Hi Everyone,
The last official meeting was held on Saturday, November 22 at the China Gourmet restaurant in Butler. Members in attendance were Becky, Ginnie, and me. We discussed the book Loving Frank by Nancy Horan. As I said in my October email, it is easily one of my favorite book club picks. Its greatest attributes were the profound messages embedded in the story. Although the book was fiction, the many historical accounts of the life of Frank Lloyd Wright’s lover Mamah Cheney were authentic. From Horan’s research the reader is treated with a vivid glimpse into the time period of the early 1900’s and the moral battles women faced not only in society but within themselves.
A major theme in Loving Frank stood out as “in the quest for self fulfillment, a person must make hard choices.” Mamah gave up her children, her sister, and her respected position in society to be with the man she loved. She was a maverick of her time. A proclaimed leader in the early days of the women’s rights movement, Mamah was breaking ground for other women who were suffocating in loveless marriages and dismal lives. A passage Horan quoted in her book written by the famous writer Ibsen defined the theme perfectly:
“The proof of a person’s greatness is the power to stand alone, to be able, in every individual case, to make his own choice; in action to write anew his own law, choose his own sacrifices, run his own dangers, win his own freedom, venture his own destruction, choose his own happiness.”
None of us agreed with Mamah’s choices. We believe she was selfish for walking out on her children and cruel for leaving her sister Lizzie to suffer the consequences of her immoral behavior. How can any woman abandon her own flesh and blood? Even Mamah’s mentor Ellen Kay, a famous feminist in Europe at the time, admonished Mamah for her choices in a letter advising, “It has been my belief and expressed philosophy that the very legitimate right of a free love can never be acceptable if it is enjoyed at the expense of maternal love.”
Frank Lloyd Wright was just as selfish as Mamah. Horan depicted him as an arrogant, selfish, and excessive individual. He enjoyed the control he had over people, and nothing seemed to be outside the limits of his control, specifically Mamah. Possibly, if Wright would have been less persistent, Mamah may have remained with her husband and children. Wright also had children of his own, but spent very little time as an active father. As the newspapers headlined stories about Wright’s love affair and financial crises across front pages, like Mamah’s family, Wright’s children and especially his wife suffered the shame he brought upon them.
In concluding my thoughts on Loving Frank, the book compelled me to learn more about the architect. My inquiry sent me to the library where I found many books on his work. While leafing through the pages of Wright’s architectural landmarks at our meeting, we found that Taliesin, the home that Frank had built for himself and Mamah, was very different than we had imagined. Mostly only familiar with our local Wright treasure Falling Water, I guess we imagined it to be perched in a tree, hovering over a brook, or jutting out from a rocky crevice.
So what’s next after January’s read, The Last Lecture? Bring your ideas tonight to book club. It has been several months since a majority of us have been together, so I am looking forward to seeing everyone again and sharing Professor Pausch’s thoughts on living.
Yours in reading,
Tammy
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