A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn is the most nostalgic, sentimental book I have ever read. It starts slow. A hundred pages in and all you have is character description, setting, and back story (personally, I would have been happy with much less back story). Another hundred pages in you'll find what may be the start of the story, more setting, more character description. If you're more astute than I was, by this point you should have figured out that this was the story. In many novels, such a lack of defined plot would be detrimental to the success of the book. In A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, the loosely-defined story is its strength.

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn is the story of living and wanting and hoping. It centers around a Brooklyn girl and her family in the early 1900s. What else could one say about the story? That's pretty much what the book is about. That's not to say events do not happen, events that are important in the life of Francie, but these moments are not what the story is about, nor are they all that memorable. They mirror our own lives. Sure a fist fight may have seemed significant when you were in the second grade. The death of a relative may have seemed insurmountable at the time. A short-lived romance may have felt like the moving of heaven and earth when you were sixteen. But who'd read a book about events that seem so trivial in hindsight? Betty Smith, that's who.

Smith has truly captured what it means to be human in this debut novel. She recalls childhood with such insight that it is easy to forget you're reading. It doesn't matter that her streets were not my own. Nor that her wars were not mine. One hundred years may separate us, but I could largely identify with Francie Nolan. While cultural differences abound throughout the world, there is enough honest truth at the heart of Francie's story that I'd argue it is universal at its core. Regardless of plot, that is effective storytelling.

It's difficult to write a riveting book, but one is published often enough that you know you'll find another page-turner one day, if not soon. But to find such a real, honest, and natural book again... there is always hope.

I know that I read this book as a kid/youth, but I don't really remember the experience. I'm so glad I re-read it. All of my favorite characters growing up were girls who found inspiration and solace in books and writing, and Francie Nolan is another great character who fits that mold. The Nolan family's story is heart-breaking and beautiful, joyful and moving. I certainly wouldn't want to be struggling to survive each day, yet there is something about this book that makes me want to experience life in 1910s Brooklyn.

I wouldn't have picked this book for myself, but I read it because I'm participating in the Goodreads Book Group “Classics for Beginners”. I am so happy I came across this book through that group. It might be one of my new favorites!
I felt such an attachment to Francie as a main character, that I wished I could have stepped into the story and been her friend. She was such a wonderfully complex, wise, fascinating character. Her recollections of childhood are perfect of how a child sees the world. And we get to watch as Francie grows up and those “child” views of the world are transformed to mature ones.
I feel like I've taken a time-machine trip back to the early 1900s, as the author did such a beautiful job of recreating that world back then.
Such a great book. I can't recommend it highly enough!