(Publisher’s Weekly, Nov. 17)

The Women by T.C. Boyle

The genius of Frank Lloyd Wright was both magnetic and cruel, as evidence by the succession of failed marriages and hot-blooded affairs depected in this biographic reimagining that drills into Wright mythology and the dark shadows of the American dream.  The narrative moves backwards in time through the accounts of four women in Wright’s life:  Olgivanna, the steely, grounded dancer from Montenegro; Miriam, the drug-addled narcissist from the South; Kitty, the devoted first wife; and Mamah, the beloved and murdered soul mate and intellectual companion.  But the novel’s centerpiece is Taliesin, Wright’s Oz-like Wisconsin home. The tragedies that befall Taliesin- fires, brutality-serve as proxy for Wright’s inner turmoil; his deper stirrings surface only occasionally from behind Boyle’s oft-over-bearing depiction of Wright’s women.  The most engating person is Tadashi Sato, the Japanese-American apprentice and narrator who emerges via his frequent footnotes as a comlex reflection of “Wrieto-san” and, with his inability to remain objective and his evolving view of Wright and Wright’s image, becomes the book’s most dynamic character.  It’s a lush, dense and hyperliterate book – in words, vinage Boyle (February 2009)

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