So I just finished reading “The Women” (T.C. Boyle) and re-reading “Loving Frank” (Nancy Horan) which prompts me to ask: is anybody else a little tired of biographies about Frank Lloyd Wright’s personal life involving his many, many affairs? I mean I think it’s one of those topics that everyone is interested in, but to a point.
Don’t get me wrong, I love FLW drama as much as the next person but can we cover any one of his other humanizing and interesting flaws, like the terrible business deals or the paranoia? In that light I bring you what I think would work much better.
Frank Lloyd Wright is a cowboy-samurai who kills his master (Played by Louis Sullivan) after they have a battle to prove his strength, he then beats up sides of beef in a meat in a meat locker, after which he takes on the Empire (Skidmore Owens and Merrill) in his mid-western arts and crafts style centennial falcon. The New Emporer (Phillip Johnson) sends his mute German assassin/bounty-hunter/rival (Mies Van De Rohe), they play a game of cat and also cat until a mysterious figure shoots the assassin in the back. It’s his master (an even angrier Louis Sullivan) they have a moment of dearest hate and confusing love before he walks away into the fog.
None of that really happened, but I think that would be a better story than hearing the same story over and over again from the perspective of the significantly less interesting figures in his life.
I've never read, "The Women," but I feel that at least Nancy Horan's book presents the story with greater depth than just some fling. She portrays Mamah as a woman stuck between a rock and a hard place - does she continue to stave off divorce by locking her depressed self in her room all day long, or does she embrace her failing relationship and at least allow herself to be happy by moving out? It's a lose-lose situation, which is a little more telling of how the world works. Plus, what I like about the book is that it's not exactly "about Frank," it's centered around Mamah, although at many points her life is centered around Frank. Anyway, I think the book brings up a lot of questions and depth that a simple "Frank Fling" style book could not encompass.
ReplyDeleteWe should definitely expand our reading circle, though. I stumbled upon this title in my latest book review binge: "The Madame Curie Complex: The Hidden History of Women in Science" I don't think there will be any architects featured, but there are some engineers, which I think is pertinent. What do you say, Corm?