It first caught my eye when a librarian was putting the book back on the shelves.  It was something about that beautiful, warm sunset gold color against a geometric design that reminded me of Frank Llloyd Wright and it echoed the only kind of stained glass that I am fond of.  I just happened to have familiarity with FLW from living in Arizona, being best friends with gay boys for so long, and a mom that’s been antiquing since the day I was born.  Let’s just say that I’ve been exposed.  So when a mild admirer meets a love story of historical fiction, yeah I’m gonna pick up the book.

Overall, I found I was terribly moved by the ending of this story.  C’mon, if I shed a tear at the close of the tale, the damn thing was good.  I felt such an emotional connection to the main characters that not only was it hard to let them go at the end of the book, but the tragic conclusion left me very unsettled.

Loving Frank is a love story of two strong forces that took an unconventional path of love for better AND for worse.  We get a glimpse of Frank Lloyd Wright, the well known American icon, and through Nancy Horan’s freshman novel and we learn about the love of his life, Mamah Borthwick Cheney, who has mostly been but a footnote in his biographies.  While this story is a piece of historical fiction and little is truly known about Mamah, she feels incredibly real in the context and backdrop of early European modernism, the first women’s movement, and FLW’s design and aesthetic.

We all have a general idea of who FLW is and the important visionary work of his architecture.  My life has been personally touched by his work as I went to school at Arizona State and a few of the buildings on campus were his design.  Because I was so intrigued with the buildings on campus I visited Talesin West nearby.  I love design, particularly modernism, and learning more about FLW really kicked in my interest for this book.  FLW is a demigod in the architecture world as he shaped an entire new way of looking at homes and our living space within them.  I can only imagine the challenge it would be to love and live with a giant as he was.  That alone could have been an interesting story.

The true star of this tale is totally Mamah.  She is not eclipsed by the big personality of the charming FLW.  In fact, she is a worthy lover, partner and friend in his life.  What I found so compelling about her is her inherent and undeniable need for passion in her life.  She forsakes what most women, including her own sister, only dream of.  A beautiful home in suburban Chicago, a devoted and supportive husband, and two charming children…in all accounts a very comfortable life.  She yearns to find what lights her up in all dimensions – intellectually, spiritually and within her heart.  As a woman who so fully lived her truth, I admired her tenacity and principles.  Yet, I know that I would have struggled far worse than Mamah did in her decisions and consequences.

I was also intrigued that Mamah was a suffragette who played at the periphery of the first women’s movement in the early 1900s.  She served as a translator to Ellen Key, a European contribution to the cause.  It was very fascinating to see Mamah’s thought process for living such a principled life and evaluating her life choices which often bumped between the very ideology that she so passionately supported, society’s expectations of women at the time, and all that is (and is not) to be a good mother.  The character that Nancy Horan portrays is extremely courageous, deeply soulful and taps on the essence of the heartache and intellect true to many fascinating women.

Even though this story is set around 1907-1914, many themes of this book still resonate today.  There certainly are a number of issues around the first women’s movement that never came to fruition (equal pay for equal work is one of them!), the need for one’s own money and space (Virginia Woolf can you hear me?), and the very early idea of celebrity and the hounding paparazzi.  It was great to see them in the context of history and brought me a new perspective.

But the very heart of this book is a wonderful love story between two fascinating characters – one an American idol and the other we see so fully in this elegantly written novel.  I came across this quote when I was finishing the book and feels like it is so appropriate for Frank and Mamah.

“I tell you, the more I think, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.”   — Vincent Van Gogh

I hope that you will enjoy this book as much as I did.  I relished getting lost in its pages.  Pour a big glass of wine and enjoy!  Cheers friends!

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