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A Tree Grows in Brooklyn & Maggie-Now
1943 Copyright- by Betty Smith- Two novels in one book.
733 pages, Hardcover
Published October 1, 1947
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1510 people want to read
About the author
Betty Smith
24Ìýbooks1,979ÌýfollowersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ database with this name.
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).
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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Displaying 1 - 30 of 112 reviews
September 6, 2023
🌳A brilliant, poetic book of love, family, friendship and the giving of kindness where no kindness had been experienced before. Early 20th century Americana. Ten stars.
April 23, 2013
This book showed me that, more than money, happiness is a good character, family and friends. The riches of life are the moments you take with you into old age.
Also this is my new favorite book. it lives under my pillow until i read something else that will inspire me.
Also this is my new favorite book. it lives under my pillow until i read something else that will inspire me.
June 11, 2012
I need to be reminded periodically of what a masterful writer’s attention to detail, character portrayal, and replication of human kindnesses and cruelties accomplishes. Betty Smith’s “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn� is an excellent example.
This book is about poor people in Brooklyn living against the odds before and during World War I. It is especially about strong women � the Rommely women � Mary, the grandmother; Mary’s three daughters Sissy, Katie, and Evy; and most particularly granddaughter Francie: all “made out of thin invisible steel.� It is also about their husbands and neighbors, shopkeepers and school children, teachers and co-workers. It is a compelling, detailed slice of life as the author must have experienced it.
Francie Nolan, the book’s main character, born in 1902, is eleven in the novel’s first chapter. Living in poverty in Brooklyn with her brother Neeley (a year younger than she), her truthful, resolute, practical mother Katie, and her empathetic, unrealistic, drunkard father Johnny, she exhibits already what Katie’s uneducated but wise mother Mary Rommely had advised Katie about raising her two children. “’The child must have a valuable thing which is called imagination. � It is necessary that she believe. � Then when the world becomes too ugly for living in, the child can reach back and live in her imagination.’� Francie has imagination. When Katie pointed out to her mother that the child, growing up, would find out things for herself, her mother responded, “’It is a good thing to learn the truth one’s self. To first believe with all your heart, and then not to believe � fattens the emotions and makes them to stretch. When as a woman life and people disappoint her, she will have had practice in disappointment and it will not come so hard. � Do not forget that suffering is good, too. It makes a person rich in character.’� Early on, Francie, shunned by girls her own age, fantasizes about the lives of people she observes from the fire escape landing outside her window, lives in the stories of the library books she reads, and plays games with imaginary friends. She loves her imperfect father deeply. Over the course of five years she experiences nastiness, cruelty, grieves, yet perseveres. At the book’s end she is rich in character.
These scenes in particular moved me.
When Francie had been seven and Neeley six, Katie had sent them to the nearby public health center to be vaccinated. Katie had needed to work that day and Johnny had been at the waiters union hall hoping to be emplouyed that night. Told by older boys that his arm would be cut off at the health center, Neeley had been terrified. To distract him before leaving for the center, Francie had taken him out into the yard to make mud pies. They had left for the center just before they were scheduled to report, their arms covered with mud. “‘Filth, filth, filth, from morning to night. I know they’re poor but they could wash. Water is free and soap is cheap,’� the doctor had said to the nurse assisting him. The doctor had then speculated “how that kind of people could survive; that it would be a better world if they were all sterilized and couldn’t breed any more.� After she had received her vaccination, Francie, terribly hurt, had fired back. “’My brother is next. His arm is just as dirty as mine so don’t be surprised. And you don’t have to tell him. You told me. � Besides, it won’t do no good. He’s a boy and he don’t care if he is dirty.’�
Francie’s teacher at the neighborhood school was also scornful of the poor. The spinster principal was nasty and brutal. Francie, turned nine, had her father fake their address to permit her to transfer to a better school. That November her new class participated in a Thanksgiving Day ceremony. Four chosen girls held symbols of the Thanksgiving feast. One symbol was a saucer-sized pumpkin pie. The teacher threw away the other symbols after the ceremony but not the pie, offering it to anyone who wanted to take it home. “Thirty mouths watered; thirty hands itched to go up into the air, but no one moved. � All were too proud to accept charitable food.� When the teacher was about to throw away the pie, Francie raised her hand. She explained she wanted to give the pie to “a very poor family.� The following Monday the teacher asked Francie about how the family had enjoyed the pie. Francie expanded on her lie by saying that there were twin girls in the family, they had not eaten for three days, and a doctor had said that they would have died but for the pie. Caught in her lie, Francie confessed. She pleaded not to be punished. The teacher answered, “’I’ll not punish you for having an imagination.’� She explained the difference between a lie and a story. The incident inspired Francie to channel her tendency to exaggerate events into writing stories.
