From the Bookshelf of Around the World in 80 Books…

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Betty Smith

Start date: March 15, 2015

Finish date: April 15, 2015

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May 31, 2015 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was ok

Shelves: nyc, fiction, historical-fiction, classic, coming-of-age, everyone-loved-it-except-me

I did not enjoy reading A Tree Grows, and I am glad I'm done with it. That's not to say that I don't appreciate its value as a classic. It depicts an important time in US history, a time that my own grandparents lived through. I recognize my Nana in Katie and my Poppop in Johnny, so I know that Ms Smith got it right. But I just did not enjoy this. The story is dreadfully depressing, it drags on and on, and meanders this way and that. It is a character-driven story, I suppose, but I did not care I did not enjoy reading A Tree Grows, and I am glad I'm done with it. That's not to say that I don't appreciate its value as a classic. It depicts an important time in US history, a time that my own grandparents lived through. I recognize my Nana in Katie and my Poppop in Johnny, so I know that Ms Smith got it right. But I just did not enjoy this. The story is dreadfully depressing, it drags on and on, and meanders this way and that. It is a character-driven story, I suppose, but I did not care about any of the characters. The big climactic scene midway through is told in the same detached, plodding fashion as the rest of the book, and (even worse) the character, Francie, does not seem the least bit changed by the trauma. I found the writing style to be wholly insipid, for most of the book it is "See Jane. See Jane run. Run, Jane, run!" for the first three parts:
Mama came home at six with Aunt Sissy. Francie was very glad to see Sissy. She was her favorite aunt. Francie loved her and was fascinated by her. So far, Sissy had led a very exciting life.
then it becomes disjointed in the fourth part, and finally disjointed and rushed in the fifth part. (I wonder if Ms Smith wrote the first three parts when she was much younger, then set it aside when she couldn't figure out how to finish it? Or is this Ms Smith's way of showing how Francie is growing up?) And too many things about this story were just terribly depressing - I'm sure it's realistic, but it's not what I want to read. Plus, the general attitude felt extremely dated, with casual bigotry and sexism at every turn.

The ending was satisfying, which is what saves this from being a one star read for me.
Francie went over to stand at the great window from which she could see the East River twenty stories below. It was the last time she’d see the river from that window. The last time of anything has the poignancy of death itself. This that I see now, she thought, to see no more this way. Oh, the last time how clearly you see everything; as though a magnifying light had been turned on it. And you grieve because you hadn’t held it tighter when you had it every day.
...more

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Oct 01, 2011 mstan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: american, src-winter-2011-12

"I know there is no Santa Claus."

"Yet you must teach the child that these things are so."

"Why? When I, myself, do not believe?"

"Because," explained Mary Rommely simply, "the child must have a valuable thing which is called imagination. The child must have a secret world in which live things that never were. It is necessary that she believe. She must start out by believing in things not of this world. Then when the world becomes too ugly for living in, the child can reach back and live in her ima "I know there is no Santa Claus."

"Yet you must teach the child that these things are so."

"Why? When I, myself, do not believe?"

"Because," explained Mary Rommely simply, "the child must have a valuable thing which is called imagination. The child must have a secret world in which live things that never were. It is necessary that she believe. She must start out by believing in things not of this world. Then when the world becomes too ugly for living in, the child can reach back and live in her imagination. I, myself, even in this day and at my age, have great need of recalling the miraculous lives of the Saints and the great miracles that have come to pass on earth. Only by having these things in my mind can I live beyond what I have to live for."

I read the more obscure The Fountain Overflows before this, the great American classic, and so my reading of Smith's work was cast a little in shadow by West's more quirky portrayal of how an English family deals with poverty.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a deeply American book - a celebration of how the ordinary American child can accumulate - not a fortune, but a respectable livelihood - penny by penny, starting by selling junk early on in life, and progressing to more conventional factory work later on. It is told through the voice of a young girl, Francie Nolan (much as A Fountain Overflows is also narrated by a young girl, Rose), who is pretty much friendless and independent for much of the novel.

The story is about much more than Francie's growth as a sensitive, literary young lady. Just like West's novel, there is the somewhat useless husband/father figure, who dreams big and achieves little. Compared to West's novel, though, there is a stronger sense of how female family bonds and the community network function, cruelly and kindly in the same breath.

This is not 'The Pursuit of Happyness'; it is about how women bear up against the hard blows of fate, and how children grow to retain their innocence and strength under such circumstances. The work is also dedicated to Brooklyn, New York - that marvellous, almost dream-like place where Germans rubbed shoulders with the Irish during WWI, where the Jewish doctors regularly performed miracles, where so many things are possible. ...more

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Sep 10, 2009 Erin (NY) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, books-i-own, classics, rory-gilmore-list, read-in-2012

One of my favorite books of all times!

Reread notes: I re-read this book as an adult, and loved it just as much! The added perk was knowing New York City and being able to somewhat picture it. I loved all the descriptions, it made this book so much more real. When my daughters are older, I hope they love this book as much as I did.

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