A Tree Grows in Brooklyn | Book Review | GUEST REVIEWER

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn 

Written by Betty Smith

Number of Pages: 493

Average Rating: 4.26 / 5 stars

Rhonda’s Rating: 5 / 5 stars

Published in 1943

Read in March 2019

Summary According to Goodreads

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. 

Rhonda’s Thoughts

This book is listed on the Top 100 Books to Read Before You Die, and justifiably so. This was a story like one I had never read before; it was devastating and hard to read at times, but it was also inspiring and uplifting at others. I never would have picked this book up on my own, but it was recommended to me by my local librarian and I am so grateful she did.

This story is written as a semi-autobiography about an adolescent girl growing up in Brooklyn in a poor family. The book takes us through five periods in Francie Nolan’s life starting when she was 11 years old, until she turns 17.  During this journey we also learn about the struggles faced by her parents trying to raise a family during this time period of a Great Depression, as well as their close relatives.  The book addresses many different issues including poverty and alcoholism, things still relevant in today’s society.   

The story follows Francie through all of her struggles and her refusal to give up on life and on herself, no matter the challenges that faced her or her family. There was nothing about this novel that was glamorized or exaggerated, it was down-to-earth and real no matter how rough it got. All of the characters in this book were described so well and I could easily picture Francie’s surrounding.

This was not an easy book to read. It took me longer than usual to finish, as it was a story that I needed to fully digest and not hurried along. I found it interesting that this book was one of the most popular Armed Services Edition books. meaning that it was published in a small enough edition that it could fit in a pocket. I would recommend this novel to adults that have a taste for reading, but would warn that it is a slow read (it took me nearly seven weeks), just because it captures you and you want to emerse yourself in every single detail. I came out of this novel with a renewed love of reading and developed an interest in joining a book club - I had so much that I wanted to discuss about this novel.