A year later Francie told a whopping lie. She and Neeley attended a Christmas celebration conducted for the poor of all faiths by a Protestant organization. At the end of the celebration an exquisitely dressed, lovely girl named Mary came on stage carrying a foot-high beautiful doll. The woman that had accompanied the little girl announced, “’Mary wants to give the doll to some poor little girl in the audience who is named Mary. � Is there any poor little girl in the audience named Mary?’� Struck dumb by the adjective “poor,� no Mary spoke up. But at the last moment Francie did. As she walked back up the aisle carrying the doll, “the girls leaned towards her and whispered hissingly, ‘Beggar, beggar, beggar.� � They were as poor as she but they had something she lacked � pride.�
Francie was extremely proud of her seventh grade composition printed in the school magazine at the close of the school year. Eager to meet her father in the street to show him the published composition, she saw a girl named Joanna come out of her flat pushing a baby carriage. Joanna, who was seventeen, wasn’t married. Several housewives on the sidewalk gasped as Joanna strolled past them. Katie and Johnny had talked about Joanna. At the end of their conversation Katie had said to Francie, “’Let Joanna be a lesson to you.’� Seeing her, Francie wondered how Joanna was a lesson. She was friendly. She wanted everybody else to be friendly. She smiled at the ladies on the street. They frowned. She smiled at nearby children. Some of them smiled back. Francie, believing she probably wasn’t supposed to, did not smile back. Joanna continued to walk up and down the sidewalk. The ladies became more outraged. One woman eventually spoke. “’Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?’� Joanna answered back. “’Get off the street, you whore,’� the woman demanded. A verbal fight ensured. The women began to throw stones. One struck the baby on the forehead. Joanna carried the baby into her flat, leaving the carriage on the sidewalk. The women disappeared. Little boys began to play with the carriage. Francie wheeled the carriage back to the front door of Joanna’s flat. She placed her story on the carriage cushion as recompense for not having smiled. She decided later that the lesson she had learned was that she hated women. “She feared them for their devious ways, she mistrusted their instincts. She began to hate them for this disloyalty and their cruelty to each other.�
Francie’s father died when she was fourteen. Thereafter, instead of writing about the beauty of birds and trees she wrote four little stories about Johnny to show that despite his shortcomings he had been “a good father and kindly man.� Her new English teacher marked her compositions “C,� not what Francie was accustomed to, “A.� Afterward, she and Francie had a private conversation. The teacher wanted Francie to write about beauty and truth as she had before. “’Poverty, starvation and drunkenness are ugly subjects. � Drunkards belong in jail, not in stories. And poverty. There is no excuse for that. There’s enough work for all who want it. People are poor because they’re too lazy to work. There’s nothing beautiful about laziness. � Now that we’ve talked things out, I’m sure you’ll stop writing these sordid little stories.’� She advised Francie to burn her four compositions in her stove when she got home. Instead, Francie burned all her “A� compositions. She told herself, “I never saw a poplar and I read somewhere about the sky arching and I never saw those flowers except in a seed catalogue. I got A’s because I was a good liar. � I am burning ugliness. I am burning ugliness.�
Two years later Francie met a twenty-one year old soldier about to be shipped off to the war in Europe. They spent an evening together and kissed. They met the next evening and the soldier asked Francie to have sex with him and to marry him if he came back from the war. They did not engage in sex but she accepted his proposal. He went back home to Pennsylvania the next day to see his mother before being shipped out. Several days later Francie received a letter from the soldier’s mother informing her that the woman’s son had married his fiancée. Francie needed her mother to tell her hard truths.
