of the prose. The attention to period detail. The epic proportions of this most fascinating love story. Mamah Cheney has been in my head and heart and soul since reading this book; I doubt she'll ever leave."
-Elizabeth Berg
From the Hardcover edition.
Amazon Significant Seven, August 2007: It's a rare treasure to find a historically imagined novel that is at once fully versed in the facts and unafraid of weaving those truths into a story that dares to explore the unanswered questions. Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Cheney's love story is--as many early reviews of Loving Frank have noted--little-known and often dismissed as scandal. In Nancy Horan's skillful hands, however, what you get is two fully realized people, entirely, irrepressibly, in love. Together, Frank and Mamah are a wholly modern portrait, and while you can easily imagine them in the here and now, it's their presence in the world of early 20th century America that shades how authentic and, ultimately, tragic their story is. Mamah's bright, earnest spirit is particularly tender in the context of her time and place, which afforded her little opportunity to realize the intellectual life for which she yearned. Loving Frank is a remarkable literary achievement, tenderly acute and even-handed in even the most heartbreaking moments, and an auspicious debut from a writer to watch. --Anne Bartholomew
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