I've always been fascinated with Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture, and I'm a huge fan of historical fiction so this caught my eye. Fallingwater is one of the most beautiful and peaceful places I have ever visited. To me, he is one of the few people who successfully merged form and function and in doing so he appeals to my inner engineer and my crafty side. I also love historical fiction, so I picked this book up why wandering through the local bookstore in Boulder, which by the way, is a fabulous store if you're ever there: Boulder Books, it's on Pearl Street. I've been eating much to much fast food and I hate eating out sit down restaurants by myself, but I can accomplish that with a book in hand.
While I knew about his architecture, his legendary strive for perfection, and his art, I didn't know about his love or personal life. The book, is centered around his affair with Mamah Cheney, which is also quite legendary, and horribly tragic. More than the love, however, the book is about the woman herself, a woman I fell in love with. One of the blurbs on the back of the book says she is "everywomen" and I found that to be true. Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating affairs, marriage vows are sacred and should be honored. But we do live in a social structure very different from Mamah's, not only do we now consider it acceptable for women to vote, but it is generally assumed that we are also allowed to choose our mates, and our careers, and a whole lot of other things. Anyways, I'm not going to get all uppity feminist on this one. Just go read the book, it's a good story.
