Review by Mandy Shunnarah<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em>If you\u2019re like me, the idea of reading a historical fiction romance is more than a little gimmicky. It\u2019s the sort of book I\u2019m almost embarrassed to be seen with or admit I\u2019ve read. But there was something about Nancy Horan\u2019s novel Loving Frank<\/i> that caught my eye, and I thank the book gods it did.<\/p>\n Loving Frank <\/i>transports the reader to early 20th century Oak Park, Ill. (today a swanky Chicago suburb). Mamah Borthwick Cheney is in a complacent, yet loveless marriage and the irreverent and brazen Frank Lloyd Wright intrigues her. As Frank designs the Cheney\u2019s family home, he and Mamah connect on multiple levels. In 1907, the pair decides to leave their families and start a life together in Europe. Over the course of several countries and 200 pages, the reader enters the couple\u2019s tumultuous, hopeful, and deeply complicated relationship. In a time when women were still thought to be the property of the husbands, Mamah is guilted by her friends and family to return home at the expense of her happiness. This is further complicated by the media\u2019s obsession with Frank\u2019s architectural idiosyncrasies and family abandonment. Then, at the moment when freedom from the media\u2019s blitz and incorporating each of their families into their relationship seems feasible, the sort of \u201cdivine retribution\u201d their families and the media predicted occurs–and the hopscotch trail of foreshadowing is so masterfully rendered that you\u2019ll read the chapter again and again.<\/p>\n I picked up Loving Frank <\/i>because I was looking for a summer \u201cbeach read,\u201d so I was surprised to find how much I learned from the book. Horan spent years researching Frank Lloyd Wright\u2019s architecture, family, and travels, as well as the little information there was to be gleaned about Mamah Borthwick Cheney, and it shows in her work. Many of the letters and newspaper articles were taken from Wright and Cheney\u2019s archives. Far from reading like a history book, Loving Frank <\/i>is an exercise in being intimately connected with strangers from the past.<\/p>\n Yet, Loving Frank <\/i>doesn\u2019t read like your typical steamy page-turner either. You won\u2019t find any erotically descriptive scenes or unwarranted infatuation. Frank and Mamah fall in love for the most authentic and simplest of reasons: they understand each other. Their mutual understanding is spiritual, philosophical, artistic, and, above all, intellectual; it\u2019s an understanding deeper than bodily admiration and the obligations of family. When asked how they can abandon their domestic duties, they answer that they wish to \u201clive honestly.\u201d The pair would rather spend a life together yearning for peace of mind from the public than a quiet life apart yearning for happiness in their failed marriages.<\/p>\n In this unexpected way, I found Loving Frank <\/i>to be an oddly feminist novel. Mamah exudes the sort of unabashed realist feminism that the fiercely independent singletons often wish to condemn. Because Mamah is steadfast in her course to live honestly, never bending to the will of the society that damns her, I find her to be the accessible type of feminist that is militant and heroic in her own way, commanding respect with her lifestyle. Loving Frank<\/i>\u2019s plot may hinge upon a romantic relationship, but the protagonist Mamah is made of stronger stuff.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re looking for a book that\u2019s simultaneously surprisingly educational and pleasantly light, add Loving Frank <\/i>to your shelf.<\/p>\n Do you have a book you’d like See Jane Write Magazine to review? Would you like to write a book review for our website? Send book review pitches to seejanewritemag@gmail.com.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mandy Shunnarah is a freelance writer and editor, and an aspiring novelist. When she’s not writing, she can be found reading, learning to letterpress, watching Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones, and finding stray cats to cuddle with. Follow her on Twitter at\u00a0@fixedbaroque<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0@awhitewrites<\/a>. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Book Review of Loving Frank by Nancy Horan Review by Mandy Shunnarah If you\u2019re like me, the idea of reading a historical fiction romance is more than a little gimmicky. It\u2019s the sort of book I\u2019m almost embarrassed to be seen with or admit I\u2019ve read. But there was something about Nancy Horan\u2019s novel Loving… Continue reading Loving Frank: A feminist historical fiction romance?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[102,98,95],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Mandy-reading-Loving-Frank.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=977"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1048,"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977\/revisions\/1048"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Loving](\"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Loving-Frank.jpg\")
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Photo Credit: Mandy Shunnarah<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/a>
Photo Credit: Mandy Shunnarah<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/a>