Name: Mitul Shah's review of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Item: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Rating: 4
Author: Mitul Shah

Betty Smith

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.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

The American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

ella

From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood. There was poetry for quiet companionship. There was adventure when she tired of quiet hours. There would be love stories when she came into adolescence and when she wanted to feel a closeness to someone she could read a biography. On that day when she first knew she could read, she made a vow to read one book a day as long as she lived.

Mitul Shah

Armed with her idealism and determination, young Francie Nolan struggles to escape from the poverty of life in a Brooklyn tenement during the early 1900s. Reprint. NYT.

Sarah Sammis

I have to admit that it took a long time for me to get into the story. If I hadn't enjoyed the film and didn't know the story as well as I did from my grandmother, I probably would have stopped around page 100 or so. The first third of the story is centered around the struggles and the shame of being poor. The second third allows the characters some time to blossom and shows the sacrifices families are willing to make to give the children a better chance. The final third shows the first tenous results of those years of sacrifice and at last the characters come into their own. Of course there are also the themes of life lessons learned, family tragedies, and family joy.

Sonia Grgas

Just as good the second time around, I consider it a must read for anyone.

I love coming of age and I relate to this one most. A favorite since highschool 

Yliana Roland 

A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick The beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century. From the moment she entered the world, Francie needed to be made of stern stuff, for the often harsh life of Williamsburg demanded fortitude, precocity, and strength of spirit. Often scorned by neighbors for her family’s erratic and eccentric behavior—such as her father Johnny’s taste for alcohol and Aunt Sissy’s habit of marrying serially without the formality of divorce—no one, least of all Francie, could say that the Nolans’ life lacked drama. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the Nolans’ daily experiences are tenderly threaded with family connectedness and raw with honesty. Betty Smith has, in the pages of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, captured the joys of humble Williamsburg life-from “junk day” on Saturdays, when the children of Francie’s neighborhood traded their weekly take for pennies, to the special excitement of holidays, bringing cause for celebration and revelry. Betty Smith has artfully caught this sense of exciting life in a novel of childhood, replete with incredibly rich moments of universal experiences—a truly remarkable achievement for any writer.

revesjrnal

kinda can relate to francie especially when she talked about book, i also love all of the character in this book ! anyway its such a great book :) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ivy X

[Reread 3rd time -- third time with Alvin]

Jeannette Ordas

Funny that I had never read this until now. It's my mother-in-law's favorite childhood book and I really didn't know much about it besides that. It's a sweet and candid coming of age story heaped with sugary nostalgia.

The Nolans lived in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn from 1902 until 1919. Their daughter Francie and their son Neely knew more than their fair share of the privations and suffering that were the lot of New York's poor. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is the story of Francie, an imaginative, alert, resourceful child, and of her family.

Trish

I first heard of this book about a decade ago when my cousin was complaining about having to read it for her English class (she must have been in 7th or 8th grade). I remember hearing the title and thinking it awfully boring... a book about a tree? No wonder she was sulking. Plus it looked HUGE! I hoped that when I was her age that I wouldn't have to read that brick for school, and lo and behold, I didn't. 

Now, that I've read the novel at the ripe age of twenty-two, I am so grateful that my first encounter with this book was free of deadlines, assignments and annotations. I mean, considering its sheer size and biography-like writing style, I can see why some students might be bored or unimpressed. Personally, however, this book exceeded all my expectations. 

Firstly, this is a very engaging and captivating novel - not a page nor word is wasted. Every character, every story has a purpose and, frankly, it's a page-turner. I found this book impossible to put down (except after a certain very sad part) and carried it with me everywhere. It's super easy to read and the characters all jump off the page. Betty Smith spends all of her efforts on characterization and I can't thank her enough. Johnny and Katie Nolan will be two characters I carry with me always. I adore them so much, each for their own special reasons. This book and its characters will teach you lessons about life, love, learning and everything in between. 

Honestly, if you've read this book before and hated it, or have heard mixed reviews and are apprehensive about picking it up, don't wait any longer! It's a fast, easy and heartbreakingly emotional read that I just can't recommend enough.

For more bookish photos, reviews and updates follow me on instagram @concerningnovels.

Becky A

What a good book! I'll be writing a blog entry about it soon, but in the mean time, man, I really enjoyed that.

And hey, here my blog entry is! In which I talk about: liberty, poverty, gender, and my great-grandmother. http://www.beckyallenbooks.com/2017/0...

Ayden

It was so good!!! Francie is very relatable, and I love that there is so many details about everybody's life even those that aren't so important (like Mrs. McGarrity) Incredible understanding of human nature, and i liked that there were Jews (mostly in a good light) More then anything it was honest. My only complaint is to how young and fast they fell in love.

Charlotte 

A book that is also a stage play or musical ✔

Irene Alegre

I think there's something about children + poverty + historical background that is very appealing to a great part of the reading population. And it's not because of the story. The story is mostly always the same. It's because of the children. They have a different perspective, an original point of view and such a mixture of both common sense and innocence that make you smile and cry at the same time, and wonder why they have to suffer that way. That's 'A tree grows in Brooklyn'. The story (or awakening) of Francie Nolan, an eleven year-old Brooklyn girl that tries to make the most out of a couple of cents, a bit of junk and a small library. 

