A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in Classics Without All the Class

Jan 31, 2008 Beth Given rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I think my mom once said that this was her favorite book, and yet somehow I hadn’t read it until now. In my early teens, I remember coming across a paperback edition that had been lying around the house … and not making it past the first couple pages. The writing was way over my head (which had been addled by too much fluff reading of Baby-sitters Club, probably).

It’s probably for the best, though, for while this book centers around the young girl Francie Nolan, this coming-of-age story is appro I think my mom once said that this was her favorite book, and yet somehow I hadn’t read it until now. In my early teens, I remember coming across a paperback edition that had been lying around the house … and not making it past the first couple pages. The writing was way over my head (which had been addled by too much fluff reading of Baby-sitters Club, probably).

It’s probably for the best, though, for while this book centers around the young girl Francie Nolan, this coming-of-age story is appropriately shelved in the adult section — for some language (I really am such a prude when it comes to cursing, but while this book had it sprinkled liberally throughout, I didn’t find that it bothered me much — the writing was that good) and certainly for “thematic elements.”

So. What is this book about? I couldn’t begin to summarize. The storyline is hardly even a cohesive story at all — not with a formulaic introduction-conflict-resolution, anyway. It’s more a series of varied vignettes, ranging from humorous to harrowing, wise to whimsical. It seemed like in every one of the fifty-some chapters, I’d find some paragraph that spoke to my soul. When I’d (finally) close the book for the day, I’d sigh contentedly, as though reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was like the pickle Francie enjoyed on page 45: “She didn’t exactly eat it. She just had it.” Yes, that was kind of like my reading — I didn’t exactly read it; I just absorbed it.

Okay, so really: what is this book about? Well, it’s about a family in Brooklyn in the early twentieth century, trying to make ends meet in impoverished conditions — and trying to be happy in spite of their circumstances. The characters were very likable (which, for me, often translates to good, morally sound people — basically true in this case, despite some questionable habits) and yet simultaneously very real. They struggle throughout almost the entire course of the book, scraping up a penny or two for a tin-can bank — the hope for a better future for the children Francie and Neeley — while going hungry and cold in the meantime.

Yet somehow, though they are destitute, you can’t but help feel these Nolans (and Rommelys — the mother’s family) are rich in the things that matter: in moral courage and in their relationships with one another … and, yes, in happiness. Francie wisely reflects on page 457:

“People always think that happiness is a faraway thing … something complicated and hard to get. Yet, what little things can make it up.”

It’s all the little, uncomplicated things of this story that make it a happy one — a book worth reading … and one that will stay with me for some time, I’m sure. ...more

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