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The Mighty Franks: A Memoir, by Michael Frank
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Review
One of The Telegraph's 50 Best Books of 2017"[A] probing and radiantly polished account . . . Move over, Royal Tenenbaums: Meet the Mighty Franks." ―Peter Haldeman, The New York Times"Frank brings Proustian acuity and razor-sharp prose to family dramas as primal, and eccentrically insular, as they come . . . Frank’s eye and ear, his words and wit―the voice in these pages has such style. Better yet, the style is utterly his own." ―Ann Hulbert, The Atlantic "Frank is a master of self-reflection, under the bowl of blue sky and in those closeted canyons. He says nothing in an ordinary way; everything has a dreamlike smoothness, born out of his extended act of retrieval and the remembered violence of emotion and inconstancy . . . I doubt you'll read a better memoir this year. The Mighty Franks is full of humour and brittle irony. In Aunt Hankie, Frank has created a great new nonfictional character: an indelible wonder of dark depths and hypnotic high style." ―Philip Hoare, The Guardian"Beautifully written . . . A marvelous, clear-eyed memoir about [Frank's] eccentric family but especially about his glamorous but dangerously possessive Aunt Hank." ―Moira Hodgson, The Wall Street Journal "The Mighty Franks is a witty, moving account of Frank's dawning apprehension of his entranced state and his subsequent efforts to reclaim himself . . . In this narrative, however, [Aunt Hankie] emerges as a fully realized and unforgettable persona, simultaneously attractive and horrifying . . . [a] beautifully written and timely work." ―Michael Saler, Times Literary Supplement "There is a lastingly sane quality to [Frank's] riveting memoir that's reminiscent of To Kill A Mockingbird. . . Frank has conjured 'a plausible story out of implausible facts,' an extraordinary tale that unfolds on the border between abuse and enlightenment." ―Gaby Wood, The Daily Telegraph (U.K.)"Michael Frank, the acutely perceptive scribe behind The Mighty Franks,doesn’t just place his dysfunctional extended family on the couch. He performs such an incisively intimate autopsy on his clan’s psyche that the result comes close to being an exorcism, a perfectly balanced near-gothic blend of the fascinating and the horrifying." ―Susan Wloszczyna, The Buffalo News"A fascinating look at the inner-workings of a textbook example of a dysfunctional family." ―John Paul, Spectrum Culture"Truth is not just stranger than fiction, it's more interesting, too . . . More than a memoir, this is really a study of human pathology, a book that should be widely read for its insights into families and the process of growing up." ―Library Journal (starred review)"[A] satisfying memoir . . . [An] often moving portrait of a woman who seemed to be one person until she revealed herself to be someone else entirely, this is one of those memoirs that simultaneously fascinates as it makes us uncomfortable. Is this too personal? Should I be averting my eyes? Maybe, but I can’t because I want to know what startling secrets will be revealed next." ―Booklist"[A] complex and fascinating memoir . . . In thoughtful, fluid prose, [Frank] evokes the magic and sophistication of a vanished Hollywood intelligentsia schooled in the language of cinema . . . the woman he describes is as iconic and memorable as the characters she created for the screen." ―Publishers Weekly “The Mighty Franks is a tremendously smart and beautiful portrait of one of the most interesting and memorable families I've encountered. Crackling with sorrow and wit, Michael Frank has written a gorgeous, moving and intensely compassionate memoir that will stay with me for a long, long time. An astonishing book.†―Molly Antopol“The Mighty Franks is very easy to love and very hard to put down. It is a terrific portrait of Los Angeles at a particular time for all of us who ever fantasized about growing up with pools, palm trees, and, yes, even the occasional star. Moving, wonderfully written, and marvelously written, it is filled with characters who love you, hug you, drive you crazy, and sometimes make you cry.†―George Hodgman“This is one complicated family. How do any of us survive our families? The how of The Mighty Franks is beautiful, tender, forgiving, funny, and fiercely honest. Michael Frank’s book will certainly join the canon of classic memoirs. I adored it.†―Maira Kalman“Be careful when you start reading The Mighty Franks since you won’t be able to stop. As finely drawn as it is acutely observed―painful, honest, evocative, spare―this portrait of an extraordinary family is a work of art.†―Jean Strouse “To paraphrase Tolstoy, interesting families are unhappy in mysterious ways, and in this subtle memoir full of hard-won wisdom, Michael Frank gives us an indelible portrait of his own. His imperious, beautiful, infuriating Aunt Hankie, in particular, is one of the great Difficult Women of contemporary literature.†―Judith Thurman
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About the Author
Michael Frank’s essays, articles, and short stories have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Slate, The Yale Review, Salmagundi, and Tablet, among other publications. His fiction has been presented at Symphony Space’s Selected Shorts: A Celebration of the Short Story, and his travel writing has been collected in Italy: The Best Travel Writing from The New York Times. He served as a Contributing Writer to the Los Angeles Times Book Review for nearly ten years. He lives with his family in New York City and Liguria, Italy.
