From the moment I picked up Morningside Heights, I was completely hooked. The characters are so nuanced and well-described that I felt as though I actually knew each of them. Henkin also does a terrific job with setting, painting a picture of Manhattan with such immaculate detail that I could see each street and restaurant in my mind's eye. I would highly recommend to friends, especially fellow New Yorkers.

I read this just before and during August, the back to school season of exhaustion and overwhelmingness for teachers. It kept my attention, but I couldn't keep my eyes open to read at night. But it made me laugh and cry, and feel all the things. I especially liked the way the storyline takes little detours into the first person narrative of the different characters. This is a well written story of loss and love, of getting older and coming to terms, of acceptance and endurance.

I don't often read literary fiction but the concept pulled me in. A fascinating, often heart-wrenching read.

Marriage vows often include the phrase '...in sickness and in health." But what does that really mean? Morningside Heights explores the complexity of marriage and what it really means to love 'in sickness and in health.'

A young and aspiring Pru finds herself recently graduated from Yale University and starting grad school in the late 1970s. However, she falls madly in love with one of her professors. Throughout the book, Pru and Spence go through the motions of life; marriage, a daughter, careers, etc. When Spencer becomes sick their relationship changes while his distant son comes back into their life. Pru is forced to adapt to her new normal. Overall a compelling story with a few too many characters involved. A quick read that left me thinking about the true commitment of marriage and just how far we really will go for our spouses.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for the ARC.

A sad, beautiful story about two people who fall in love, build a life together, and what remains when that life is overcome by a terrible disease. Denial, anger, guilt, and above all: resilience and love.

I work at the Morningside Heights branch of NYPL, so I was obviously drawn to the title, and the book is bound to fly off our shelves. But, I didn’t read much about the book before I requested it, so I was unprepared for the gut-wrenching story of a once vibrant and intelligent man losing himself to the evils of Alzheimer’s. It’s a no-holds-barred exploration of how the disease can destroy not only the individual, but the caregiver as well. I really admired Pru’s dedicated to Spence and often wanted her to be kinder to herself. Sometimes, the shifts in time were confusing, but not so much that I couldn’t follow the story.
It’s definitely a tough read, but also a love story and a love letter to the whole city of New York.

But, please fix the missing letters, which are frustrating to deal with.

A wonderful love story that takes place over the years in NYC. A testament to love in the face of a spouse having Alzheimer's that is tenderly told with a series of notable characters in their lives as they maneuver this disease. It wasn't depressing - instead it was uplifting.

When Morningside Heights by Joshua Henkin starts, we get some background on Pru Steiner, her Jewish upbringing in a Columbus Ohiio suburb. Both of her parents were from NYC, and after graduating from Yale , she and her friend, Camille moved to Manhattan as aspiring actors. When that didn't pan out, she enrolled in graduate school at Columbia, where she met up with the attractive, brilliant Shakespeare Professor Spence Robin., just 6 years her senior. Thus began their fun, romantic courtship, "two halves of a clam". The Reader is treated to a strong sense of place (a real treat when the place is NYC). They ride round the city on his Moped, or walk out of the way of the Columbia neighborhood, ducking into alleys or hallways to avoid being recognized as Professor and Student. Fast forward approximately 30 years when they are a married couple with a baby and an apartment in the upper west side. Pru's Jewish upbringing and religious practices makes brief appearances, almost like another character in the book. Spence's Son, Arlo, visits them for holidays, summers and occasional weekends growing up, and moves in for a couple of years as a teenager, becoming an occasional friend, always the older brother, to their daughter, Sarah, 6 years younger. When Spence starts having "episodes", including an unfinished book, Pru and Med Student Sarah, seek medical help and are met with a devastating diagnosis: Early Onset Alzheimer's. Much of this story reminded me of Lisa Genova's "Still Alice", although Morningside Heights probes more into the lives of the other family members, caregivers and friends than then Still Alice, which is more about Alice and the disease.
The language is great, and I loved all the vocabulary play between Professor Robin and Arlo who is a dyslexic genius. One of my favorites was when Pru was talking about streaming a tv show, she says Spence would have said something about streaming, "all those perfectly good nouns turned into perfectly bad verbs."
My only complaint about the book is that so often the shifts between events are abrupt and sometimes disjointed. I attribute this to the very early advance copy I read. Missing letters or words are one thing, but there were sometimes half finished or missing sentences or paragraphs that may have contained the connectors I was looking for. I have given this book four stars on the assumption that it is just incomplete. I eagerly await a complete, fully edited copy of this very enjoyable and interesting book.
Many thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
#MorningsideHeights #NetGalley





#MorningsideHeights #NetGalley

First of all I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read and review this ARC.
I was drawn to this book at first after reading the description and seeing the cover. This book was well written and I did want to keep reading it, it wasn't a dread to pick up and read more, but overall there was nothing I was extremely drawn in about this book, but I just don't think I connected with the characters as much and they almost felt distant to me. The overall storyline of this book keep me interested and I did love the way the two characters were introduced and connected through out the book.
Overall I would get this book 3 stars, because I would recommend it to people if they were into this type of book and could easily get into the characters lives, but I would not read it again, or put it in my top books for people to read.

