Set in 1927, Joy in the Morning, follows the first year of marriage of a young couple, Cary and Annie Brown who leave Brooklyn to start life in a small Midwestern university town. Cary, a law student, and Annie, a high school graduate, adjust to life together, make new friends and deal with financial hardship; however, despite life's challenges they preserve their love for each other.
The novel's charm lies in its simplicity. The purity of their love characterized by mutual respect, friendship, humor and committment shines throughout the novel. This is not a sappy romance but a tribute to love and marriage.
Annie is the heart of the novel. She provides fresh innocence as she befriends the townspeople, explores her passion for writing and embraces pregnancy and motherhood. Annie has a unique approach towards life as revealed when she eavedrops outside a college composition class which eventually charms the Chairman and earns her the opportunity to audit classes or when she adopts the college stray dog who is housed by fraternity boys during the academic year but finds himself homeless in the summer. These and other episodes in Annie's life reveals her passion for life, warm-heartedness and loyalty.
"Joy in the Morning" rightfully earns its position as a beloved American classic novel. It captures the slower paced lifestyle in a midwestern college town in the late 1920s alongwith the timeless human quest to find "joy in the morning" on a daily basis, making the best of ones life and creating joy through finding pleasure in life's simple pleasures.
