Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

I knew who Frank Lloyd Wright was - but just barely.  My mom took me on a birthday adventure to Cedar Rock house in Quasqueton, Iowa a few years back.  It was an interesting place - full of straight lines and dark corners and very beautiful.  And I remember reading a young adult book, The Wright 3,  a mystery in a Wright house in Chicago

So it was with that little bit of knowledge that I read this book.   The story is fictionish.  I mean it is built on the actual story - you can research the events.  I think this famous story makes it a bit tricky to create a believable ficitionalized story -straying from the known facts would be so obvious. Especially when the truth of this story reads like fiction!  But, I sort of wish the story had moved a long a bit faster. Some parts drug a bit.

Loving Frank tells the love story of Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick.  Both are married with numerous children between them.  Frank had been the architet for the house that Mamah and her husband built. After the house was built and it was time to make plans to add the garage - Frank and Mamah gave in to their attraction.

This was a long time ago  - and although Mamah's husband, Edwin, eventually grants her a divorce. Frank's wife, Cathrine refuses to release him from their marriage and their eight children.  So they live a tough life of never fitting in to the society that Frank creates in his houses.  Living in both Europe and the US.  Withstanding the scandal that rocks Frank's career and his poor management style.

Eventually Frank convinces his mother to give him land in Wisconsin and he builds Taliesin for Mamah.  And it is there,  in the Wisconsin countryside that the real tragedy in this story happens.

 I found myself not wanting to fall for Frank.  He was an intense man - maybe manic depressive.  Watching Mamah Borthwick give in to her better instincts was actually a bit difficult.  Edwin seemed to be a simple man who loved her deeply - Frank provided her intellect with the sparring and stimulation she longed for, and giving in to that longing caused her to destroy her family - loosing children.  Eventually she found peace - but it took a LONG time!

This is an intriguing story - but slow moving and a bit to 'worshipful' of Wright for my taste.  May book club book.

Testimony by Anita Shreve

I really didn't like this one either...I'm sort of on a roll here! And not a happy one!

This is the story of a horrible sex scandal at a small private Vermont school. The events were videotaped, posted on the internet and handed over to the headmaster. And lives are forever changed - three marriages destroyed, high school prospects evaporated and a life ended.

As one of the characters described...this is a story of doors. As the characters proceed from door to door - opening one after the other - there is no going back.

But, Shreve tells this story through 20 different narrators and not in chronological order. The opening chapter is the moment the headmaster watches the tape...from there it travels ahead two years to a researcher interviewing the main characters. The tale moves back and forth through time and through voices until the final chapters tie all the loose ends together.

So...
>the plot is incredibly depressing - especially if you are the parent of a teenager, work with teenagers or have any connection whatsoever with teenagers. these are the supposedly good kids in the school
>the story ignores conventions of narrator and time

There are redeeming moments...through out the entire book you read about a researcher seeking information about the events. The researcher is never identified. Just like the person holding the video camera is never revealed. Instead these two pay silent testimony to the events that unfolded around them - knowing all the sides, hearing all the secret details and sharing nothing. I sort of liked that.

There is also a sweet love story between two of the main characters - Silas and Noelle. It is innocent in a way that is in stark contrast to the events that open the tale. Silas is clearly two different people and it is only in the very end that you find out exactly why...why he cracked and why he opened a door that Noelle could not go through. That is really the only why that the reader discovers though.

The story is also about all the sides of a scandal. You hear from the main characters but you also hear from the fringe players - those who floated on the edges and reacted to the events. There were so many moments when the course of the event could have been changed - so many people who could have made a difference. But, when you hear their voices you realize the inevitability of this event.

Weighing the pros and the cons...

I wouldn't recommend it very strongly. It sort of reminds me of John Green's Saving Alaska. But much darker and more depressing - hearing from the adults somehow makes it even sadder!!!