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Product details
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Reprint edition (May 29, 2018)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780374537807
ISBN-13: 978-0374537807
ASIN: 0374537801
Product Dimensions:
5.6 x 0.9 x 8.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 13.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.4 out of 5 stars
46 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#281,117 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
I bought this book because, through many arcane marriages, I am a step cousin of a branch of the Goldsteins (aka Bernhards, they, too, changed their names). There was always a lot of talk about their cousin, Harriet. It's not often one has the chance to read about someone whose name was bandied about frequently and whom I met once. Even my 93 year old mother who has a hard time remembering what day it is knew exactly who I was talking about when I told her about the book.So, it was a shock to find out someone who was mentioned in only the most glowing terms and who was most gracious to me during our very brief meeting might not be the paragon I was always told she was. I must admit to a bit of schadenfreude: certainly there was no one in my family who had achieved anywhere near the heights I was told she had and I would have loved to counter with someone. I was of an age and so dazzled by anyone connected to the movies she could have sucked me in with very little effort, but I was of little interest to her. While this review is more about me than the book, I don't think I could offer objective review. But, god, the memories it brought back.
In a memoir, the author's most personal thoughts and recollections are on offer and the result can be very difficult to read. This seems true with Michael Frank's "The Mighty Franks: A Memoir". But what is difficult to read must have been excruciating to actually live through. Frank grew up in Los Angeles in a family so marked by the malevolence of one family member, his aunt Harriet Frank, Jr, whose lifetime of narcissistic behavior terrorised the family for sixty years. Michael Frank doesn't use the word "narcissist" to describe his aunt, but her behavior mimics the narcisstic behavior of several people I know. If you read the book, you may use a different term to describe "Hanky", depending on your experience with such a malevolent person.Michael Frank's aunt and uncle are real people, who have Wikipedia entries. His uncle, Irving Ravetch, and his aunt, Harriet Frank, Jr,(known as "Hanky") were noted screenwriters in the 1950's to 1980's. They worked primarily with director Martin Ritt. (You should read their Wiki entries before reading the book.) Michael was their nephew - a double nephew, at that, because his mother was Irving Ravetch's sister and his father was Harriet Frank's brother. A cozy combination which made for a cozy family unit, whose members lived a few blocks from each other in the Hollywood hills. To make matters even cozier, the two grandmothers shared an apartment after their respective husbands died. Both couples lived in and out of the other's homes, and the Frank's three sons were thought of a surrogate sons for Irving and Hanky, who had no children. However, the Ravetch's, particularly Hanky, seemed to prefer young Michael to his brothers, and, indeed, to anyone other than her husband. She was the "Auntie Mame" to his Patrick and showered him with gifts and attention. But the attention was that of his place in Hanky's world. She was the sun, he was planet circling. He finally rebelled in his late teens but by then Hanky's malevolence to him and the rest of the family continued unabated.Michael Frank's memoir begins when he was a child and continued up through Irving's death in 2010 and to Hanky's continued existence. He spares little of the "true" Hanky Ravetch and her wretched influence in his book. It's a fascinating book, as memoirs often are.
This book was slow-going for me at first, but then it picked up and the deeper it went into Harriet Frank, Jr.'s completely twisted personality, the more it gripped me. This woman was a study in self-absorption and terror plus an enormous need for power over others and control! And all of these traits were simply abided by her very tolerant husband. I could not get over him! Her adoration of her one nephew (out of three) was definitely pathological and destructive to him, but she could or would not recognize that. Childless herself, she grabbed onto this boy ferociously and way beyond what was normal. She rendered his poor parents almost powerless. She was definitely a force! The outcome for him is worth reading the book to find out. And she lived to be 100!
This memoir beautifully captures the seductive yet also destructive relationship that Frank had with his childless aunt, a powerful force in his upbringing who essentially steamrollered his parents into letting her mold him into her acolyte. His aunt was also that rarity then and now, a successful and powerful female Hollywood screenwriter. The book's glimpse into her work world isn't very deep, but satisfying nonetheless. Where Frank's aunt's behavior is concerned, he doesn't use the word "narcissist," but the concept haunts every page, and is especially evident in the final chapters of his aunt's life, after she loses her health, husband, and vitality. Then, without batting an eyelash, she turns her exploitative and exhibitionistic energy to other areas, revealing that essential shallowness of personal engagement so typical of someone with her condition. My only issue with the book, and it is a minor one, is that Frank himself at times feels insubstantial, at least in his portrait of himself as adult. But overall this is an important book for the portrait it paints of an unusual woman and the triangle she created between herself, a young boy, and his family.
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