A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Wow. Loved this book. What took me so long to read it? A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith and my recent read of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee was a great reminder to me that I haven’t been reading enough classics lately. I used to read so many and have dropped off in the last couple of years. I need to get back into the habit.
Did I mention that A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was great? Because it is.
I read somewhere that A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is one of those books in which nothing happens but absolutely everything happens. I found that to be so true and so wonderful! It’s a coming of age story about Francie Nolan as her family struggles with poverty, alcoholism, and the realities of life in the tenements of Brooklyn, New York in the early part of the century. But it’s about more than just Francie. It’s a portrait of three generations of an Irish-American family, their hopes and their dreams at a time of life when no thought is given to sending young children down the market for a penny loaf of bread.
Frances is the ultimate strong woman character and I loved every minute that I spent with her.
Popular quotes from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn:
The one tree in Francie’s yard was neither a pine nor a hemlock. It had pointed leaves which grew along green swithces which radiated from the bough and made a tree which looked like a lot of opened green umbrellas. 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 few out of cement. It grew lushly, but only in the tenements districts. - Chapter 1
Francie is entitled to one cup each meal like the rest. If it makes her feel better to throw it way rather than to drink it, all right. I think it’s good that people like us can waste something once in a while and get the feeling of how it would be have lots of money and not have to worry about scrounging. - Chapter ?
She was all these things and of something more that did not come from the Rommelys nor the Nolans, the reading, the observing, the living from day to day. It was something that had been into her and her only - the something different from anyone else in the two families. It was what God or whatever is His equivalent puts into each soul that is given life - the one different tihng such as that which makes no two fingerprints on the face of the earth alike. - Chapter 8
Oh, magic hour when a child first knows it can read printed words! - Chapter 22.
From that time on, the worldwas 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 . . . 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. - Chapter 22.
Francie was ten years old when she first found an outlet in writing. What she wrote was of little consequence. What was important was that the attempt to write stories kept her straight on the dividing line between truth and fiction.
If she had not found this outlet in writing, she might have grown up to be a tremendous liar. - Chapter 26.
Growing up spoiled a lot of things. - Chapter 28
Most women had the one thing in common: they had great pain when they gave birth to their children. This should make a bond that held them all together; it should make them love and protect each other against the man-world. But it was not so. It seemed like their great birth pains shrank their hearts and their souls. They stuck together for only one thing: to trample on some other woman. Chapter 29
Francie wished adults would stop telling her that. Already the load of thanks in the future was weighing her down. She figured she’d have to spend the best years of her womanhood hunting up people to tell them that they were right and to thank them. - Chapter 39
We’re too much alike to understand each other because we don’t even understand our own selves. Papa and I were two different persons and we understood each other. Mama understands Neeley because he’s different from her. Chapter 44
Let me be something every minute of every hour of my life. Let me be gay; let me be sad. Let me be cold; let me be warm. Let me be hungry…have too much to eat. Let me be ragged or well dressed. Let me be sincere-be deceitful. Let me be truthful; let me be a liar. Let me be honorable and let me sin. Only let me be something every blessed minute. And when I sleep, let me dream all the time so that not one little piece of living is ever lost. Chapter 48
Then one sunny day, they walk out in all innocence and they walk right into the grief that you’d give your life to spare them. Chapter 53
A new tree had grown from the stump and its trunk had grown along the ground until it reached a place where there were no wash lines above it. Then it had started to grow towards the sky again. Annie, the fir tree, that the Nolans had cherished with waterings and manurings, had long since sickened and died. But this tree in the yard–this tree that men chopped down…this tree that they built a bonfire around, trying to burn up its stump–this tree had lived! - Chapter 56
Have you read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn? No? What are you waiting for?
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A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is October’s fiction book club selection at Rich Women Sisterhood, which I’m excited to be your host and moderator. This is unlike any book club you’re familiar with because we’ll be discussing the book via a tele-conference call on October 27th at 6:30 MST. I’d love to discuss this book with you so now would be a perfect time to read it. In fact, I’d love you on the call even if you haven’t read it! Find out all the details to participate. If you’re already not a member of Rich Women Sisterhood make sure to register and then register for the book club discussion so I know how many people I have on the call. Can’t wait to talk with you about this one in person!
I love this book! I’ve probably read it three or four times. I’ve also had three or four copies of the book go through my hands- the first one I acquired was a mass-market paperback, and I wanted a better copy. So I got a hardback from a thrift store- only to discover some pages were missing! So upset. Then I got another hardback, only it really was in shabby shape. Finally I picked up a third hardbound edition, this one including Maggie Now which I haven’t read yet. When I do, I’ll probably read Tree Grows in Brooklyn yet again.
on September 29th, 2008 at 6:11 pmI haven’t read it yet either, but I have it on my bookshelf…now I just need to make the time. So many books, so little time!!
on September 29th, 2008 at 6:15 pmLoved this book!! I read it recently, also for a book club and I thought it was fantastic. I loved how it was written, I loved the characters (especially Francie’s aunt, the one who worked at the rubber factory). What a great read!
on September 29th, 2008 at 6:45 pmThis is the most wonderful book! I’ll be rereading it soon for my November bookclub, which I am hosting.
on September 29th, 2008 at 7:36 pmFrancie Nolan is absolutely one of the strongest female protagonists I’ve ever come across. I loved this book.
