Snapdragon Literary Club February meet-up

Thanks to everyone who attended our first meet-up of 2012 and for the unfolding discussion of "Suite Francaise" but Irene Nemirovsky. If you haven't read it or skipped the Appendices at the end, go back and read them! They add a complexity and a revealing layer to the book. Haunting, thought-provoking, humorous, and a true re-telling of human nature during war, and one that the characters have no idea is just beginning.

February's book will take us back a few decades, over the Atlantic to Chicago, and gives life and voice to an American icon:  "Loving Frank" by Nancy Horan

 I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current.

 So writes Mamah Borthwick Cheney in her diary as she struggles to justify her clandestine love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. Four years earlier, in 1903, Mamah and her husband, Edwin, had commissioned the renowned architect to design a new home for them. During the construction of the house, a powerful attraction developed between Mamah and Frank, and in time the lovers, each married with children, embarked on a course that would shock Chicago society and forever change their lives. 



In this ambitious debut novel, fact and fiction blend together brilliantly. While scholars have largely relegated Mamah to a footnote in the life of America’s greatest architect, author Nancy Horan gives full weight to their dramatic love story and illuminates Cheney’s profound influence on Wright. 

 

Drawing on years of research, Horan weaves little-known facts into a compelling narrative, vividly portraying the conflicts and struggles of a woman forced to choose between the roles of mother, wife, lover, and intellectual. Horan’s Mamah is a woman seeking to find her own place, her own creative calling in the world. Mamah’s is an unforgettable journey marked by choices that reshape her notions of love and responsibility, leading inexorably ultimately lead to this novel’s stunning conclusion. 


Elegantly written and remarkably rich in detail, Loving Frank is a fitting tribute to a courageous woman, a national icon, and their timeless love story.

All are invited (even if you don't finish the book) to come visit in the Maxwell Perkins Library and discuss.

You can see more details here as well. See you there!