SPOILERS








Things I loved about 'A tree grows in Brooklyn'

- Simple yet beautiful writing with striking metaphors that are actually true
- Sissy. She gives it a sense of surrealism and I liked that. Come on, ten stillborn children? TEN? And then she goes on to literally fake a pregnancy. Talk about psychological pregnancies now.
- The neighborhood anecdotes. I found them warm and sometimes heart-braking. Especially liked the Salon owner and his wife.
- Katie. What a STRONG character that woman is. She's the MOTHER but she's the WOMAN as well. She works hard for her children and is realistic yet, at the same time, pines after a useless, unsuccessful man.
- Francie. She was charming, and adorable, and I loved her imagination. I also loved how real she is and how she makes mistakes, sometimes. The doll-scene was genious. The other girls, they were as poor as her, yet they felt much richer. Because they had dignity, and Francie lacked it. I loved how Francie is so human. She's not a heroine, she gives that role to her mama. She just strives to be as happy as she can.
- Neeley. Neeley is so proud, and so macho, and so friendly, and is the leader of his gang and a prince charming among the girls. Yet he's just a child. And he is made a bit of fun of sometimes. I loved him because he was warm, and childish, and good-natured.

Things I didn't like about 'A tree grows in Brooklyn'

- JOHNNY. Except for a couple of instances when he comes up as a good, wise man, I didn't like him. At all. He sings. He's funny. Supposedly he's good... but I found him a selfish, useless character. And not because he is a drunk. No. He starts off really bad. He's dating a girl and ditches her for her best-friend. Fair enough, these things happen every day. Then she marries her and gets her pregnant. And then he discovers he's not ready for parenthood. Yet Katie isn't either, and she just grows up to be a responsible mom. While Johnny goes to a bar, gets himself drunk and loses his job, all the while his wife is giving birth. How to love a character like that. Because I had flicked through the book and came accross a line that said 'Johnny died three days later', I couldn't wait for that to happen. Seriously. Oh, and every character trying to protect him from the real truth (he's worth nothing) didn't help either. Everyone loves Johnny yet I couldn't find a sole reason to love him. 
- The ending. I think it was rushed. I didn't feel the love of Francie for either Lee or Ben. I actually thought she liked Ben better, but somehow she thought othewise. Supposedly she was in LOVE with Lee. Didn't see that. At all. I would have liked to see how she, at least, started a relationship with a guy. That's part of the awakening game as well. Yet we don't get to see that. Oh, and she settles for the right guy while pining after the bad one. Just like her mother. That might be the only thing I didn't like about the women in this book.

elizabeth church

NEW FAVORITE!! Francie is my new favorite female character (other than Inej from SoC, who is the loml). The way that Francie views the world makes me believe in humanity again. She's just so observant and appreciative of the things around her and I want to be just like her. The descriptions of the world around her were written so well, so LOVED the way the book was writtten!! Don't really know what else to say other than, the writing and Francie are what makes this book amazing and Francie basically narrated the whole book so Francie is really the only reason why I loved this book so much (we love a run-on sentence).

Celeste Richardson

Perfect. Absolutely perfect. The only thing that could have improved my experience with this book would have been finding it fifteen years sooner. I wish twelve year-old me had known this book existed, and had been able to experience the life of Francie Nolan when we were closer to the same age. But even as an adult, I’ve found a kindred spirit in this scrappy little girl from Brooklyn, and watching her grow up and experience both heartaches and triumph was one of the most wonderful reading journeys I’ve ever embarked upon. Better late than never.

Francie and her family are incredibly poor, barely able to scrape by. Meals are sometimes scant, sometimes skipped. But in spite of hunger and cold, Francie is happy. She experiences life to the absolute fullest, wringing enjoyment from every possible source. Is she sometimes unhappy and angry and afraid? Of course. But she overcomes adversity by following doggedly in the footsteps of her mother, but with her father’s sunnier outlook on life. 

Witnessing all the various ways in which Francie’s life changes, be they slow and steady changes or alterations that spring up fast enough to induce whiplash, is a study in the human condition and a child’s resilience. But what I loved most here was Francie’s intense love of words, and how that love manifests itself during different portions of her life. I have never in my life related more to a quote from a book than I did this one:

“From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books because her friends and there was one for every mood.”

I had a hard time making friends with kids my own age when I first started school. I could strike up conversations with adults and even older kids, no problem. But I didn’t relate well to people my own age. Plus, I looked kind of funny, and there’s no one in the world meaner than kids. So I submersed myself in fiction for the first five years of elementary school. Once I got braces and grew into my ears and hit puberty, I developed friendships with most of my (very small) class. But, until then, I carried a book with me onto the playground and into the cafeteria every single day. So the magic Francie found in books, I found too.

