A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (P.S.) Review
A friend recommended this novel since I enjoy historical fiction. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn follows the path of a turn of the 20th century family in Brooklyn. Although Ms. Smith wrote the book in the 1940s, its message is timeless. The reader watches as the central character, Francie, grows up determined to have a better life for herself. Francie is 2nd generation American who comes from a working class neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Francie adores her Irish father who does not have steady work and often comes home drunk. Her father loves Francie dearly and encourages her to dream and to become a writer. He even supports her efforts to go to a better school despite the distance the school is from their home.
Francie's mother, Katie, works hard and long as a housekeeper and keeps the family together. Katie recognizes the value of education and reads to her children from the Bible and Shakespere nightly. She also encourages their imagination. When the family moved into a house with a piano, Katie had the children sit with her during lessons so that they all could learn to play since the family could hardly afford lessons for one.
Francie is very close to her brother, one year her junior, who is also pushed to achieve more than what the parents have been able to do.
While money is always tight, the family always has a roof over their heads and usually they have food. Francie's maternal grandmother and aunts add to the moral fabric and are there to support the family when needed.
There is conflict between having the children work so that the family can survive vs. allowing them to focus on education. Francie and her brother are able to do both, but the logic that Katie uses when forced to choose was not intuitive, but the right choice.
What I loved about the book is that it showed how the children grew up with very little material things. Another message is to look at everything around you with the attitude as if it was the first or last time that you have seen such things. Recognize beauty of which it beholds and you will live a much for fulfilled and hopeful life. Sure, the children had conflicts with their parents, but in the end, they recognized how important their relationship was with each other and that having money didn't equate to having happiness. It is a wonderful, timeless, coming of age story that should be required reading for today's youth.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (P.S.) Feature
- ISBN13: 9780061120077
- Condition: New
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A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (P.S.) Overview
The beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness -- in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (P.S.) Specifications
Francie Nolan, avid reader, penny-candy connoisseur, and adroit observer of human nature, has much to ponder in colorful, turn-of-the-century Brooklyn. She grows up with a sweet, tragic father, a severely realistic mother, and an aunt who gives her love too freely--to men, and to a brother who will always be the favored child. Francie learns early the meaning of hunger and the value of a penny. She is her father's child--romantic and hungry for beauty. But she is her mother's child, too--deeply practical and in constant need of truth. Like the Tree of Heaven that grows out of cement or through cellar gratings, resourceful Francie struggles against all odds to survive and thrive. Betty Smith's poignant, honest novel created a big stir when it was first published over 50 years ago. Her frank writing about life's squalor was alarming to some of the more genteel society, but the book's humor and pathos ensured its place in the realm of classics--and in the hearts of readers, young and old. (Ages 10 and older) --Emilie Coulter
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Customer Reviews
this book is REAL - Susan Taylor -
Saying this book is very good is an understatement. The author makes the characters seem so real and unpretentious. Life for Francie doesn't always have a happy ending which is very relatable if you want a book that captures the essence of life.
A Tree Grows - Sally -
The audio CD of a Tree Grows in Brooklyn was wonderful. I listened to it in the car and it held my interest all the way through. I highly recommend it!
Beautiful and poignant - Dreamweaver -
"Serene was a word you could put to Brooklyn, New York. Especially in the summer of 1912. Somber, as a word, was better. But it did not apply to Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Prairie was lovely, and Shenandoah had a beautiful sound, but you couldn't fit those words into Brooklyn. Serene was the only word for it; especially on a Saturday afternoon in summer."
Thus opens one of the most poignant and beautifully written novels in world literature. It's the story of Francie Nolan, a young girl who comes of age at the turn of the last century. You will feel for her and want to live in her world, and long for the oh-so-fleeting moments of childhood and youth, of discovery and loss. Her family is poor, but she and her brother Neeley find adventure and romance in the gathering of rags, paper, rubber and other junk for the man who pays for such scraps, and in standing firm together for the "hurling" of a Christmas tree; if they can stand their ground and not fall under its force, they can have it for free, and their tenement apartment will be rich from it's scent, though they can afford no decorations.
Francie seems almost unaware of her poverty. She is intelligent and loves to read, and feels somewhat lonely and isolated. She loves her carefree Irish father, who works as a singing waiter when he can find work, and she sometimes resents the hard, practical decisions her mother has to make to keep the family alive. But the entire background of the novel is infused with love; love of her family, her neighbors, and of simply being alive.
Read this book, then share it with someone you care about. And if you read it years ago, pick it up again. You'll find new treasures here. Especially on a Saturday afternoon in summer.
*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Sep 09, 2010 15:19:07
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