The Women

The Women is a rather depressing novel of the three women Frank Lloyd Wright made his mistresses over the course of several decades after ending his marriage to wife Kitty. Told from the perspective of one of his draftsman students Sato Tadashi, the book hurtles through the lurid details of Wright's various ill-fated love affairs, but in reverse historical order. We first encounter Olgivanna, then Miriam, then Mamah, the most famous of the group and the subject of the other popular book, Loving Frank. While the other book makes you like and pity Mamah, this book leads you to revile all three women and indeed, Wright himself. I liked Loving Frank much better than this book, even though it probably romanticized an ugly situation concerning a man who started a love affair with his client's wife before officially finishing his marriage. While some allowances have to be made for a time when most men were not engaged fathers or necessarily expected to be faithful husbands, The Women portrays Wright as a near-depraved egomaniacal spendthrift who happened to design nice houses. I can't believe that accurately portrays Wright's personal or professional lives, although perhaps that's why it's a novel.