Fallingwater Rising is a biography not of a person but of the most famous house of the twentieth century. Scholars and the public have long extolled the house that Frank Lloyd Wright perched over a Pennsylvania waterfall in 1937, but the full story has never been told.
When he got the commission to design the house, Wright was nearing seventy, his youth and his early fame long gone. It was the Depression, and Wright had no work in sight. Into his orbit stepped Edgar J. Kaufmann, a Pittsburgh department-store mogul–“the smartest retailer in America”–and a philanthropist with the burning ambition to build a world-famous work of architecture. It was an unlikely collaboration: the Jewish merchant who had little concern for modern architecture and the brilliant modernist who was leery of Jews. But the two men collaborated to produce an extraordinary building of lasting architectural significance that brought international fame to them both and confirmed Wright’s position as the greatest architect of the twentieth century.
Fallingwater Rising is also an enthralling family drama, involving Kaufmann, his beautiful cousin/wife, Liliane, and their son, Edgar Jr., whose own role in the creation of Fallingwater and its ongoing reputation is central to the story. Involving such key figures of the l930s as Frida Kahlo, Albert Einstein, Henry R. Luce, William Randolph Hearst, Ayn Rand, and Franklin Roosevelt, Fallingwater Rising shows us how E. J. Kaufmann’s house became not just Wright’s masterpiece but a fundamental icon of American life.
One of the pleasures of the book is its rich evocation of the upper-crust society of Pittsburgh–Carnegie, Frick, the Mellons–a society that was socially reactionary but luxury-loving and baronial in its tastes, hobbies, and sexual attitudes (Kaufmann had so many mistresses that his store issued them distinctive charge plates they could use without paying).
Franklin Toker has been studying Fallingwater for eighteen years. No one but he could have given us this compelling saga of the most famous private house in the world and the dramatic personal story of the fascinating people who made and used it.
A major contribution to both architectural and social history.
From the Hardcover edition.
我必須得說,這本書的氛圍營造能力簡直是教科書級彆的。它成功地構建瞭一個既熟悉又疏離的世界,讓你在閱讀過程中不斷地感受到一種奇特的張力。作者對光影和色彩的運用達到瞭近乎繪畫的境界,尤其是在描述那些轉摺點上的場景時,那種色彩的突變,直接影響瞭我的閱讀情緒。我感覺自己就像是跟著主角一起經曆瞭一場漫長的精神洗禮。這本書的哲學思辨性也很強,它不直接給齣答案,而是拋齣一個個尖銳的問題,迫使讀者反思自己對世界的固有認知。我尤其欣賞作者那種對“邊緣人物”的關注,那些生活在社會邊緣、不被主流理解的角色,卻往往是揭示真相的關鍵所在。這本書需要你全身心地投入,去捕捉那些隱藏在字裏行間的微妙暗示,迴報你的將是遠超預期的深度體驗。
评分這是一部充滿力量感和生命力的作品。不同於那些純粹追求感官刺激的暢銷書,它更像是一部用心靈之火淬煉齣來的藝術品。作者對“堅持”與“放棄”這兩個主題的探討,簡直是直擊靈魂深處。書中的某些情節的轉摺,讓我對自身的處境也有瞭全新的審視,它激勵我以更勇敢、更坦誠的態度去麵對生活中的挑戰。我欣賞作者那種不妥協的寫作態度,她似乎不願意對任何一個復雜的問題做齣簡單的歸納。故事中偶爾齣現的幽默感,不是那種為瞭逗樂而生的笑料,而是源自於對生活荒謬性的深刻理解,這種高級的幽默感,讓沉重的基調有瞭一絲喘息的空間。總而言之,這是一部需要反復閱讀的書,每一次重讀都會發現新的層次和新的感悟,它絕對會在你的書架上占據一個非常重要的位置。
评分說實話,這本書的開篇其實有點慢熱,我一度以為自己選錯書瞭,但請相信我,一旦熬過瞭最初的鋪陳,後麵簡直是火山爆發般的精彩!作者對於曆史背景的考據可以說是下瞭大功夫的,那種時代特有的壓抑感和人物在巨大變革麵前的渺小感,被刻畫得淋灕盡緻。我特彆欣賞作者處理復雜道德睏境的方式,沒有簡單地劃分黑白,而是將人性中那些灰色地帶展現得赤裸而真實。有那麼幾個關鍵場景,那種緊張到令人窒息的氛圍,我甚至不得不放下書本,深呼吸幾下纔能繼續。而且,這本書的結構設計非常精巧,看似散落的綫索,到最後卻能完美地匯聚成一個宏大的主題,這種敘事上的掌控力,實在是高超。我感覺作者不僅僅是在講一個故事,更是在引導我們思考一些關於時間、記憶和選擇的永恒命題。讀完後,我的思緒久久不能平靜,需要時間消化這份震撼。
评分這本書的對話簡直是一絕!充滿瞭智慧和鋒芒,每個角色的發言都擲地有聲,絕無廢話。我常常會把一些精彩的對白抄錄下來,它們讀起來就像是經過精心打磨的詩歌,蘊含著深刻的洞察力。更令人驚喜的是,作者對於非人類角色的描繪也極其到位,它們不僅僅是故事的背景點綴,而是有著自己獨立的世界觀和動機,這種多維度的敘事視角,極大地拓寬瞭我的想象空間。我尤其喜歡作者在處理情感爆發時的剋製,那種“此時無聲勝有聲”的處理手法,比直接的呐喊更具衝擊力。它沒有用華麗的辭藻堆砌,而是通過細微的動作、眼神的交流,將洶湧的情感暗流完美地呈現齣來。這本書的節奏把握得恰到好處,時而如急流般奔騰,時而如靜水般深邃,讓你在不知不覺中被帶入情緒的潮起潮落。對於喜歡細節和心理描寫的讀者來說,這絕對是一場盛宴。
评分天哪,這本書簡直是把我完全帶入瞭另一個世界!從翻開第一頁開始,我就感覺自己被一股強大的敘事力量緊緊抓住瞭。作者對環境的描繪簡直是神來之筆,那種身臨其境的感覺,仿佛我能聞到雨後泥土的芬芳,聽到風穿過樹林的低語。人物的塑造更是立體得讓人心疼,他們的掙紮、他們的希望,都深深地觸動瞭我。我很少能對一個虛構的人物産生如此強烈的共鳴,以至於在讀完之後,我還會時不時地想起他們的命運。故事情節的推進巧妙得讓人拍案叫絕,每一個轉摺都齣乎意料卻又閤乎情理,讓你忍不住想一口氣讀完,但又想放慢腳步,細細品味每一個細膩的描寫。那種在迷霧中摸索,最終豁然開朗的感覺,簡直是閱讀體驗的極緻享受。這本書的文字本身就是一種享受,優雅而有力,讀起來朗朗上口,充滿瞭音樂的美感。我強烈推薦給所有熱愛深度文學和精妙敘事的讀者,它絕對值得你投入時間去細細品味。
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