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Loving Frank | 
 enlarge | Author: Nancy Horan
Creator: Joyce Bean
Publisher: Brilliance Audio on CD
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
Buy New: $21.02
You Save: $5.93 (22%)
New (1) Used (4) from $17.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  173 reviews
Sales Rank: 821669
Format: Abridged, Audiobook, Cd
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Abridged
Number Of Items: 5
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 5.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 142333292X
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9781423332923
ASIN: 142333292X
Publication Date: August 7, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 3 to 6 weeks
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Amazon.com Review
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
Product Description
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 groundbreaking historical novel, fact and fiction blend together brilliantly. While scholars have largely relegated Mamah to a footnote in the life of Americas greatest architect, author Nancy Horan gives full weight to their dramatic love story and illuminates Mamahs 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. Horans Mamah is a woman seeking to find her own place, her own creative calling in the world, and her unforgettable journey, marked by choices that reshape her notions of love and responsibility, leads inexorably to this novels stunning conclusion.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 168 more reviews...
 Loved Loving Frank October 9, 2008
Really enjoyed reading this book;learned a lot about the personal and professional life of Frank Lloyd Wright. Would recommend this book.
A sleeper at first. October 6, 2008
I picked up this book two times and tried to get into it, the third time, I made myself read it. About the middle of the book, I could not put it down, fabulous read.
A Fascinating Read October 2, 2008
Having grown up knowing who Frank Lloyd Wright was (a famous architect), but knowing little about him personally, I was unprepared for the eagerness and antipation with which I devoured this novel once I began. I was intrigued by the great intellects Frank and Mamah are portrayed as having. Their fictionalized conversations are fascinating! All the while I was appalled by their affair and decision to leave their families--notably their children. This is a wholly engaging read with an ending that, if you are not already aware of the historical facts, will give you a shocking surprise.
 Too little Too late Too long October 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
My problem with the book was less with the writing than with the central character. That said, her half-hearted, directionless but still self-important quest to find herself went on for too many pages before she finally realized it was just an affair. Even that eventuality was lame as Mamah appeared more distressed about unpaid bills than she did about the effect of the sacrifices she'd been expecting from everyone all along. The book might not have been such a painful read if it had been simply shorter.
Interesting glimpse into FLW's private life October 2, 2008
The book is immensely readable, however I could not reconcile Mamah abandoning her children with the deeply thoughtful person Horan paints her to be. She had to be more self-absorbed than she appears on these pages. DO NOT make the mistake I did and reasearch the characters before finishing this book. I inadvertently discovered the shocking end to the story by reading on-line articles about FLW.
Mamah was woman born 100 years too early. FLW was, by Horan's account, irresponsible, a terrible money manager, and quite the narcissist.
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