Nancy Horan

“Ellen was arguing that women’s energy should be used for child rearing, that suffragists were wrongheaded to focus so intently on jobs and equal pay when motherhood was their legitimate work. For a woman to rush out seeking men’s work was to abandon her post by the cradle as the shaper of the human race. Far better, Ellen argued, that the emancipators worked toward rewarding and enhancing the job of ‘mother.’” This quote from the text describes the thinking of Ellen Key, a Swedish feminist writer in the early 1900s. Mamah Borthwick, protagonist of Loving Frank, translated some of Key’s work into English and considered Ellen a mentor. Mamah was a real person in this fictionalized history, and the book follows her passionate love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright starting in 1909.

Though Ellen was a mentor, Mamah disagreed that motherhood should be her life’s vocation. In fact, she left her young children and her husband to pursue her dreams of being a writer and translator. Of course, she also sought to travel with Wright and experience his architectural world. She continues to value her lifestyle, even though the press scandalized her living as an unmarried partner to Frank. She values a new morality that allows women to be strong, career-oriented, independent, and cultured. After a considerable time, Mamah regrets leaving her children and negotiates an agreement with her ex-husband to see them for a few weeks each summer.

The story follows Mamah and Frank as they travel from Chicago to Europe and back to Wisconsin, where they live together in the famous Taliesen. Mameh valued freedom over the traditional female roles of her time. She expresses her philosophy with confidence. Frank Lloyd Wright valued her strength and intellect as a woman. Unsurprisingly, people are still writing about her one hundred years after her death.… (mais)

The novel begins in 1909 where Ana Ferreira is attending a birthday celebration of Abraham Lincoln. This is just a year after the Springfield Race Riot in 1908, where mass racial violence was committed against African-Americans in Illinois. This riot was a catalyst for the formation of the NAACP, which organized to work on civil rights of African Americans. A white angry mob protesting the suspected assault on a white woman by a black man erupted into violence. The story proceeds to describe the journey of Ana Ferreira and her family from Madeira, Portugal to Springfield, Illinois in 1849.

Ana was only 9 years-old when her family escaped religious persecution in Madeira, Portugal. Emmanuel and Genoveva Ferreira settled in a small Portuguese refugee community in Springfield, IL with their children Beatriz, Ana and Joao. In Portugal, the Catholics terrorized the Presbyterian converts forcing them to flee. Ana makes friends with Callie Patterson, a free black girl who still endures prejudice in her daily life which Ana finds confusing. In 1851, Ana goes to work at the age of 14 to work for Mary Todd Lincoln helping to care for her children Tad and Willie since her husband Abe traveled a lot. He was a lawyer and politician who eventually became the 16th and first Republican President of the USA.

The author relies on historical facts to present her perspective of what it was like to work in the House of Lincoln. This is presented from the view of Ana experiencing everyday life during the tumultuous time before the American Civil War outbreak in 1861. Ana learned about slavery and racial prejudice from her friendship with Callie which wasn't too different from the religious prejudice from which her family fled. This is a good read for history fanatics looking for a more personal "view" of what it might have been like during this time period.… (mais)

I liked this novel, which is centered on Springfield, Illinois, from the 1840s to early 1900s, and the community which called that place home. Abraham Lincoln looms large within this community, but this portrayal is somewhat different as the reader sees him interacting with a range of people and grappling with struggles at home. Those people, who include immigrants, Underground Railroad operators, free Blacks, and more form a key piece of this novel, which is focused on community. There is also a disheartening piece, as the novel traces the history of the debates leading up to the Civil War to the race riots which became a feature of American life in the early 20th century.… (mais)