Well, here we can discuss Nancy Horan's Loving Frank. I say SPOILERS because I would love to get to the ending!

(the best part)

There are some points in the book that dragged a little but most of it kept me on my toes! I agree that there was not much history on Mameh but I did like the whole historical aspect of it. I really could not understand their relationship. it never felt real to me. I don't know if that is what Horan was going for but I just was waiting for it to end and surely not the way it did. I did not expect THAT ending!

The end was a shocker to me too. Several of the attendees in my book club had gone to Wikipedia and
looked up FLW, and I believe it's there they discovered the horrible death of Mamah and her children. I went to this group not having finished the
book. I think I had 2 or 3 chapters to go. Without
these, I wanted to shake Mamah 1)for leaving her
children, 2) for leaving a good husband who was willing to take her back after her first meeting with
Frank, 3) for deserting her sister and niece, 4) for
not being more mindful of how her selfish actions hurt
her children, his children, her sister, particularly
when she was painted as a harlot on the front pages of
The Chicago Tribune.

In the beginning I really didn't care for Mamah because she chose love over her children. Every mention of her children made me sick to my stomach! I am a new parent and I just can never imagine. I hate to leave my children.

But the ending is truly horrible & def unbelievable and I still can't believe that it was true! I did some searching around too and found that it was all a true story but Horan added her own spin on it so not all was true. But the deaths were very much true.

My children are all grown and moved away, but, like you I can never understand how a mother can simply walk away and leave her children.
One thing that came out in my book club was how arrogant and egotistical Frank Lloyd Wright was, and
that's a historical fact. Maybe around her he was much more humble, but I felt like Horan should have
emphasized that more. He was a womanizer, and after
Mamah's death he went on to marry two more times.
One thing I've never looked up was whether Nancy Horan
ever had children or not. That makes a difference, I think, in how a woman treats subjects such as child abandonment. Nancy Horan I think tried to give us an
omniscient or objective POV, but being a woman and knowing Mamah's horrific end, I don't think she could help herself putting her slant on everything. I know
I myself when I learned of Mamah's death, my tune changed. If this had been a work of total fiction, the
actual end would not be believable. Her death was awful, and forced me to like her a bit; but the childrens' deaths left me sobbing. Totally unfair, but
a cruel fact of history.

I felt the same way! When I learned that it was un fact true I believed it. If it were made up I would have been utterly disappointed and would never recommend the book to anyone!

I really wish Horan would have portrayed FLW into what he really and truly was, a womenizer (you took the words out of my mouth). That is the whole reason why I could not believe in their "love". It just didn't seem believeable. There was no romance or any feelings really shared. It was alike a friendship.

I guess the people who really knoew them (if they let anyone else in) knew of their real love. I don't know. I think in his world it was just another women but in hers he was a big deal and she sacraficed everything for him snd look what she got in return. Bills and Death!

I read this book almost a year ago, and did not like it at all.... I agree that the "love" was not shown in the book............. I hated that she and her children died, I hated that she was selfish, that he wasn't shown as the "real" him............ I also hated the fact that so much was told in how horrible it was for her with all the reporters, the news paper stories........... It was something that I looked at as if this were to happen in todays world..........who would think anything about it..........so why am I reading a book about it. They were both selfish and totally unlikeable.

LOL I see what you mean Kat. I hated the ending too but it really did happen so I accepted it more than I would have if it were made up! I kept thinkin gthe same thing about the reporters too but then I thought that life may not have been so exciting back then and maybe people feeded off of the tabloids but who knows. I hate that sorta stuff anyway!

Yes, Kat, I agree..I pretty much have the same feelings about the two main characters. I did think it was a well written book. My heart really went out to Mamah's husband when he came to Spring Green to collect the bodies of his children and "wife"..he was dignified and gallant in the face of unspeakable tragedy & having to face Wright. I have been to Spring Green often as my favorite quilt shop is there, so last time I went I checked out Talisan which is now privately owned...it is beautiful house (I didn't go in as it was a crazy amount of money to see it) in a gorgeous area, but having read the story it just looks like a sad place.