This is an altogether charming portrait of a close, if unusual, Hollywood family, written with exceptionally precise language from the point of view of the skilled wordsmith Michael Frank. His narration is personal, unique, and exceedingly warm. The texture of his words and the quality of his performance are so rich that the audiobook seems like fiction, though the work is not a novel. Michael’s childless aunt and uncle were the skilled screenwriters who brought us the Paul Newman classic HUD. In the 1960s and ‘70s, they lived in the fabled West Los Angeles neighborhood of Laurel Canyon, along with such luminaries of the time as the Mamas and the Papas, Jim Morrison, and Joni Mitchell. Both family dynamics and the neighborhood “as a state of mind” are lovingly described and lavishly shared as the larger-than-life personae abound. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

02/27/2017
In this complex and fascinating memoir, journalist Frank describes the spell cast over his childhood by his screenwriter aunt and her fury at his attempts to break away from her. Even by Hollywood standards, the Franks were unusual: Frank’s mother’s brother, Irving Ravetch, married his father’s sister, Harriet “Hank” Frank Jr., and both families lived in close proximity in Laurel Canyon. His childless aunt and uncle settled on Frank as a substitute son, dazzling him with gifts and praise. Yet as Frank became conscious of the damage that Hank’s imperious nature inflicted on family and friends, he realized how necessary, and painful, separating himself from her would be. For over three decades, Ravetch and Hank were an extremely successful screenwriting team (Norma Rae, Hud, The Long Hot Summer, etc.). In thoughtful, fluid prose, their nephew evokes the magic and sophistication of a vanished Hollywood intelligentsia schooled in the language of cinema. Readers will be enthralled by the affecting portraits of the two central figures: the aunt whose drive and charming idiosyncrasies concealed an impulsive cruelty, and the child struggling to make sense of the complex, damaged woman trying to control him. Frank doesn’t fully investigate the reasons behind his aunt’s behavior, but the women he describes is as iconic and memorable as the characters she created for the screen. (May)

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

This is an altogether charming portrait of a close, if unusual, Hollywood family, written with exceptionally precise language from the point of view of the skilled wordsmith Michael Frank. His narration is personal, unique, and exceedingly warm. The texture of his words and the quality of his performance are so rich that the audiobook seems like fiction, though the work is not a novel. Michael’s childless aunt and uncle were the skilled screenwriters who brought us the Paul Newman classic HUD. In the 1960s and ‘70s, they lived in the fabled West Los Angeles neighborhood of Laurel Canyon, along with such luminaries of the time as the Mamas and the Papas, Jim Morrison, and Joni Mitchell. Both family dynamics and the neighborhood “as a state of mind” are lovingly described and lavishly shared as the larger-than-life personae abound. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

2017-02-19
A writer reflects on his celebrated aunt's overbearing influence on his life.Eccentric family dynamics provide the backdrop for this coming-of-age memoir from Frank, a travel writer and former Los Angeles Times book critic, who recalls the unusually close ties between his immediate family and his aunt and uncle, noted screenwriters Harriet Frank Jr. and Irving Ravetch. The two families lived just blocks apart from each other in the Laurel Canyon neighborhood of LA. The driving power source within the family is Harriet, aka Auntie Hankie, a charismatic yet manipulative and narcissistic woman with lavish spending habits and pretentious manners. Early on in Frank's childhood, Hankie showed great interest in his upbringing, aggressively influencing his interests and tastes and eventually becoming an all-consuming force in his life and major disrupter within the family. As he grew through his teens and early adult life, Hankie's influence became increasingly difficult for him to bear. Throughout much of the narrative, the author documents her frequently erratic and cruel behavior in relentless detail. Though she was clearly a deeply troubled individual, the portrayal feels excessively narrow; there seems to be more to her than Frank conveys here. The author alludes to her glamorous Hollywood connections yet provides scant attention to her actual work. Though not necessarily a household name for current moviegoing audiences, her accomplishments as a screenwriter, often in collaboration with her husband, were significant, especially in such notable films as Hud (1963), starting Paul Newman, and Norma Rae (1979), starring Sally Field and Beau Bridges, both of which earned Academy Award nominations. The author occasionally displays a novelist's flare in his descriptions of family members and the LA environment of the 1960s and '70s, but readers may feel that there is more to this story than what is presented here. A lengthy exploration of one family's uniquely claustrophobic dysfunctions; Frank only finds mixed success in delivering a compelling narrative to bolster the provocative premise.