I was tethered to this book, always looking forward to returning to it, time after time. But it’s difficult for me to say I enjoyed it, as the story emphasizes the fragility of life, with all the delicate family dynamics. Maybe because it was such a realistic view of the uncertainties that lie before us, as we plan our lives, and then how our plans beckon us and say the goings will be tough. That’s a difficult pill to swallow. The book is well written. Thank you Netgalley and Pantheon Books for this ARC and the opportunity to read and review it.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advance copy of Morningside Heights by Joshua Henkin.

What I really liked about this book was that it was set in New York City, specifically the Upper West Side. I have spent considerable time in this part of the city so I am always excited to read fiction set here. The plot was interesting, specifically the relationships between the two main characters of Pru and Spence. The arc of their lives together was well-written and enjoyable to read.

What I would have appreciated was more depth to the characters, smoother transitions between character perspectives and, perhaps, fewer characters so that the focus of the plot could have been more focused and felt deeper and more meaningful. As it reads now, the characters lack dimension, often feeling like paper dolls instead of people with complex emotions. I did enjoy this book and found myself becoming engrossed only to get distracted by a secondary character's plot that didn't seem to add anything to the main plot. For example, one of the secondary character's, Rafe, has a medical condition that is mentioned quite a few times but ultimately has no bearing on the main plot of the book. Those kind of things could have been omitted, giving more time to the two main characters.

Again, this was a good read and worth your time if you are looking for some contemporary fiction.

Morningside Heights took me on an emotional roller coaster I was not ready for. A genius professor and his star student fall in love, and as their life together progresses, the professor begins to act different, forget things, and seems to lose interest in teaching. At the same time, his wife, Pru, refuses to come to understand that his brain is not working the way it used to and that there is not much she can do for him. Morningside Heights was lovely, endearing, upsetting, and gave me a perspective of something I, thus far, have not had to deal with in my life. This book shows you just how much one person having Alzheimer's truly affects everyone.

Another great novel from Joshua Henkin. Great story, with complex characters that I really cared about.
This book was one of my favorites since the pandemic. Thank you for my advance copy. I will continue to follow this author.

There's a lot to like about this book, though I felt it was an uneven read overall. The novel covers some interesting ground that isn't dealt with enough in contemporary fiction; end of life plans, memory loss, how families grieve people while they're still with us. I love the New York setting and how the city feels like a complete character on its own. Some sections of the book feel very bright; Arlo and Sarah as teenagers, for example, as well as when Pru and Spence first get together. Other sections feel less well-constructed; I found Ginny leaving to be abrupt, and the D.C. section with the clinical trial felt similarly rushed. I think this could have been served by deeper interiority in the text. I found some plot points simply disappointing; Enuid not even being told her brother died until after the funeral? That felt strangely cruel. I also felt that Spence himself was at times written as a caricature, and I wish he had gotten more depth, even as his illness came on. Overall, I can think of plenty of readers who will appreciate this novel and feel seen by its contents, but it's simply not for me.

A special novel an author who writes characters that come alive.I was completely involved with the story page after page till late at night.Highly recommend.#netgalley#knopfdoubleday

A novel about finding love in the most unexpected of places

Refreshing and real.

A couple facing real life problems that everyone can relate to and that no one would want to face. A problem that has no solution.

An incredible story. Pageturning. I had a hard time putting this down and it pulled at my heartstrings.

Highly recommended for bookclubs.

Morningside Heights was one of those novels that took me a while to get into, but once I did, I was hooked. I'm a sucker for generational dramas, and this one did not disappoint.

I’m judging a 2020 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got this book from the perspective pile into the read further pile.
In this case I think unfortunately this line got it out of the read further pile:
Pru’s mother didn’t like Detroit, where there was Ten Mile Road and Eleven Mile Road and Twelve Mile Road, everything measured in a car.
It just seemed to be a disservice to the auto industry to Detroit but also less astute than the type of language and narrative I’m looking for right now. That said, again I am no one’s ideal reader, as I’m making my way through so many novels.

I absolutely loved this novel. I love the way it is written, as well as the interesting characters and plot. I have been a fan of Joshua Henkin's work for years, and this novel doesn't disappoint.

Sad story about a family dealing with fractured relationships and Alzheimer's Disease. For poor Pru, it seems like her life is about to begin once her husband dies, but that's where the book ends. I wanted more from the secondary characters - it seemed like Arlo had a lot farther to go in his life. While I don't mind a book that skips around in time - the fast forwarding that would happen on one page felt like too much authorial license.