Loving Mamah.....
While I really enjoyed this novel and was captivated by the romance between Mamah and Frank Lloyd Wright in the first few years of the 20th Century, I really LOVED Mamah's character and found her extremely relatable, complex and indeed a woman ahead of her time. Her only condition/vice/weakness was her love for a man not her husband, for which her society shunned her, and perhaps rightly so.
What bothered me about Mamah's character was the ease with which she abandon her children for her own romantic happiness, something I personally find so hard to imagine. However, despite my inabiltiy to comprehend this aspect of her character, I still had enormous respect for her as a woman, admired her lifestyle, and continued to "root for her" throughout the novel.
While some will argue that Mamah was the love of Frank's life, I never truly felt his love for her came close to hers for him. It is true he abandoned his wife and their children to live with Mamah in Talesin, however, I believe even if Mamah never come along, his journey may have led him to live apart from them nonetheless. Frank seemed, from this novel, a man obsessed with his work, his ideals, and his idea of truth (despite his affair), all of which he valued above his love for Mamah. While there is no doubt they were in love, it seemed (as the name of the novel suggests) that this is really Mamah's story of loving Frank, more than a love of equality or of her being the love of his life.
I HIGHLY recommend this novel and know avid readers will welcome and love this novel
