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October Group Read - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
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Zoe
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Oct 07, 2014 10:27AM
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I'm an occasional audio listener. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is one that I did listen to and felt it was a great listen!
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I just picked it up from the library. It's been on my to-read list for the longest time which is a real pity since I'm from Brooklyn & still live here. Williamsburg is quite a different place now, and making the comparisons will be interesting.
I got the audio book from the library and am enjoying it a lot. I usually don't do audio and do better with the reading but this is rather ok with being able to knit at same time.Am over 1/2 way. It is good to be reminded of what our immigrant families had to go through in the teens through thirties of the twentieth century.
I really enjoyed this book. My mother-in-law suggested it, and I also enjoyed watching the movie afterward. :)
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Ooh, I hadn't realised there had been a film made. I'll have to see if I can get hold of it.
I've been listening to audio books from the library lately ~ it's been very enjoyable to be able to listen & knit at the same time. Nice change from all the noise around. I'll have to check out this book and 'read' it again; it's been a while.
I enjoyed that it's in black and white. :)
just finished this book, I know, I'm behind. I enjoyed it very much. It has been on my shelf as a to read and I just needed a little push to pick it up next. I fell in love with Francie, such an independent thinker for a young girl at that time. The book made me think of my grandfather whose family owned movie houses in Brooklyn during that time.
I'm getting close to finishing this book. I am really enjoying it for its reminder of how quickly things can change and how quickly we can forget these changes and take our lives for granted. I was literally struck by how Francie's English teacher spoke to her about her "new" writing (about her life in poverty and her alcoholic father). I'm horrified...appalled...and so touched by Francie's combination of sensitivity and strength. Betty Smith's publisher wouldn't print this as an autobiography, so here it is as a novel.
I had a professor in college (when I went back to school in '83-'85 to finally graduate) who spoke about her early writing career. Her husband disapproved of her writing so she had to write while he was at work and then rush to get all her housework done so it looked like she'd been busy being the perfect wife all day.
I also recently read a chapter in "The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America" about Elizabeth Warren. Reading this alongside Francie's story was powerful. Warren studied law and became a professor of bankruptcy law in large part because of her family's circumstances as she was growing up. She believed as her mother did that it was her father's "fault" that they were poor, until she came to realize that was not true, that the system was rigged against the working man. Seeing two different girls growing up in poverty under different circumstances, how they understood it, and how it motivated them is very interesting.
I had a professor in college (when I went back to school in '83-'85 to finally graduate) who spoke about her early writing career. Her husband disapproved of her writing so she had to write while he was at work and then rush to get all her housework done so it looked like she'd been busy being the perfect wife all day.
I also recently read a chapter in "The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America" about Elizabeth Warren. Reading this alongside Francie's story was powerful. Warren studied law and became a professor of bankruptcy law in large part because of her family's circumstances as she was growing up. She believed as her mother did that it was her father's "fault" that they were poor, until she came to realize that was not true, that the system was rigged against the working man. Seeing two different girls growing up in poverty under different circumstances, how they understood it, and how it motivated them is very interesting.
All of a sudden, this book gets a surge in popularity. Getting it from the library was easy & I took that for granted. I couldn't renew! Another version is available & I'll make sure I'll finish it this time around.A Tree is affecting me - the other night I dreamt I came out of the subway into a Brooklyn of the early 1900's! Not in the novel's Williamsburg section, but in Prospect Heights. Many of Brooklyn's buildings were built in that era, so it wasn't a stretch to imagine. I was dressed in the finery of the day, but was out of place as I walked around. A police officer stopped me & asked for my papers. (I need to see if it was commonplace to ask African-Americans for paperwork back then). My purse was the same one I carry now - a large shiny purplish bag - so I guess I looked like an odd bird.
