True Loving

Loving Frank: Nancy Horan, 2008

Horan's debut novel details the life of Mamah Borthwick Cheney, particularly through the years 1907-1914, which she primarily spent with Frank Lloyd Wright the famous American architect. Little is actually known about Mamah's life and Horan used the known information to weave a haunting depiction about this illicit and tragic love affair which began while both parties were married with children. Mamah and Frank met while designing a home for Mamah and her family. Their affair stretched throughout continents before its abrupt and dramatic end in 1914.

This novel, while based in fact, is dramatic and entertaining enough to sustain any reader. It is filled with love and true emotion. As a woman I did initially have an issue with the origin of the relationship between Mamah and Frank. Yet as the story unfolded and the affair progressed from lust into love, it was difficult to maintain the moral stance that I began reading with. I believe that if a book can make you feel something then the author has done their job and this book, by the end, made me feel a mixture of emotions.

*****
xoxo