![Loving Frank: A Novel [Book]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_v1lrE-P2NF6Fv_h2HRcFZ0RH7kh586qhi97mTIbhPsNCsX2j_AJI-8c9SX8gF8Xpvpoa_Q9T3GgoZ-eJ0fLrhmjr25j4Vh9BZCyVMc1ZPBWL-uPpWqOyzkA62f3zPSEPJVoWUF2TPrZhkKTOGlMlwdxi1aZ-Bx=s0-d "Loving Frank: A Novel [Book]")
"Loving Frank" has been on my to read list for many years. It seems this is my summer for love stories. I am hesitant to write my thoughts of this book, because it has already been reviewed so eloquently by so many who know what they are talking about.
I have heard "Loving Frank" described as a beautiful love story between Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick Cheney. I instead found it to be the tragic story of two brilliant, but flawed people always making excuses for their selfishness.
With that said, I found the book both well researched and beautifully written. Nancy Horan successfully weaves fact and fiction into a quite believable story. I found Frank to be a true narcissist; making no excuses for his behavior other than he was a genius and deserved everything he took. Mamah was an intellect seeking to be true to herself even when it meant abandoning her children. Who is most guilty? Even though I found both Frank and Mamah to have few redeeming qualities and their actions most unforgivable, at some point I found myself drawn into their affair wanting them to find compassion and a happy ending for all.
"Loving Frank" was suggested several years ago as one of our book group reads. I wish we had selected it. I can only imagine the lengthy discussion that would have ensued. This book brings up issues of right and wrong that are as prevalent today as in the early 1900's.
Is hurting someone ever justified by ones own personal happiness?
If the story does not offend, it is good read!
i have not read this but always trust your own opinion!!
ReplyDeletei adored The Notebook, i felt it was the best love story ever written. loved the book, adored the movie, many disagreed and said it was too sad to finish. i never found it sad. it's a REAL love story, that's all i ever felt or saw!!!!
Well now I am intrigued ;)
ReplyDeleteDebbie, I did see the movie. It was bittersweet!
ReplyDeleteVera, it is a really good memoir. However some may find the subject offensive; it may hit to close to home.
It's based on a true story, one that was both passionate and horrific. If life offends, so be it. I read this a couple of years ago, after visiting Falling Water and Kentuck Knob, then reading a biography of FLW, & wanting to know everything there was to know about him. I admire the novelist's exploration of Maymah's character, particularly the part where she's in Germany. I expected to feel more empathy for her than I did, though, which made me like the book less than I would have otherwise. The way the press ravaged them reminds me a lot of what's going on now, with Casey Anthony & the like. THAT offends me.
ReplyDeleteCharlotte, thank you for your response. I do wish we could sit and discuss this book, and others. I would be interested to know what it was about Wright that interested you. I just couldn't warm up to him even though I recognize his genius. Although I could not approve of the choices Maymah made, I was intrigued with her courage and desire to explore. Anyway! As for CA, the system seems to have worked. I don't know enough about it to really have an opinion. I hadn't made an analogy of the two, but it is something for me to ponder. In both, the real victims were the children. How sad!
ReplyDeleteExactly, Bonnie--the kids were the ones who suffered the most.
ReplyDeleteWright was a genius, a control freak, an amazing visionary. How does someone like that evolve? That's what interested me about him. I could never live in one of his houses--they are so emphatically HIS, I'm afraid the house could never be MINE--but they are stunning, the realization of a vision.