Loving Frank

Each month I read a book as part of a group called “Page Turners.” This month we all read “Loving Frank” by Nancy Horan. This novel is a fictional retelling of the scandalous affair between the architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Mrs. Cheney.

Twelve of us gathered in a back room of Garland Central Library. Our leader, a recent college graduate who is at least 20 years younger than the other women and 60 years younger than me, asked us if we liked the book.

Around the long table, 11 women raised their hands and gave “Loving Frank” a thumbs up. I was the only one who gave it a thumbs down. I don’t mind being “Odd Man Out.” That has happened before.

My objection was that I felt the novel did not give a true picture of Maima Cheney. She was a woman who had everything: a wealthy husband, two charming children with a nanny to care for them, other servants, and nothing to do but pursue her own interests. They lived in Oak Park, Illinois. Her husband hired Wright to design and build one of his famous “prairie houses” for her. Then she and Wright had an affair. She took her children to Colorado and left them there for her husband to reclaim. Wright abandoned his wife and six children, and he and Mrs. Cheney ran off to Germany. They were gone for two years.

In Ms. Horan’s book the author imagines Maima writing in a diary and having constant thoughts about her children. This is based on no physical evidence, as no such diary exists. As far as anyone knows, neither Frank Lloyd Wright nor Maima Cheney ever showed any concern for the spouses and children they abandoned.

The other women in my reading group protested, “It is only a novel!”

I don’t like books, fiction or non-fiction, which give a false picture of reality. That’s why I don’t read science fiction or fantasy novels. I worry about children who grow up with these books. Are they prepared to live in the real World? Just as bad are novels which inspire unreal expectations about love and romance. Only fairy tales end in living “happily ever after.”

Perhaps it is because I have known people like Wright and Cheney. People who are totally self-centered. People who talk with pride about being a parent but who never parent their children. People who will spend money to give their children “things” but avoid spending time with them. People who want the pleasures of having children without the responsibilities of being a parent.

Traditionally men could play this role with impunity. Dad was the bread winner; Mom was the caregiver. Today most young people are sharing the responsibilities of parenting. Lucky is the child whose Dad will spend time playing ball with him/her rather than working overtime in pursuit of a new client. Unlucky is the child whose Mom feels it is more important to have a career than a Cub Scout den or a Brownie troop.

Even a work of fiction should portray life as it is. “Loving Frank” portrays Maima Cheney as a sympathetic character, a feminist in pursuit of her special interests and impassioned by love for a remarkable, flawed man. Is anyone so talented that it justifies neglecting his/her family? Is it okay to abandon a child, just because a person “falls in love” with someone other than the child’s parent?

Frank Lloyd Wright was a talented and influential architect. Some one say he was our greatest 20th Century architect. But he was a bad man. And Mrs. Cheney was a bad mother. Let us not romanticize her. Not even in fiction.