Book Review: Joy in the Morning

Joy in the Morning, Betty Smith's fourth and last novel, was published in 1963 - twenty years after A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was first published. It is the story of a naive and barely 18-year-old woman named Annie McGairy leaving her family & Brooklyn behind to marry third-year law student, Carl Brown.

The story begins with this young couple waiting in a courthouse to be married. Annie had secretly left home the night before, on a train, to meet up with Carl and marry him before her mom (or his mom) stopped her. No, she wasn't with child, like both their mothers eventually suspect, but Annie's new stepfather's extra attention boosted her to marry Carl as fast as possible. As hasty as it seems, it really is not. Annie and Carl had been dating several years now, and were glad to get married.

That's the books lovely beginning, but as soon as they're married, the young couple finds no where to go for their first few hours of marriage, and the difficulties of married life begins all too soon.

Of course, a room is found, and married life goes on. Carl returns to college, Annie decorates their tiny room with bittersweets she sees in the florist window. When the university Dean finds out about Carl's marriage, he expects Carl to eventually wear out and leave his dreams behind, but Carl tells him that his goal is for real and will do all he can to become a lawyer.

Annie finds the time lasting long before Carl returns home to her each day. She longs to be a "coed" on the campus, belonging to a crowd, wearing the coveted saddle shoes and other everyday college apparel. Eventually she gets her hair bobbed (or bounced as she calls it), dresses the part and actually audits a university writing class.

She takes the conversations between her and Carl and makes them into a well-written play, which her professor compliments her on. Soon Annie fills her time reading books and writing plays and stories (inspired by other real people in her life) while Carl is in class or at work, and even when he is home. She also finds work baby sitting and at a drug store to help with the finances.

Annie and Carl seem to have their new routine down when along comes an unexpected pregnancy, and then summer break. The two have to again find new ways to keep up with the cost of living, as well as prepare for a baby. The Dean, again, worries; this time about Carl's last year of law studies, and the Dean suggests Carl take a few summer courses to help the load of his last year of law school. With the Dean's help, Carl and Annie are able to pull through their difficulties.

The story is much more. The struggle for enough of an income, enough time together. It is about all that might happen in a year's worth of marriage. The book ends after Annie and Carl had been married a little over a year, so the amount of time that passes in the book is little, but the life of that year is so real.

The back of my copy of Joy in the Morning says that Betty Smith wrote this novel as a reflection of her experiences at the several college towns she'd lived in over 25 years of her life. Despite her reason for writing, her story turned out to be about the truth of a real marriage: the good, the bad, the commitment of two people.