Book Review of “Loving Frank” by Nancy Horan
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.
