Loving Frank

This is Nancy Horan's first novel and it is an amazing story based on historical figures and events about the romance of the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick Cheney at the turn of the century.

At the beginning of the 1900s, the affair between Frank Lloyd Wright, a married man of 20 years with 6 children, and Mamah Cheney who is herself a married woman with 2 young children created quite a scandal. Mamah was a highly educated woman and an advocate for women's rights.  She found an intellectual "equal" in Frank and together they pursued their love for each other despite social conventions.

Our discussion centred around whether we should condemn Mamah for her choice.  Would we have abandoned two young children and left them to be raised by someone else?  If it were not for Mamah's sister Lizzie who put her own life on hold to look after Mamah's children, could Mamah have left her husband?  How selfish was her choice when it is the expense of someone who had sacrificed so much for her already?

Also, would we have been more forgiving of Mamah if she had done something more with herself?  That is, beyond "attaching herself to two colossal personalities", Frank Lloyd Wright and Ellen Key, the Swedish feminist writer.

Nancy Horan grew up in the same street as Mamah Borthwick Cheney in Oak Park, a suburb near Chicago.  Although much is known about Wright, little is known of his mistress. Horan said she was very excited when she discovered some of Mamah's correspondence and decided to base her story from Mamah's point of view. Without giving away the ending, we found the passage with Frank and Edward Cheney on the train to Taliesin very moving.  And the editorial letter that Wright wrote in 1914, which happened to be real, we found very touching and gives us a glimpse of Mamah's courage at a time when "a wife still is 'property'"and how she follows her belief that "only true love is free love".

We rate Loving Frank 8 ½ to 9 out of 10.

Our next book is The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (changed from Ice, Louis Nowra) and is taking place on Wednesday November 3rd.