Told what had happened, having read the letter, Katie recognized she could no longer stand between her children and heartache.
“’Say something,� demanded Francie.
“’What can I say?�
“’Say that I’m young � that I’ll get over it. Go ahead and say it. Go ahead and lie,’� Francie said bitterly.
“’I know that’s what people say � you’ll get over it. I’d say it, too. But I know it’s not true. � Every time you fall in love it will be because something in the man reminds you of him.�
“’Mother, he asked me to be with him for the night. Should I have gone? � Don’t make up a lie, Mother. Tell me the truth.�
�
“’There are two truths,� said Katie finally. ‘As a mother, I say it would have been a terrible thing for a girl to sleep with a stranger. � Your whole life might have been ruined. � But as a woman …� she hesitated. ‘I will tell you � It would have been a very beautiful thing. Because there is only once that you love that way.’�
“A Tree Grows in Brooklyn� is such a bittersweet, beautiful book. Betty Smith assures us that amid the misery and ugliness of poverty honest, empathetic people rich in character do exist. We need to know that. We need to retain hope for the human race.
This book is about poor people in Brooklyn living against the odds before and during World War I. It is especially about strong women � the Rommely women � Mary, the grandmother; Mary’s three daughters Sissy, Katie, and Evy; and most particularly granddaughter Francie: all “made out of thin invisible steel.� It is also about their husbands and neighbors, shopkeepers and school children, teachers and co-workers. It is a compelling, detailed slice of life as the author must have experienced it.
Francie Nolan, the book’s main character, born in 1902, is eleven in the novel’s first chapter. Living in poverty in Brooklyn with her brother Neeley (a year younger than she), her truthful, resolute, practical mother Katie, and her empathetic, unrealistic, drunkard father Johnny, she exhibits already what Katie’s uneducated but wise mother Mary Rommely had advised Katie about raising her two children. “’The child must have a valuable thing which is called imagination. � It is necessary that she believe. � Then when the world becomes too ugly for living in, the child can reach back and live in her imagination.’� Francie has imagination. When Katie pointed out to her mother that the child, growing up, would find out things for herself, her mother responded, “’It is a good thing to learn the truth one’s self. To first believe with all your heart, and then not to believe � fattens the emotions and makes them to stretch. When as a woman life and people disappoint her, she will have had practice in disappointment and it will not come so hard. � Do not forget that suffering is good, too. It makes a person rich in character.’� Early on, Francie, shunned by girls her own age, fantasizes about the lives of people she observes from the fire escape landing outside her window, lives in the stories of the library books she reads, and plays games with imaginary friends. She loves her imperfect father deeply. Over the course of five years she experiences nastiness, cruelty, grieves, yet perseveres. At the book’s end she is rich in character.
These scenes in particular moved me.
When Francie had been seven and Neeley six, Katie had sent them to the nearby public health center to be vaccinated. Katie had needed to work that day and Johnny had been at the waiters union hall hoping to be emplouyed that night. Told by older boys that his arm would be cut off at the health center, Neeley had been terrified. To distract him before leaving for the center, Francie had taken him out into the yard to make mud pies. They had left for the center just before they were scheduled to report, their arms covered with mud. “‘Filth, filth, filth, from morning to night. I know they’re poor but they could wash. Water is free and soap is cheap,’� the doctor had said to the nurse assisting him. The doctor had then speculated “how that kind of people could survive; that it would be a better world if they were all sterilized and couldn’t breed any more.� After she had received her vaccination, Francie, terribly hurt, had fired back. “’My brother is next. His arm is just as dirty as mine so don’t be surprised. And you don’t have to tell him. You told me. � Besides, it won’t do no good. He’s a boy and he don’t care if he is dirty.’�
Francie’s teacher at the neighborhood school was also scornful of the poor. The spinster principal was nasty and brutal. Francie, turned nine, had her father fake their address to permit her to transfer to a better school. That November her new class participated in a Thanksgiving Day ceremony. Four chosen girls held symbols of the Thanksgiving feast. One symbol was a saucer-sized pumpkin pie. The teacher threw away the other symbols after the ceremony but not the pie, offering it to anyone who wanted to take it home. “Thirty mouths watered; thirty hands itched to go up into the air, but no one moved. � All were too proud to accept charitable food.� When the teacher was about to throw away the pie, Francie raised her hand. She explained she wanted to give the pie to “a very poor family.� The following Monday the teacher asked Francie about how the family had enjoyed the pie. Francie expanded on her lie by saying that there were twin girls in the family, they had not eaten for three days, and a doctor had said that they would have died but for the pie. Caught in her lie, Francie confessed. She pleaded not to be punished. The teacher answered, “’I’ll not punish you for having an imagination.’� She explained the difference between a lie and a story. The incident inspired Francie to channel her tendency to exaggerate events into writing stories.
