Morningside Heights, Joshua Henkin, author; Kathe Mazur, Shane Baker, narrators
As this story develops, it slowly and carefully illustrates the varied relationships that exist within families, especially those that are blended as a result of divorce. Although the parents find relief from an unpleasant marriage, children are the innocent victims of their failures. They often suffer the most. They feel neglected by the parent they do not live with, especially when one parent remarries and begins a new family. They often blame themselves for the breakup. When a new family is created, on the other hand, the siblings in that family, too, often resent the presence of the “outsiders” that come from their parent’s “other marriage”. Sibling rivalry of a new sort arises and is coupled with angst stemming from the step parent.
Pru Steiner, was brought up in a religious Jewish home in Ohio. When she moves to New York, she maintains some of her customs and keeps a kosher home. She had often dated much older men, so when she meets Spence Robin, her English Professor, a man six years older than is, she is smitten, but surprised that he is not that much older. Soon, he is smitten with her, as well. He is a renowned professor and author, a Shakespearean scholar. However, he brings a lot of detritus to their union. He has a son, Arlo, from a previous marriage to Linda, and a disabled sister, Enid. Enid suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car crash and lives permanently in a facility. Pru and Spence have one child together. Her name is Sarah. The three of them live on the West Side of Manhattan, in Morningside Heights.
Spence’s son, Arlo, lives with his mother, Linda. She is a bit of a “flower child”, who lives according to her own whims, following her own rules, and is untethered from, and not bothered by, the norms of society. Although Arlo is very bright, he has difficulty in school. Linda moves him around a lot since she has an odd desire to use a bathroom in every state. She also seems to casually fall in and out of relationships, to the consternation of Arlo. It causes them to move often, forcing him to change schools, if and when he is enrolled. Linda has tried to home school Arlo, but a learning disability, coupled with an education that has been sorely neglected, makes the effort unsuccessful. Eventually, Arlo pleads with Linda to let him live with his father.
Pru and Spence discover Arlo is dyslexic and obtain help for him. No matter, though, because no matter how they try to welcome him, Arlo resents everything they do. He misunderstands what is going on around him and feels that his father never paid him enough attention. His mother, Linda, has refused to share custody with Spence, in a more equitable fashion. She actually limits Spence’s interaction with Arlo. However, Arlo blames Spence, not his mother. He also resents his step-sister, even though he begins to like her, because she gets to live with his father. Sarah, likes Arlo too, but she resents the attention her father gives to him. When Arlo begins to act out to punish those around him for not providing him with what he thinks he needs, he makes continuing to live with them untenable. Soon, he begs his mom to take him back. Having just ended a relationship, she picks him up and moves him to Iowa.
Arlo does not achieve anything resembling happiness until he moves out on his own, travels to Asia, and follows his own heart and ideas. After trial and error, he becomes very successful in the world of tech. He does not keep in touch with his father very often, but when he finds out that his father has Alzheimer’s, he returns to visit him and tries to help him.
As Spence begins to decline and suffer from the effects of his disease, Pru hires Ginny to help care for him. Ginny and her son, Rafe, live in East New York in Brooklyn. Rafe is a Hemophiliac. Ginny keeps a tight rein on Rafe, pushing him to do well in school. Rafe wants to be a doctor, but also wants to be “normal”, often disregarding the dangerous nature of his disease. Although Ginny lives in New York City, her husband is still living in the islands. They have been estranged for several years.
All of the characters seem to carry a lot of baggage. Enid, Rafe and Spence suffer from incurable diseases. Spence, Linda and Ginny have had troubled marriages. Rafe, Sarah and Arlo are exceptionally bright, but they push the envelope and are apt to take unnecessary chances because of foolish decisions. Arlo and Sarah suffer from sibling rivaly. Linda is a poor parenting example because of her irresponsible behavior. Both Linda and Arlo dropped out of school before graduating. Each of the children harbors some resentment toward a parent.
Many of their problems seem manmade, like the ones based on poor decisions, i.e. an unplanned pregnancy. Others are physiological, when there is no choice in the manner of their suffering. At the end, I did not find the book to be very hopeful. Except for Arlo, none of the characters seemed to have achieved success, and none seemed to have fulfilled their dreams. Discontent seemed to be threaded into the lives of all of them, with some almost setting themselves up for failure. There didn’t seem to be a way to have a real second chance at life, as the mistakes that they made often did not lead to a change in behavior or to a learning experience.
The female reader seemed to over emote and sometimes seemed to take over the story instead of letting it play out naturally. Further, the author’s left wing political views did not seem to enhance the novel, rather they seemed just to be used as a vehicle to virtue signal personal beliefs which may offend some readers. Personally, I wish that authors would stop trying to brainwash the reader with anything other than a good story.

