Reading "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" in April discussion
Reading a Tree Grows In Brooklyn
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Hi Marilyn, I’m starting today a little late as had a few things on the go but looking forward to it!
Thoughts on chapters 1-3: I love the opening to this book. I think Betty Smith does a great job of establishing the poverty of the Nolans along with describing the neighbourhood. I really felt like I was walking along in the neighbourhood with Francie. I enjoyed the relationship between her and Neely as well as her visit to the library. I related completely to her sitting with her book and her snacks on the balcony hidden by the tree. The way that she idolises her father is beautiful but heartbreaking, particularly the line that said the children didn’t know enough to be ashamed of him at that point.
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I hope you are all enjoying "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" so far. I will have an update tomorrow Hawaii time. It's midnight now, and I'm still reading. Please feel free to read at your own pace. If you want to contact me on Voxer, my handle is alohaboomer or Maya Mendoza. Thank you, Jack, for your first summary. One tidbit I have is that for Brooklynites, the fire escape has always been vital to escape the summer heat, meet with friends, and, of course, read.
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Every time I reread this book, a memory tugs at me. This time, the Graham Avenue Trolley and Graham Avenue, the Ghetto Street, caught my attention. 65 years ago when I was Francie's age, the trolleys were gone, but some parts of Graham Avenue were still Jewish areas. I remember my mother buying my first bra at a store owned by an Orthodox Jew. He knew my size without measuring me, and I was so embarrassed. There were no pushcarts, and most of the stores sold to Puerto Rican customers, but stores that are now Bodegas were candy stores like the ones Francie talks about. And the top of Graham Avenue, which Francie mentions: Siegal Street, still had a notable Jewish presence. Francie walks up Manhattan Avenue, the street I lived on, but then they were projects. I went to the same library, which must have had a makeover in the fifties, and asked the librarian to recommend a book for me like Francie did. Luckily, my librarian was kind, but I was shy and respectful when I waited at her desk. There are scenes where Francie and others talk about Jewish people in ways that are anti semitic, but we see that Francie is only parroting what she is told. She has no malice. Neely calls a young Jewish boy a "white Jew" while his friends deny there is no such thing. What is a white Jew? I'm not positive, but Jewish people were not considered white at many in history. Because white was considered superior, a Jewish person who had strange customs to their Jewish and German neighbors were considered non white then. I love that Francie, maybe because she read so widely, questioned the truth of many ignorant opinions. That makes her a wonderful character.
The opening chapters are so full of people, family, vivid setting, and most importantly, Francie's love of reading on her fire escape, a vital space in a tenement dweller's life. New York summers are muggy, and places to get breezes are few, up on a roof, a stoop, but the best place was the fire escape. If you watched the movie "West Side Story," you will understand this New York detail.
One fact in the book that didn't change in the fifties was that Brooklyn people did not venture into Manhattan unless they worked there. This was true even when I was a teenager and always wanted to leave my borough. Francie mentioned she never had gone to Manhattan in the first chapters.
There is so much here to discuss, but I have written enough for now. Looking forward to your feedback and am excited to be reading my favorite book with others who love it too. Aloha
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I now understand why the soldiers in WW2 wrote fan letters to Betty Smith because of how she portrays poor men trying to survive in Williamsburg and how poverty and lack of education hold back both the young women and men.
So far, poverty is a big theme in the beginning of the book. I will be more specific tomorrow. Hope you all are as fascinated as I am with the book. Aloha
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Hi Denise, Can't wait for your first post? I will post up to book 2 up to chapter 10. Aloha
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We are also introduced to the sisters, especially Sissy, who is an vital character in the book.
We learn how Katie falls for Johnny and is smart enough to take him away from Hildy. We get more than a foreshadowing of the life she will have with Johnny. We are told she will suffer because the author comments that Katie should have picked someone who loved her more than she loved him.
There is great humor in these chapters, the hatpin Hildy takes out to poke Katie and ends up scratching Johnny Nolan, and wonderful details of the Brooklyn of the time.
We are introduced to Sissy. That whole section shows how poor people at the time were quick to judge other women. Some of my thoughts are that Betty Smith draws her male characters as richly as her female ones.
Also, how newcomers to Brooklyn were not always told education was free in the States, and how important Betty Smith felt that education was the way out of poverty.
Uncle Flittman and his horse Drummond are comic relief to the tragedy of Sissy's stillbirths which sounds so unusual and almost magical or Dicksonian. but Betty Smith pulls together these threads later in the book.
The highlight of the chapters was how Mary Rommely, without education, steers her daughters to Shakespeare and the Bible, even though she herself could not read. I felt this was the highlight of these chapters and foreshadowed Francie's life. What say everyone? Aloha and happy reading.
I really like Katie’s older sister, Sissy. In chapter 11 Katie thinks about how Sissy’s soul is going to wander in Purgatory forever because she’s a “bad girl” but whenever she tells Sissy that, Sissy says she that won’t be wandering alone. Lol!
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I found it so disheartening to see how cold Francie's librarian was! Not my experience with librarians at all. I'm glad Francie had that vase and flowers, at least. AND of course the books.
I love Sissy, and how the sisters band together to help each other and the kids.
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I went to the same library as Francie, and in the fifties, the librarians were only somewhat better. In the early sixties, they hired an African American librarian. She was strict, but helped me learn the card catalog when I approached. I only asked her when I had an assignment. I still remember that she wore glasses and styled her hair in a bun. And of course, there were the books! Aloha
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Yes, Sissy is a gem!
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Let's start with the first three chapters in Book One, ending with page 36 (in my edition). Let me know if you have questions about chapter 1 because I'm familiar with the old Brooklyn language, setting, and period. When everyone finishes, we will discuss. Thank you for joining my first read-along.