Romance novels often have a meet/cute, that moment the couple meets. Some romances are termed “grumpy/sunshine” because one of the pair can be grouchy in his or her demeanor while the other is more, well, sunshiny.
The protagonists in The Heart of Winter by Jonathan Evison come together with a meet/cute. When Ruth and Abe are set up by friends on a blind date in 1953, Abe is instantly smitten, but Ruth is unimpressed. When you read the book, you will enjoy how Abe convinces Ruth to go out on a second date with him. She does eventually fall for him and they become the grumpy (Abe) sunshine (Ruth) pair of romance novels.
Romance novels often wrap up once the couple has come together. Or maybe there is an epilogue that tells what happens a few years down the road. The reader can be left wondering what happens after the romance novel ends. The Heart of Winter does not leave you wondering as it follows the entirety of Abe and Ruth’s seventy-year marriage.
As the novel begins in 2023, Abe turns 90 years old and Ruth is diagnosed with cancer. While reading about Abe’s birthday party and Ruth’s diagnosis and the beginning of treatment, the reader also is warmed by interspersed chapters of Abe and Ruth’s courtship and marriage. We are brought along as they buy their first home and welcome their first baby.
Though Abe and Ruth are certainly facing some difficulties of illness, frailty and aging now, including having to navigate their adult children’s strong opinions of how they should handle Ruth’s recuperation, the couple have traversed difficult times before. They have experienced loss and pain throughout their time together. They have had to figure out how to be a spouse and partner to one another, especially as seasons changed and lives turned.
In middle-age, Ruth observes her daughter’s marriage and considers, “a marriage requires maintaining, and amending, for it is more than a binding commitment, it is a process, one that demands participation, a willingness to absorb, to accept, to reassess.” (pg 254)
More than anything, The Heart of Winter is a love story. A love story told of imperfect people, with imperfect lives, in beautiful prose, with hope-filled thoughts. The love is enduring and intimate in the way that someone knowing your specific habits means you are known and it is a comfort.
Readers who want to know what happens after the “happily ever after” as well as those who have enjoyed Barbara Isn’t Dying by Alina Bronsky or Shark Heart: A Love Story by Emily Habeck will enjoy The Heart of Winter.
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Categories: Books and More
Tags: Books and More