Joshua Henkin

Morningside Heights, by Joshua Henkin. In this novel set in uptown Manhattan, illness tests a great mind and a marriage. When Ohio-born Pru Steiner arrives in New York in 1976, she is determined to take the city by storm. Then, her plans for her future go awry when she falls in love and marries her hotshot young Shakespeare professor, Spence Robin. Thirty years later she begins to realize that something is wrong with Spence. It is a compassionate novel about a marriage surviving hardship and the love between women and men, children and parents, and the things we give up in the process. Tom Perrotta says it best when he describes it: “ In this tender, wise, and unflinching novel, Joshua Henkin traces the bittersweet arc of a lifelong love, with all its joy and pain.” New Yorkers will appreciate the nostalgia of NYC neighborhoods in and around Columbia University.… (mere)

Pru Steiner grew up Jewish in Bexley, a suburb of Columbus, Ohio. She went to Yale beginning in 1972 where she chose to keep Kosher. She did theater at Yale, moving to New York City after graduation to become an actor. When that did not work out, Pru enrolled in the doctoral program in English literature at Columbia University. There she took a seminar with a Shakespeare professor, Spence Robin. When she saw him outside of Chock full O'Nuts, she knew who he was. He knew her name and they had coffee, which began their life together. Unfortunately, he had early-onset Alzheimer's at age 57 and Pru became his primary caregiver. She did hire help. The story tells about their life together with daughter Sarah and Spence's son Arlo from his first marriage with much about Pru's struggles with caring for Spence. All the way through this book, I wondered what the title, Morningside Heights meant--it was the area in NYC where they both lived when they met. This was not mentioned until the end of the book.… (mere)