Book Review

The September selection my book club choose is Loving Frank by} by Nancy Horan. I did not want to read this book; was not interested in it a all, butI was outvoted.

The plot drew me in and I fell into the story.

The book is the story of  the affair between The architect, Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick. An affair wouldn't make for good reading, you think. The year was 1907. Frank Lloyd Wright was an established star in the architectural world. He was also married and the father of six children.

.Mamah Borthwick was married to Edwin Cheney. She was the mother of two children and was raising her deceased sister's daughter.

At the turn of the last century Divorce was possible, but severely frowned upon.Naturally the aggrieved spouses refused to divorce, though Edwin Cheney later,much later, changed his mind and set Mamah free. Catherine Wright held tightly to her status as a married woman, one who is married to the famous architect.

Undeterred, Mamah and Frank live their lives  Truthfully, together.

The book follows their travels to Europe and back to the United States.

The book exposes the reader to the flamboyant and eccentric personality of Frank Loyd Wright.

The book is peppered with ideas that may be new to the reader; ideas that will stretch the mind; there is Wright's notion of "natural architecture" in which  a building ais married to the site upon which it stands. The reader also sees Mamah's struggles to progress the Woman movement and bring the vote to American Women.

Horan also brings in Goethe and the writings of Ellen key, a Swedish philosopher who espoused the idea of personal freedom, especially for women. This was a radical idea in the early years of the last century because women were thought of as property, first of their father's, then of their husband's.

The book is engaging and intelligent and well worth the reading. At 359 pages, it is not an easy read as we are exposed to many ideas that require serious thinking.

If you know nothing of Frank Lloyd Wright, the end of the book will be a shocker, but real life is often shocking.

I thoroughly recommend you read this book, as much for the history as for the ideas presented.