Susan

Dementia

Although I am of the age to be thinking about Dementia/Alzheimer I wasn't wild about reading about the couple's struggles. The book started off introducing you to how they met and then married. Then you were introduced to his child from a previous marriage and then it went right into the problems and difficulty dealing with a dementia person. Not One of my favorite topics and so not a favorite book.

Ilene_M

Not the besst read

I wanted to like this book, but it fell flat for me. The premise of early onset dementia in one of the lead characters, Spence and the effect of the disease on the rest of the family had potential, but did not meet the test for me. I was not invested in any of the characters. The son's story did not ring true for me. I was also bothered by Pru's role in the story.

Lola M.

Angst

Morningside Heights takes yet another look at a fractured family who cannot seem to make good decisions to save their lives. A typical young woman goes to college and leaves when she marries a man who is utterly self-involved then spends years being gaslighted. I failed to empathize as each character lived being conflicted ... with themselves and just never really learned. The highlight was watching the growth of the children and the way they eventually come to understand each other in spite of the circumstances. There is hope for their future families.

Nanette C. (Sarasota, FL)

Lacking in Focus and Emotion

Don't get me wrong. I liked parts of "Morningside Heights" and never considered putting it down before finishing. But from the start, I was unclear what story Henkin was trying to tell. He begins with Pru's background going to Torah Academy. Ah, I thought, it's a Jewish story. No -- and the relevance of that vignette nearly became clear. These little sidelines continued throughout the book and frustrated me.
At its heart, though, Morningside Heights is a story of a family -- Spence (brilliant and soon suffering from early onset dementia), Pru (his steadfast wife), Sarah (daughter) and Arlo (son from a prior marriage). For me, only Arlo seemed like a real person. He's angry with his father for leaving him and feels extremely peripheral (and inferior) to the rest of the family. But he's conflicted and wants his father's approval, so he ends up coming and going throughout the book. Arlo's story alone had emotional depth, and I found the book most compelling when the focus was on him.
What most bothered me about the story, though, was the lack of anger and frustration the characters expressed about Spence's dementia. Dealing with a father with dementia, I know the ups and downs of daily life and how emotionally consuming and brutal it can be. And my father is 90 years old, not a middle-aged man in the prime of his life. Perhaps the author has not dealt with dementia in his family. Perhaps he has but without the emotional turmoil. Either way, the characters' reactions didn't ring true to this reader.
At the end of the day, Morningside Heights is not a book I'd recommend. There are too many books and too little time.

Jessica Z. (Lawrence, NJ)

Slow Down and Breathe

While not as good as The World Without You, the novel still stands in a category by itself. Morningside Heights is the history of a family and a neighborhood. Henken's characters remind you to slow down when you examine a life. Events and traditions from your youth can still form who you're supposed to be, despite life's shrinking to replaying soft music and accepting the limitations of those people and locations you love.

Beth P. (Chester, VA)

I wish I felt differently

I usually cannot wait to review books I read, but I did not feel this way about Morningside Heights. It is about relationships, what we do in adversity, what we do for love. It followed a family living in New York, a mom, a dad, a daughter and a stepson. I did not feel close to the characters, nor care much what happened to them. The story went back and forth in time, and that usually is fine with me, but in this book it was confusing to me. What I did like is that it was about ordinary people, and I did think about Ann Tyler's books, which I love, so that is a positive comment. I do think that book groups would find a lot to talk about after reading this, such as: how would you deal with a spouse who had dementia? Would you feel guilty letting yourself love again? How do blended families work? We all are different, and some may feel more positive about this story than I did.

Kate G. (Bronx, NY)

Family Dysfunction

Joshua Henkin writes family dysfunction very well and this novel did not disappoint. Pru Steiner has subverted herself to her husband, starting with their affair when she was his Grad Student. Academic novels are my catnip, but the characters in this book felt too flat to me, not completely fleshed out. The estranged son from the prior relationship, Arlo, was just too depressing. The writing and descriptions kept me reading, but ultimately, I liked his prior novel, The World Without End better.