My Review for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith was the August choice for #classiclitbookclub. I hadn't heard of this book, let alone read it, but I was absolutely blown away. 📚❤️
I can't even explain why. I loved the writing, the characters and the insight into 1900s Brooklyn. There isn't much of a story, not a lot happens, and yet so much does. Am I making sense? 🤔
All Francine wants to do is learn, to read as many books as she possibly can and to try and get herself, her brother and her mother a better life. 📚✨
The children's life is tough. They have little money, an alcoholic father and a mother who works as many jobs as she can to make ends meet — but still, it's not enough. And yet, for the most part, they are happy.
I found the story an honest depiction of what life would have been like for those living in poverty in Brooklyn in the early part of the twentieth century.
Yes, it's bleak. There are no cosy chapters or warm fires to sit around, but it's one of the best books I've ever read and definitely one I will read again and again. ❤️📚
About the Book
The beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident.
The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years.
By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness -- in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.
About Betty
Betty Smith (AKA Sophina Elisabeth Wehner): Born- December 15, 1896; Died- January 17, 1972
Born in Brooklyn, New York to German immigrants, she grew up poor in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. These experiences served as the framework to her first novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943).
After marrying George H. E. Smith, a fellow Brooklynite, she moved with him to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he pursued a law degree at the University of Michigan. At this time, she gave birth to two girls and waited until they were in school so she could complete her higher education. Although Smith had not finished high school, the university allowed her to enroll in classes. There she honed her skills in journalism, literature, writing, and drama, winning a prestigious Hopwood Award. She was a student in the classes of Professor Kenneth Thorpe Rowe.
In 1938 she divorced her husband and moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. There she married Joseph Jones in 1943, the same year in which A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was published. She teamed with George Abbott to write the book for the 1951 musical adaptation of the same name. Throughout her life, Smith worked as a dramatist, receiving many awards and fellowships including the Rockefeller Fellowship and the Dramatists Guild Fellowship for her work in drama. Her other novels include Tomorrow Will Be Better (1947), Maggie-Now (1958) and Joy in the Morning (1963).
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