A captivating novel which covers the life of Frank Lloyd Wright and his long-time love affair with Mamah. It is interesting to see the effect their affair had on their lives and how different it would be viewed today.

At first, Mamah Cheney knew Frank Lloyd Wright as the brilliant architect who was going to design her new house. While he did, they developed a close friendship, but on realizing their bounds, stepped away from each other purposely. It didn’t last long and soon they fell headlong into an affair that shocked both their families and the world. Both Mamah and Frank struggle to find their identities in the face of a hostile world and their own love.

I thought I was going to enjoy this far more than I did and to be honest it was a disappointing work that didn’t meet its full potential. The idea of humanizing and developing the love story between one of America’s greatest architects and his mistress, who appears to have been more or less reviled at the time, is at first a great one, and the book starts out promisingly. The characters struggle with the damage they’ve done to their families and themselves in the name of a “free love” which no one can understand but them.

By the time Frank and Mamah start to explore Europe, though, they had lost me. For one thing, Mamah is not a very sympathetic character. She places the discovery of the meaning of her life before her children and before Frank and it’s difficult to agree with her choice when it involves merely translating another woman’s works. Did she really have to seek out solitude and hurt everyone she loved for something that she could have done in their presence? Moreover, I didn’t like the philosophies that Ellen Key espoused and to be honest, didn’t like Ellen herself, and wished Mamah had the fortitude to write herself rather than give a voice to someone else. These are doubts that she herself struggles with, and even that bothered me to an extent. Much of this book is wrapped up in Mamah’s thoughts, regretting what she’d done and who she’d hurt, yet largely failing to right any wrongs she thought she had committed.

Frank isn’t much better, as he is brilliant but something of a wastrel, spending money on extravagances, going to faraway places, and even at times pushing Mamah into his ideal vision. This is a book with characters so flawed that they got on my nerves, and while that may be realistic, it does mean I had trouble going back to the book and concluded my dislike for it. It didn’t help that I hated the ending. Honestly, this is a true story, so I feel like it’s wrong to say that, because it would also have irked me if Nancy Horan had made up something else.

In the end, I didn’t like the characters, didn’t like where the story wound up, and didn’t like the philosophical dilemmas in between. Loving Frank was not a book for me. ( )

I went through many emotions in this book. The beginning was enjoyable to read and I enjoyed reading about the families during that time period. Then the middle part I struggled with the choices made by the character, Mamah, and whether I could even finish reading this book. But, as I continued to plug through the book, I found myself enjoying it again. The last 50 pages are unexpected and left me saddened with realizing it was the end of the story. I wish I could give this 3.75 stars. It wasn't quite a 4 star book, but definately a good read. The key is to keep reading all the way to the end! ( )

I never was aware about the life of Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick..I only knew of his talents as an architect.

It was a good read, but how could ANYONE leave their children and run off with another man...to me that was totally irresponsible and unthinkable.

She may have re-thought her decision the last time she went to visit her children since they almost totally ignored her and were just being polite, but it was too late.

And....the ending....oh my...what a tragedy...my question, though, is this: Did that really happen at Taliesin? ( )

I liked this book. At first I was put off by how easily this woman seemed to walk away from her children. But as the story fleshed out and we as reader are shown the parameters in which women were forced to live at the time, it was harder to judge her. I'm inspired to travel to Tailiesin now in Spring Green, WI and see where this fictional-rooted-in-fact story took place (in part).