Book Log 2010 #10: The Women by T. C. Boyle

Very engaging fictional history/bio of Frank Lloyd Wright "written" by a former apprentice but told through the relationships between the architect and three women in his life (two wives and a lover). In each case, we see Wright for all of his gifts and faults, and it's easy to see why each of these women would fall both in and out of love with him, often more than once.

The book did remind me a bit of Riven Rock, another historical novel set around a genius (this time certifiably mad) and his wife. Both look at relationships strained by the husband's mental gifts (and deficits), the line between genius and madness, and how people dealt with the prevailing social mores of the times (in Wright's case, the issue of free love comes up quite a bit, while the wife in Riven Rock becomes involved in the women's suffrage movement). Both are worth reading, though The Women is the better of the two.