on September 29th, 2008 at 7:39 pmI read this via a “favorite book swap” with my roommate my freshman year of college, and couldn’t believe I hadn’t read it sooner.
on September 29th, 2008 at 8:22 pmOh! I’m so glad you read and enjoyed this book! For many years, it was my number one, all-time favorite book. Then I read Joy in the Morning, also by Smith, and now I can’t choose. But they’re both in my top 5 of all-time favorite books. (To Kill a Mockingbird, incidentally, is also in that list.)
on September 29th, 2008 at 10:29 pmI recently read this as the first book of my IRL book club, and I really liked it! I actually enjoyed it so much that I recently purchased Joy in the Morning by Betty Smith, and I’m really looking forward to reading another of her novels.
on September 29th, 2008 at 11:05 pmI read this once when I was younger. I can only remember a little of it though.
on September 30th, 2008 at 2:47 amI was so glad when my book group chose this book and that was only two years ago, so it took me a long time to get to it also. We all thought it was very good. Actually I can still visualize Francie’s home.
on September 30th, 2008 at 5:43 amI love this book, too! It’s among my top-ten favorite books of all time. I once knew someone who told me she hated this book because nothing happens. Obviously, she wasn’t reading closely enough. All in all, it’s a beautiful book. Didn’t know, though, that Smith had written anything else! Off to look it up.
on September 30th, 2008 at 9:10 amMy book club is reading this in November. I’ll have to read it!
on September 30th, 2008 at 9:22 amI tried reading this as a teenager and never got very far into it. I really need to give it another try. It is on my list of books I wanted to read this year. I don’t know if I will get to it though. Maybe next year.
on September 30th, 2008 at 11:02 amSo glad you loved this one! I didn’t loooooove it but I enjoyed it. Classics are so much work but I always end up liking them–I guess sometimes the reading of them is more daunting than the small payoff at the end. My challenge certainly hasn’t helped me get through anymore lately!!
on September 30th, 2008 at 11:51 amhaven’t read it but sounds great! to the list!!!! =]
on September 30th, 2008 at 2:18 pmThis is a truly wonderful book. My book club read it last year and we had a great discussion about it. I’d LOVE to join the tele-conference discussion, but I’ve been asked to speak at a Writer’s Assoc. meeting that same night.
on September 30th, 2008 at 4:35 pmI’ve never read this and I will have to. I enjoyed your review.
on September 30th, 2008 at 6:42 pmIt sounds like everybody is in agreement and LOVES this book!
Heather - Maybe next month . . . I’m happy that you had the interest though.
Abbi - Yay!! I saw your registration come in! It will be really fun to talk to you on the phone! This is my third book club. I just came home tonight actually.
on September 30th, 2008 at 9:16 pmI put off reading this book for a long time. I read it when I was young and didnt like it. Just re-read(listened on CD) about a year ago and really enjoyed it.
on October 1st, 2008 at 2:05 pmI’ve had this book on my TBR list for a few months now. I really really want to read it. Thanks for including quotes, I love reading those in reviews. And . . . congrats of technically finishing the Lit Flicks Challenge. I’m glad you’ve decided to soldier on until the deadline though. I can’t wait to see what’s up next.
on October 2nd, 2008 at 2:22 pmLaura H. - I think this is one that you wouldn’t appreciate as much when you’re younger.
Jessica - Thanks! I felt really sad that I was already done so thanks for letting me continue!
on October 3rd, 2008 at 11:21 pmI read this book about two years ago, and I’d wondered then why I’d waited so long! I loved loved loved it!
This quote: “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is one of those books in which nothing happens but absolutely everything happens” is so true!! I’d been wanting a way to explain this book.
on October 8th, 2008 at 11:11 amWhen I was in 6th grade or so, my dad and my aunts decided that I should read some classics along with whatever else I was reading, and this was one of the books they gave me. It's still one of my favorites, and one of the few paperbacks I've managed to keep for almost 20 years!
on October 14th, 2008 at 12:01 pmHi! I found you through Rich Women Sisterhood. I’m one of the contributors there, though life has kicked me a bit and I’m slacking.
I read this book my Freshman year of HS, 9 years ago. (Wow, I’m young but that made me feel a little old) Coincidentally, I also read To Kill a Mockingbird (which I loved as well), along with Metamorphosis by Frank Kafka for English I Honors. I had to have all three books read before classes even started… and though I’ve not read the book since then, I still maintain it as my favorite, and now must go digging for my copy and find the time to read. I was so happy to see it made the very first RWS Book Club Telecast.
on October 22nd, 2008 at 10:00 pmI absolutely love this book. It is one of my favorites. After reading it a few years back, I gave it to my daughter to read (18) and my son (20) and they both loved it. I read it with my book club and it was a big hit. I will never forget Francie Nolan or her family. Good luck with your Lit flick Selections.
on October 29th, 2008 at 2:17 pmI absolutely loved this book when I read it as a teenager. Although I have actually forgotten the storyline, I have never forgotten that the book touched my life in some way. I keep wanting to re-read it and will probably make it a Thanksgiving or Christmas holiday priority. (I would read it sooner, but as a teacher, I sadly find little time to read for fun!)
on October 30th, 2008 at 1:22 am