On My Nightstand - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – By Betty Smith

On the back cover:

“A profoundly moving novel, and an honest and true one.  It cuts to the heart of life... If you miss A Tree Grows in Brooklyn you will deny yourself a rich experience.  It is a poignant and deeply understand story of childhood and family relationships.

The Nolans living 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 sufferings that are the lot of a great city’s poor.  Primarily this is Francie’s book.  She is a superb feat of characterization, an imagination, alert, resourceful child.  And Francie’s growing up and beginnings of wisdom are the substance of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.”

First published in 1943, and selected to be one of the books of the century by The New York Library.

My thoughts:

I liked this book, I would not rank it in my top 10 or even top 20, but it was a good book.

It was very well written, it told a story that ultimately is timeless, family and love, desires, rich and poor.

I have read so few books set in this time frame in North America it was really neat to see what life was like back then.  To see just how different the poor of 1919 are to the poor of 2011.

My rating: 4 out of 5.