Loving Frank | 
 enlarge | Author: Nancy Horan
Creator: Joyce Bean
Publisher: Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged
Category: Book
List Price: $38.95
Buy New: $28.77
You Save: $10.18 (26%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  209 reviews
Sales Rank: 851420
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Unabridged
Number Of Items: 12
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 5.2 x 1.4
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
ASIN: B001AQXZZA
Publication Date: August 7, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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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 204 more reviews...
 loving frank January 9, 2009
This was a good book and easy read. It helps bring into focus that famous people are real and have faults just like everyone else.
Dewey, the special library cat. January 6, 2009
This is a very touching story of an extraordinary cat who becomes the "King" of the a local Iowa library. He brings in people of all ages to the library to read, check out books, listen to stories read and/or to just sit and snuggle with Dewey, the orange marmalade tabby cat. It is a enjoyable read and very emotional. My only complaint was that the author spent too much of her time telling her story and all of the problems of her family instead of just letting Dewey be the star. She injected too much of her into the book and I felt it was distracting and took away from Dewey's story.
Excellent story blending fiction and nonfiction January 4, 2009
Fantastic story -- takes a bit of time to get into the plot, but provides many thought-provoking issues which are still applicable today.
 Dull dull dull January 2, 2009
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was extremely excited to read this book. Note on the 'was excited'....bottom line is this book was plodding at best. I found I had to force myself to read it and often times used it as a sleep aid!
Although FLW was undoubtedly an amazing architect he was by far one of the least likable humans on this earth! Selfish and self-absorbed even with those that he supposedly loved! Mamah was also selfish and self-absorbed AND totally annoying BUT at least she had moments of clarity where I think it bothered her that she had chosen the path she chose and she at least had a bit of guilt over what she had done to her family and her children.
I found Nancy Horan's writing akin to watching paint dry. She seemed to spend a lot of time on nothing and very little time and effort on the parts that deserved the attention,
I must say that at the end of this book I felt like someone had slammed my head against a wall after a verrrrry long slow train ride that at the last second sped up and took a sharp left turn! OUCH!
 Loving Frank January 2, 2009
This is a compelling story which for the most part is conveyed in plain, simple, and often pedestrian prose. No doubt the author decided that the plot was so riveting that the appropriate style should be understated, but I think she took this approach to far. Most of the book could have benefited from the kind of lyricism displayed in its concluding chapters. I am nonetheless glad I read it. I had seen the PBS documentary on the Wright-Borthwick romance, so the events were not a surprise, but the novel did bring them to life. This is not a great book, but its story is worth hearing. In some respects Wright and Borthwick were ahead of their time, but whenever the well being of children is a factor whether to stay or leave a stale marriage remains a difficult dilemma.
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