A year later Francie told a whopping lie. She and Neeley attended a Christmas celebration conducted for the poor of all faiths by a Protestant organization. At the end of the celebration an exquisitely dressed, lovely girl named Mary came on stage carrying a foot-high beautiful doll. The woman that had accompanied the little girl announced, “’Mary wants to give the doll to some poor little girl in the audience who is named Mary. � Is there any poor little girl in the audience named Mary?’� Struck dumb by the adjective “poor,� no Mary spoke up. But at the last moment Francie did. As she walked back up the aisle carrying the doll, “the girls leaned towards her and whispered hissingly, ‘Beggar, beggar, beggar.� � They were as poor as she but they had something she lacked � pride.�
Francie was extremely proud of her seventh grade composition printed in the school magazine at the close of the school year. Eager to meet her father in the street to show him the published composition, she saw a girl named Joanna come out of her flat pushing a baby carriage. Joanna, who was seventeen, wasn’t married. Several housewives on the sidewalk gasped as Joanna strolled past them. Katie and Johnny had talked about Joanna. At the end of their conversation Katie had said to Francie, “’Let Joanna be a lesson to you.’� Seeing her, Francie wondered how Joanna was a lesson. She was friendly. She wanted everybody else to be friendly. She smiled at the ladies on the street. They frowned. She smiled at nearby children. Some of them smiled back. Francie, believing she probably wasn’t supposed to, did not smile back. Joanna continued to walk up and down the sidewalk. The ladies became more outraged. One woman eventually spoke. “’Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?’� Joanna answered back. “’Get off the street, you whore,’� the woman demanded. A verbal fight ensured. The women began to throw stones. One struck the baby on the forehead. Joanna carried the baby into her flat, leaving the carriage on the sidewalk. The women disappeared. Little boys began to play with the carriage. Francie wheeled the carriage back to the front door of Joanna’s flat. She placed her story on the carriage cushion as recompense for not having smiled. She decided later that the lesson she had learned was that she hated women. “She feared them for their devious ways, she mistrusted their instincts. She began to hate them for this disloyalty and their cruelty to each other.�
Francie’s father died when she was fourteen. Thereafter, instead of writing about the beauty of birds and trees she wrote four little stories about Johnny to show that despite his shortcomings he had been “a good father and kindly man.� Her new English teacher marked her compositions “C,� not what Francie was accustomed to, “A.� Afterward, she and Francie had a private conversation. The teacher wanted Francie to write about beauty and truth as she had before. “’Poverty, starvation and drunkenness are ugly subjects. � Drunkards belong in jail, not in stories. And poverty. There is no excuse for that. There’s enough work for all who want it. People are poor because they’re too lazy to work. There’s nothing beautiful about laziness. � Now that we’ve talked things out, I’m sure you’ll stop writing these sordid little stories.’� She advised Francie to burn her four compositions in her stove when she got home. Instead, Francie burned all her “A� compositions. She told herself, “I never saw a poplar and I read somewhere about the sky arching and I never saw those flowers except in a seed catalogue. I got A’s because I was a good liar. � I am burning ugliness. I am burning ugliness.�
Two years later Francie met a twenty-one year old soldier about to be shipped off to the war in Europe. They spent an evening together and kissed. They met the next evening and the soldier asked Francie to have sex with him and to marry him if he came back from the war. They did not engage in sex but she accepted his proposal. He went back home to Pennsylvania the next day to see his mother before being shipped out. Several days later Francie received a letter from the soldier’s mother informing her that the woman’s son had married his fiancée. Francie needed her mother to tell her hard truths.
Told what had happened, having read the letter, Katie recognized she could no longer stand between her children and heartache.
“’Say something,� demanded Francie.
“’What can I say?�
“’Say that I’m young � that I’ll get over it. Go ahead and say it. Go ahead and lie,’� Francie said bitterly.
“’I know that’s what people say � you’ll get over it. I’d say it, too. But I know it’s not true. � Every time you fall in love it will be because something in the man reminds you of him.�
“’Mother, he asked me to be with him for the night. Should I have gone? � Don’t make up a lie, Mother. Tell me the truth.�
�
“’There are two truths,� said Katie finally. ‘As a mother, I say it would have been a terrible thing for a girl to sleep with a stranger. � Your whole life might have been ruined. � But as a woman …� she hesitated. ‘I will tell you � It would have been a very beautiful thing. Because there is only once that you love that way.’�
“A Tree Grows in Brooklyn� is such a bittersweet, beautiful book. Betty Smith assures us that amid the misery and ugliness of poverty honest, empathetic people rich in character do exist. We need to know that. We need to retain hope for the human race.
September 27, 2021
Beautifully written story of a family in the early part of the century growing up with the challenges of poverty, alcoholism and tragedies. But the way each individual character shines with goodness at times makes the story inspiring and appealing. I enjoyed the gentle, reflective thoughts and insights which Frannie gives as she grows up from an 11 year old girl to a woman of 18. A classic!
August 9, 2012
A perennial favorite! I first read this book about a young girl when I was in elementary school. Written in 1943 and set in the early 1900s this story is an unique coming of age novel.The book explores the life of eleven-year-old Francie Nolan and the rest of her Irish American Family. The book gives readers a unique glimpse into the hardscrabble lives of the families living in the tenements Brooklyn circa 1919. Through Francie and her younger brother Neely, the reader experiences how the wonderment of childhood survives even the most stark circumstances. Francie adores her father Johnnie who struggles with alcoholism. He is either unable to or unwilling to keep gainful employment. Katie, Francie's mother, is a very practical and hardworking woman. She holds the Nolan family together with her determination and tenacity. Her only dream in life is for Francie and Neely to go college. How will tradedy and the hard realities of life affect the Nolan family? I could not put "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" down when I first read it as a child. It still has the same effect on me.
February 24, 2017
The name of this novel has always been in my consciousness. I think my dad must have read it when I was young. I'm so glad I finally got round to reading it myself.
I found the characters to be real, flawed and likeable. Although the family know dreadful poverty, they are rich in love, imagination and resourcefulness. I'm going to miss them.
I found the characters to be real, flawed and likeable. Although the family know dreadful poverty, they are rich in love, imagination and resourcefulness. I'm going to miss them.
December 20, 2020
Leggere “Un albero cresce a Brookilyn� è stato come guardare un film in bianco e nero. Uno di quelli col doppiaggio ancora teatrale (ma sempre molto curato). Un po� vetusto nel vocabolario ma che una volta superato il blocco iniziale del “Oh, no, in bianco e nero� ma sarà un film lentissimo..� (almeno, a me questo blocco prende sempre all’inizio) poi resti imbambolata e il film (proprio perché è un po� più lento), ti resta dentro (più) a lungo.
L’affresco della Brooklyn di primo Novecento, delle classi sociali povere, del melting pot tra irlandesi, italiani, ebrei, tedeschi e polacche è ineguagliabile. Storico. Documentaristico. La rara capacità di cogliere l’essenza dei personaggi e di saperla narrare tramite fatti che non descrizioni è un altro notevole punto di forza di questo romanzo autobiografico.
Pur tuttavia non riesce a decollare perché l’impatto emotivo appoggia tutto sullo stupore davanti alla dimostrazione non solo di endurance ma anche di riuscita di migliorazione delle loro bassissime condizioni economiche dei personaggi di questa storia, sebbene partissero in condizioni di grave povertà ma non c’� un arco narrativo personale dei protagonisti.