It’s hard to explain why this book impacted me so much. It’s just the story of a poor girl growing up in Brooklyn in the early 1900s. But she was so real to me. And every character I saw through her eyes was real, even with their flaws, whether those flaws were real or simply implied by Francie. She’s fictional, but I love her. I love her family and her neighbors and the character of her neighborhood itself. Betty Smith did a fantastic job showing us Francie’s life through the girl’s own eyes, instead of just telling us about it. 

If you’ve never read this book, you should. It’s a classic for a reason, and it’s one I’ll be revisiting again and again. If there’s a little girl in your life who inhales books like the words they contain are oxygen, please give her a copy of this book. She’ll find a lifelong friend in France Nolan. I know I did.

For more of my reviews, as well as my own fiction and thoughts on life, check out my blog, Celestial Musings.

Jaymie Lemke

Fraser Simons

A far superior coming-of-age story to A Separate Peace, which I read just the other day. Sure, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is much longer, but it’s also got way more to say and is far more applicable to the average young adult. 

This book chronicles the life of Francis Nolan after a short stint of following her mother, which is longer than you’d expect and works very well to illustrate the generational challenges of immigration and poverty and youth. 

This story is about, at its core, perseverance. It is beautifully characterized and written, though more granular than I tend to like, especially in the first of the five books. But when it does get going it starts shifts focus from seemingly absolutely everything—as we tend to do in adolescence—to what really matters. The bones of a life in a time that does feel a long time ago, until the obstacles come into focus. Then we see it’s the same human endeavours for most. 

We are all trying to figure out what nourishes us and we all have flaws that too often seem annunciated by life. 

As someone born to a young mother, with parents who struggled for most of my life to get up and out of poverty while putting themselves through university, a lot of this hits home for me. It doesn’t feel like poverty tourism and it celebrates the growth of all people, but especially those seen as the weeds and stumps in an otherwise lovely garden. 

Had I been able to connect a bit more with the voice, I think this would have been a 5 star read. But as it is, I felt like I always always a safe distance away from the characters, even when they suffering and in trouble. It’s a weird psychic distance to have for such a story, but it does enable some wide meanderings that bear fruit. 

Very glad to have finally gotten to it.

Hailey Vinson

LOVED! I didn't get the privilege of reading this when I was a kid. I think though that if I did I wouldn't have enjoyed all of the details that I did enjoy now.

Kwan Ann Tan

It's definitely a comfort read, but not spectacular. I kept expecting something horribly life-changing to happen to them (probably conditioned to see dreadful things in every corner from books nowadays) but it's a simple, easy read about life in Brooklyn, growing up and the simple pains that come from it. Best read on a lazy summer day.

Udit Desai

Brigid Hogan

Katherine

a story about life, beautifully written with all of its ups and downs

Francie Nolan, armed with idealism and determination, struggles to escape from the poverty of life in a Brooklyn tenement during the early 1900s

Melody Izard

Reading this book was a little like watching an old Shirley Temple movie, with the person playing Shirley’s role a little less adorable – I was certainly entertained – but I was also taught many a lesson during the course of the story which was filled with more than a few clichés. The main lesson, of course is depicted by the tree – 

“Some people called it the Tree of Heaven. No matter where its seed fell, it made a tree which struggled to reach the sky. It grew in boarded-up lots and out of neglected rubbish heaps and it was the only tree that grew out of cement. It grew lushly, but only in the tenement districts……The tree whose leaf umbrellas had curled around, under and over her fire escape had been cut down because the house wives complained that wash on the lines got entangled in its branches. The landlord had sent two men and they had chopped it down. But the tree hadn’t died … it hadn’t died”

You can throw poverty, alcoholism, prejudice, loneliness, and death at some people and they will find a way to live and thrive if they keep their faith and get a good education and understand the importance of family. 

There’s a whole lot of sweetened condensed milk, drunk singing, very young girls having sex with older men; there’s an indifferent, lonely librarian, a drunk, irresponsible, but loveable drunk papa, several homely (and again with the lonely) school teachers, a bunch of scrimping and saving – but I’m glad I read it.

Allison Francis

This will always be one of my favorite books.

Summer Stanley

As I started, I thought there's no way this can be as good as everyone says. Nothing happens. Boy, was I wrong? Absolutely captivating from beginning to end. Truthfully nothing did happen, and yet Smith created beautiful characters and relatable feelings without a dramatic plot line. Incredible.

Jimena Vázquez Oliver

This is a book I myself would’ve probably never in a million years chosen to read, but it was this month’s selection for my book club. It’s our first book, and already I’m seeing the benefits of a book club. Because without it, I never would’ve picked this book. I likely would’ve gone my whole life without reading it, and I’m so glad that isn’t the case. Is it an immediate favourite? Will I read it again and again and again and again? Not likely. In fact, I hesitated between giving it 3 or 4 stars. But I simply can’t deny the way it managed to move me overall. And while I don’t think it’ll be one that I read endless times like some of my most favourites, I see myself definitely reading it when I’m older and kind of wish I’d read it when I was younger. I think it’s the type of book in which you find something different to connect with at multiple different stages in your life.

Mitul Shah &
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

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Mitul Shah &A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

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Mitul Shah &
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith