Mamah and Frank Lloyd Wright meet when he designs a home for her and her husband. Conversations and many meetings lead to a soul connection/love that causes both to leave their spouses and children. Therein lies the conflict and the continuing agony for both. A bit too much agony for me thus the 3 rating. Travel, architectural design, and a Swedish feminist's ideas, are important to this historical fiction story that takes place before WWI. The end is gut wrenching but all too true and you won't see it coming. Quite an achievement for this first time novelist.

The George Washington Bridge goes from New Jersey to New York City. Palisades Park was on the Jersey side of that bridge and author Alan Brennert actually grew up within a mile of that park. This is an ode to the memories of that park that alternates between a recitation of facts and a story developed around characters who live the "carney" life. The bulk of the story takes place in the 40's and 50's and Brennert's excellent research provides a super review of where men & women have come from socially and culturally in the U. S. A little girl who dreams of becoming a high diver has her work cut out for her in the 1940's! If the reader lived through any of these decades, there are unending touchstones of memory--the hair rollers we slept in, the radio shows, the Diving Horse in Atlantic City, the smell of French fries from the stand in the park. So much more is told in a pleasant linear story. Not as good as Molokai, but a nice expansion of childhood memories and what lives were lived behind the carnival facades.