Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #666 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-08
• Released on: 2008-04-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780345495006
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Customer Reviews

Fascinating look at the internal life of Wright and his lover
I have studied the work and bio of Frank Lloyd Wright for many years, even traveling to his Western headquarters, Taliesen West, and touring homes he built in four cities. I was well aware of his strengths and faults, but little has been published about the women in his wife, other than his domineering, smothering mother and his strident, domineering third (and last) wife. (I'm counting Mamah Borthwick, his lover for about a half-dozen years, as a second wife, since they would have married if his first wife had granted him a divorce; he and Borthwick lived together for several years).

Wright's towering ego is well known and well documented. By choosing to look at Wright and his work through the eyes of Mamah, his lover, in this fictionalized historical tale, Horan brings new insight into the demons and angels that inspired his vision. Wright's well-documented narcissism and inability to control himself personally is examined as well, but not as the fatal flaws offered by most biographers, but as components of an immensely complex and genius personality.

Mamah's (first) husband was first to see Wright's vision but Mamah was the one to embrace it wholly as Wright set about building them a home in Oak Park, not far from his own house. Wright was a star on the rise at that time, accepting commissions almost faster than he could manage them, but the affair he and Mamah embarked upon, which caused her to abandon her children, led to considerable scandal and major setbacks to his business.

Mamah was a recognized scholar and intellect until she was subsumed into a loveless marriage by the conventions of the time. In Wright she found the outlet for her passions and the independence she longed for, and the support and acceptance to rebuild her professional life, which became linked with that of the feminist Swedish scholar Ellen Keyes. Mamah's story, and that of the feminists of her time, is largely lost to history, and for reminding us of those seminal and important figures alone Horan deserves a deep bow.

Horan's work also exumes many litle-known facts about Wright and his times: his love for rural Wisconsin, where he grew up; his fascination with Japan and business in buying and selling Japanese antiguities; and his admiration for the classic Tuscan homes of northern Italy. As this book documents the times in which Wright was shaping his own vision with the help and guidance of Mamah, we can better understand the architecture for which he became so famous.

For those familiar with Wrights biography, the tragic end to his and mamah's affair is well known. For others, it will come as a shock. Horan is simply masterful in describing the events as they must have occurred.

I enjoyed the book tremendously, but I have one major quibble: Horan offers little documentation for her narrative for the reader who might want to learn as much as she does. As one generally familiar with the story I find it authemtic, but an appendix elaborating on the sources Horan used would add to the book's credibility.

TO BE PERFECTLY FRANK...
Frank Lloyd Wright was, and is, considered by many to be an architectural visionary. His Prarie homes were organic in nature and designed to blend into the landscape rather than compete with it.

Frank himself could hardly be considered as a man who "blended into the landscape" and his unconventional affair with Mamah Borthwick Cheney, a married woman with two children, resulted in tragedy both personal and professional

Author Nancy Horan's historical novel takes you into the lives and minds of this unusual couple and explores their relationship and its effect the people who loved them as well as those on the periphery of their passion.

We are drawn into the inner thoughts of Mameh, an accomplished woman in her own right.....college graduate, fluent in several languages.....and her attempt to "stop standing on the side of life watching it float by" and instead "swim in the river and feel it's current". In an era when women were expected to quash any desire for personal growth and "act happy", Mameh's personal conflict forced her to make choices that provided temporary satisfaction, but were ultimately disasterous.

Could it be that you, like me, will become so consumed by Horan's vivid portrayal of this couple that you will find yourself searching the internet for more information about "what happened after" Horan's tale ends.

Overrated
For several weeks this book was on the best seller list and I anticipated reading it. With little knowledge of Frank Lloyd Wright I also anticipated learning something about his life and career. To the extent that I gained basic knowledge about FLW and his relationship with Mamah Cheney, the book was successful.

In some regards I found the depiction of Mamah like many historical novels that impose 21st century feelings and values on 19th century women. Since this is a true story, that statement cannot be totally true. However, I think that the author makes Mamah much more modern in her thinkings and opinions than she probably was in life.

While I thought the book was well written, somewhere along the line I missed what drew Mamah Cheney to FLW and what compeled her to have such undying love and to give up so much for "the man she loved." Maybe it was just that she wanted to get out of her relationship with Edward more so than a love for Frank. Perhaps with maturity and looking back in hind sight its easy to second guess Mamah's action. But she gave much more than he did. Consistent with FLW not paying his bills and taking advantage of friends, in a sense he took advantage of Mamah. He was able to go back and forth between his children and Mamah while she essentially burned her bridges. I question to what extent he truly loved a woman to ask her to do what she did. I certainly did not come away from this novel liking FLW.

I found Mamah to be a classic of a woman having an affair with a married man and not realizing that she was being screwed both figuratively and literally. Without Frank she literally had no place to go -no friends, no family. She gave up her children and took advantage of her sister who devoted her life to taking care of Mamah's children to be with Frank. Was the fox really worth the chase? When Mamah goes back to her house near the end of the novel I got the distinct feeling that she really second guessed her decision and the choices she made.

While other readers found this book a page turner, I labored to finish it. Unaware of Mamah's final demise, I was surprised and saddened by the ending. Even in the end, Mamah got the short end of the stick while Frank was able to go on and have other relationships and other women. He stayed on at his Taliesin. I wonder if FLW ever really realized the extent of Mamah's devotion and what she gave up for him.