When Ohio-born Pru Steiner arrives in New York in 1976, she follows in a long tradition of young people determined to take the city by storm. But when she falls in love with and marries Spence Robin, her hotshot young Shakespeare professor, her life takes a turn she couldn’t have anticipated. Thirty years later, something is wrong with Spence. The Great Man can’t concentrate; he falls asleep … falls asleep reading The New York Review of Books. With their daughter, Sarah, away at medical school, Pru must struggle on her own to care for him. One day, feeling especially isolated, Pru meets a man, and the possibility of new romance blooms. Meanwhile, Spence’s estranged son from his first marriage has come back into their lives. Arlo, a wealthy entrepreneur who invests in biotech, may be his father’s last, best hope.
Morningside Heights is a sweeping and compassionate novel about a marriage surviving hardship. It’s about the love between women and men, and children and parents; about the things we give up in the face of adversity; and about how to survive when life turns out differently from what we thought we signed up for.
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A touching portrayal of a marriage where a brilliant husband/professor suffers from early-onset Alzheimer’s. Lest this sound unforgivably sad, it is not, thanks to the author’s understated writing style. Set in a neighborhood familiar to me, the details about the Upper West Side of Manhattan (hence, the title) are spot on and every character feels real and memorable
During my wedding rehearsal I giggled at ‘for richer and for poorer’. My future sisters-in-law had taken me aside and told nineteen-year-old-me that my husband would never make any money and it was up to me to have a money career, like data processing. My blue collar childhood wasn’t flush with money but I had what I needed. I was not motivated by money and I continued with my plans for an English major, a surefire guarantee of unemployability.
But I didn’t think about ‘in sickness and in health’ much then, and even 49 years later I still don’t dwell on it. My husband’s people are long lived; mine are not. But recently, my husband has become concerned. His brother, seven years older than him, has developed Alzheimer’s disease. Their dad became confused in his nineties, and their grandmother had mini-strokes and senility in her upper eighties. Now, he is worried.
I suppose I should be, too. Especially after reading Joshua Henkin’s Morningside Heights, his novel about a woman who marries a brilliant, but eccentric, professor who is seven years her senior and develops early onset Alzheimer’s disease.
The book is the story of Spence Robin and Pru Steiner’s whirlwind romance and marriage. Spence was Pru’s Shakespeare professor. She gave up her Ph.d for him. She has a boring job and they have a lovely daughter, Sarah. She plans to become a doctor.
Spence has a child from an early marriage. Arlo struggles with an aging hippie mom and was raised in a commune, and without proper education to help his dyslexia. He moves in with his dad but has trouble adjusting to normal life, blending into the family, plus his dad seems more interested in raising a scholar than loving a son. He returns to life with his peripatetic mother.
I loved these people, so very real and likeable. They have their troubles but they are the kind of problems that every family faces. Henkin’s insights into people have a touch of humor. A character realizes that “what we didn’t know could be as much a source of pride as what we did know.” Um, is he talking about me?
The story turns somber when Spence develops signs of dementia and loses his position at Columbia. Pru must juggle work, caring for Spence, and the financial burden of round the clock care. And, the loneliness of a marriage to a man who can no longer provide companionship or affection.
A man comes into Pru’s life and she must decide if she can turn to him for what Spence is no longer able to give, or if her vow to Spence does not allow bending to circumstances.
It was here that I suddenly considered my husband’s brother’s wife. We saw them nearly a year ago, when his brother sat quietly docile, every now and then surprising us with a pertinent question. But this spring, they went on a trip, and on the plane going back home, he panicked and was hospitalized.
What would I do, if my husband developed this dreadful disease? We don’t have the money for round the clock care. I don’t have the physical strength to aid a man who towers over me. Like Pru and Spence, we have one child to help out.
What I love about Morningside Heights is that it is a story about a marriage that I can relate to and even be inspired by. The problem they encounter is tragic, leaving a brilliant man bereft of his intelligence and personality, but it’s not really a story about a disease. It’s a story about life and love and how we face the unimaginable. It’s about the friendships that support us along the way. How we all muddle through the best we can, staying true to ourselves and our values. What an inspiration.
I received a free book from the publisher through the First Look Book Club. My review is fair and unbiased.
Morningside Heights by Joshua Henkin is a very highly recommended profound, tragic, and compassionate family drama.
In 1976 graduate student Pru Steiner falls in love with Spence Robin, her young Shakespeare professor at Columbia University, and they marry. Spence is a rising star, a lauded professor who receives acclaim and awards for his scholarship. Pru sets her career goals aside, has a child, Sarah, works an uninspiring job fund raising for Columbia, and loves Spence and Sarah. She learns to love Arlo, Spence’s son from an earlier marriage. Pru has an Orthodox Jewish background but turns to a more secular observance, like Spence.
They have a good life – and then something changes. It slowly becomes clear that something is wrong with Spence. This man of words misreads an invitation, he is cold all the time, can’t concentrate, and is unable to finish new, annotated Shakespeare. At 57 Spence is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s and it is up to Pru, 51, to figure out his care on her own. Sarah, who is at medical school on the west coast, flies out briefly, and Arlo keeps his distance.
The writing is excellent. This is a brilliant, complicated novel that captures an extended, heart-breaking time in a family. It is a portrait of a marriage facing hardship, when a spouse suddenly is turned into a caregiver. It depicts a normal family, where their love and devotion to each other is evident alongside their flaws and struggles.
These are not perfect people, but they are realistic. Certainly Spence and Pru are portrayed as real, complicated, and flawed individuals, but Sarah and Arlo also have chapters where their stories are told through their distinctive, imperfect, and individual points-of-view. All the viewpoints, turmoil, questions, and complications that can be an integral part of an ordinary family are depicted with a nuanced sensitivity and realism as the family, but especially Pru, handle his care while Spence essentially slowly dies.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Pantheon.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2021/07/morningside-heights.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4093019060
I feel honored to have received an early copy of Morningside Heights. I devoured every sentence and dog eared more pages than I can count. Henkin explores Professor Spence Robin’s slow decline from Alzheimer’s disease and the devastating effects the disease has on his devoted wife, Pru, and two children. The masterful crafted story is complex, heart wrenching and completely realistic. Because my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s four years ago at the age of 67, so much about this story touched me and even moved me to tears.
The following passages hit particularly close to home:
“because when he woke up tomorrow everything would be gone, vanished like the image on a shaken Etch A Sketch.”
“Though really what she hated was the fact itself, the light in Spence’s face diminishing with the day’s sunlight. A bad day from six months ago was a good day now, and how he behaved in the evening would, in another six months, be how he would act in the light of day.”
Though the story centers on Spence’s diagnosis, this is really Pru’s story. She stands steadfastly by Spence’s side as he endures embarrassing tests, steady decline in functioning and humiliating loss of dignity. She adores her husband, but also finds that she begins to lose her sense of self as his disease progresses. When her best friend introduces her to a new man, Pru struggles with how to find connection without being disloyal to her beloved husband. She wants to do everything she can to support and care for Spence, but as he becomes more like a child, she must mourn the loss of their marital relationship.
“She wondered whether this is what she would remember, these last years of diminishment. She persuaded herself that when he was gone the end would fade and the man she’d first known would remain, accompanying her through the lonely days, through the years of solitude that lay ahead of her.”
Though I know how the story would inevitably end for Spence, I found the ending brimming with love and hope. This would make a wonderful book club read, with no shortage of fascinating points of discussion about marriage, family, love and loyalty.