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Binding: Audio CD
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
Edition: Unabridged
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged
Manufacturer: Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged
Number Of Items: 12
Publication Date: August 07, 2007
Publisher: Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged
Studio: Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged
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Editorial Review:
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.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
This book was in great condition and it was a good price. It was also delivered in a timely manner. Would definitely buy from them again.
Rating: -
I read this book upon recommendation from a friend--it was the recommendation that kept me going as the first few chapters were somewhat dry and tedious. I completely missed the pull and attraction that Mamah Borthwick Cheney felt toward Frank Lloyd Wright and why either one would leave his/her family and risk so much to be together.
As the story went on and I gained additional insight into Mamah, her intellect and insight came much more into focus as did her reasons for leaving her family. In spite of this, I still had trouble understanding the attraction to Frank Lloyd Wright. While clearly brilliant and talented, he seemed to be a pompous and dishonest individual.
Since this is historical fiction, it is written around factual information about the situations that surrounded these two individuals. However, I knew nothing about Mamah Borthwick or her relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright prior to reading this book and was completely shocked and stunned by the ending.
It was only in how Mr. Wright responded to the events that unfolded at the end of the story that made me see beyond the arrogance into a complex individual who had enormous respect and great love for Mamah Borthwick.
After finishing Loving Frank, I wanted to learn as much as I could about these two individuals, especially Mamah Borthwick, and the events that surrounded the novel's ending. This is generally a sign of a well-written piece of historical fiction.
Rating: -
What a wonderful subject matter for a novel! It is clear that doing a biography with the material available would have been insufficent but Ms Horan found a way to make this tale fascinating.
Mamah is a finely chiseled portrait of a strong woman confronted with an equally strong Wright. The brutal ending of her life is well rendered, without the 'horror movie' effect I expected.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in F.L. Wright as an illuminating substitute (though partly fictionnal) to a short sequence of the renowned architect's life.
Rating: -
I abosolutely loved thier love story and all they went through during the time period this took place. The affair between 2 married people in the early 1920's was so scandalous it was the big story in the city/town newspaper. It was such a touching story until the very "explosive" ending which left me running to the internet so that I could google to find out if this was fact or fiction. What a shocker!!
Rating:  -
Nancy Horan's first novel "Loving Frank" details the period of his life when he leaves his wife for one of his clients, Mamah Borthwick Cheney. Per Horan's intention, the star of the book is really Mamah. During the time period of this book, the early 1900s, she is ahead of her time in terms of her views on motherhood, women's right and woman working. But as much as she must have challenged the people who lived alongside her, she challenged me, the reader.
I agree with Mamah (and Frank Lloyd Wright) that no woman can be defined solely by motherhood or by being a wife. I am grateful that my choice not to start popping out babies has not turned me into some outcast. (Not enough progress has been made on this front, though. I am challenged to defend this perspective regularly and frequently met with "Oh, you'll change your mind.")
I agree with the notion that you do your children no favors by staying in an unhappy marriage / job / life. All that results from doing so is teaching them that being unhappy is okay and they they too should strive for such discontent in their own lives. We do much better by trying to attain happiness and fulfillment.
Where I struggled with this book is that I found both Mamah and Frank Lloyd Wright, particularly Wright, so unlikeable.
While it is okay to teach your children not to settle for average but instead to strive for success, there are some responsibilities you have to them as your parents. In "Loving Frank", Horan details all of the irresponsibilities of Frank Lloyd Wright. He leaves his wife and six children to travel to Europe and have an affair. He doesn't pay his employees, particularly the young architects who need the money more than anyone. He alternates by giving women chance in architecture and shooting them down as mere draftsman. What is there for the reader to like about him? Is his only redeeming quality the collection of buildings he left behind? Because that leaves me liking his talent but still not the man.
I felt similarly about Mamah. I am happy she had the courage to go out and succeed in life, independently of her husband. I am happy she did not settle to be a stay-at-home mom if that dud not give her pleasure. But isn't part of being a responsible adult owning up to the choices you make and acting responsibly about them? Horan writes of Mamah leaving her kids to go to Europe and being grateful to her sister for watching the children. But not once do we read of Mamah portrayed asking her sister to watch the children. I know that sometimes things happen without a lot of forethought, even things like children. But it's hard for me to accept the idea that it is okay to make children and to just leave them. Or more difficult for me to digest, to leave the children but assume that you have an open ticket to go back and reclaim them at any time.
I'm pleased that I completed reading "Loving Frank" and I do feel like I have better insight into Frank Lloyd Wright after having read it. I just wished I felt more love for him at the end of the story.
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