Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

"You see, I started out to give expression to certain ideals in architecture. I wanted to create something organic---something sound and wholesome. American in spirit and beautiful it might be. I think I have succeeded in that. In a way, my buildings are my children."
                                 -Frank Lloyd Wright, quoted in the novel

I chose to read this book because our day trip group was planning to go to Florida Southern College for a tour of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings on the campus. In the reading I learned more of the architect's personal life than his work and I can't say I was impressed by it.

The novel which is set in the early 1900's essentially tracks the affair Wright had with a client, Mamah (pronounced May' mah) Cheney, a married woman with two children. When Wright decides to work in Europe for a while, Mamah leaves her family with her husband and her sister and joins him. While there, she heartily adopts the philosophy of Ellen Key, a Swedish author/speaker who hires Mamah to translate her work. More and more she becomes a feminist before her time. Though she is sorrowful when her dearest friend, Mattie, dies back in the states, and when she misses her children terribly, I had little sympathy for her since it was the life she chose for herself.

When Frank decides to return to the states and build a home in Wisconsin, Mamah reluctantly agrees to go with him though she knows the press is relentless in their pursuit of the "dirty details" of the affair. Frank builds Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin, where he and Mamah find some happiness until some financial problems crop up and then---a tragic occurrence that suddenly turned the book into a "page turner" for me!

Apparently this was Nancy Horan's first novel and I thought her writing was good. I didn't care for the self-indulgence of the main characters and, for that reason didn't enjoy it much, so I am rating it a 3. I have ordered another novel by this author and anticipate liking it more.

Our group did go to Florida Southern College and the tour guide had much to share about the talents and genius of Frank Lloyd Wright. I definitely could appreciate that side of the man in seeing these amazing structures he designed! However, there was no evidence in what I heard that he had a humble bone in his body!