Book #22: Joy in the Morning

Title: Joy in the Morning

Author: Betty Smith

Despite academic, social and family pressure not to get married, Carl and Annie tie the knot. He's in law school in a big midwestern college and she's 18, newly arrived from Brooklyn. They struggle to get by with temporary jobs and soon discover that 1920s condoms aren't all that reliable.

In a lot of ways, this book totally reminded me of what most of my friends and I have been going through since we've been married. Many of my friends are the spouses of law students (or newly-minted lawyers) or medical students (or residents or fellows). Often they're one of the only married students in their classes, and they often struggle to study and support their families. So while Smith sets up the two years that Carl and Annie live through in the book as a major struggle, it just sort of seems like regular life to me.

Since we read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn for our book club book last month and I did a biographical sketch of Betty Smith at the book group, I found that as I was reading Joy in the Morning I had a really hard time keeping things straight. Joy in the Morning seems to start where Brooklyn left off. Francie and Annie are similar characters. And both of the characters and their experiences seem to draw a lot on Smith's own early adulthood.

So, I liked the book. But it's not A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. If I hadn't read it right on the heels of Brooklyn I might have liked it better, but regardless, it was a good, solid, quick read.

--originally published 4/17/06