Questi sono fondamentalmente tre, tutte donne: Katie, la madre, concentrata solo sul fare quello che è giusto (che non necessariamente corrisponde a quello che piace di più) applicando la sua ferrea logica del buon senso. Magneticamente od ostinatamente attratta da una vita economicamente migliore, è convinta che essa sia ottenibile tramite l’educazione, quella che lei e le sue sorelle non avevano potuto ottenere (o solo per i primi cicli scolastici): i suoi figli dovranno andare a scuola, senza possibilità di discussione.
Francie, la figlia di Katie, il personaggio principale (nel senso che la storia è raccontata dal suo punto di vista, anche se scritta in terza persona). La figlia “brava�, ubbidiente, rispettosa dei genitori, sempre pronta a dare una mano in casa, bravissima a scuola e con una passione smodata per la lettura. Lo sguardo impietoso e lucido sulla loro realtà . La sonda umana in grado di cogliere con uno sguardo l’essenza degli adulti che la circondano. Katie ha fatto suo l’obiettivo della madre di studiare, ma fallisce nel raggiungimento di sé. Studia - ma a spizzichi e bocconi, perché a soli 14 anni riesce a trovare un lavoro che permette di far stare meglio tutti (incluso il mandare a scuola il fratello che non vorrebbe invece andarci, ma la madre gli ha imposto di diventare medico) che poi abbandona per tornare sui banchi di scuola. Studia ma è scontenta. Scontenta di vedersi passare avanti il fratello, scontenta di aver perso qualche anno a scuola e di conseguenza anche i contatti con le sue amiche. Scontenta perché si metterà con un uomo per bene ma di cui non è veramente innamorata. Scontenta perché frequenterà sì un’università , ma una che non le interessa. Scontenta soprattutto perché non è riuscita ad imporsi (in primis a sé stessa), a portare davvero avanti quelli che erano i suoi desideri ed obiettivi.
E questo fallimento è proprio quello che impedisce al romanzo di decollare: resta soprattutto un documentario, molto umano, ma pagina di storia, di sociologia, di urbanesimo. Non un romanzo con un arco narrativo vero e proprio.
L’ultima grande protagonista è zia Sissy, il personaggio più interessante del romanzo nonché interessante a prescindere. Ritratta magnificamente, Sissy è straordinaria perché è quel tipo di donna senza alcuna formazione scolastica che però nella vita non incontra maggiori difficoltà rispetto ad altri perché è una svelta a capire come gira il mondo. Dotata di grande capacità di pensare out-of-the-box ma soprattutto di mettere sé stessa davanti a tutti è altrettanto straordinaria perché lo fa con una splendida umanità e irraggiungibile sense of humour.
Non è difficile da credere il successo che ha conosciuto questo romanzo quando fu pubblicato nel 1943 perché molta gente ha potuto identificarvisi facilmente. Oggi però purtroppo tolto appunto l’indimenticabile affresco di Brooklyn di primo Novecento, ha perso molto del suo smalto.
L’affresco della Brooklyn di primo Novecento, delle classi sociali povere, del melting pot tra irlandesi, italiani, ebrei, tedeschi e polacche è ineguagliabile. Storico. Documentaristico. La rara capacità di cogliere l’essenza dei personaggi e di saperla narrare tramite fatti che non descrizioni è un altro notevole punto di forza di questo romanzo autobiografico.
Pur tuttavia non riesce a decollare perché l’impatto emotivo appoggia tutto sullo stupore davanti alla dimostrazione non solo di endurance ma anche di riuscita di migliorazione delle loro bassissime condizioni economiche dei personaggi di questa storia, sebbene partissero in condizioni di grave povertà ma non c’� un arco narrativo personale dei protagonisti.
Questi sono fondamentalmente tre, tutte donne: Katie, la madre, concentrata solo sul fare quello che è giusto (che non necessariamente corrisponde a quello che piace di più) applicando la sua ferrea logica del buon senso. Magneticamente od ostinatamente attratta da una vita economicamente migliore, è convinta che essa sia ottenibile tramite l’educazione, quella che lei e le sue sorelle non avevano potuto ottenere (o solo per i primi cicli scolastici): i suoi figli dovranno andare a scuola, senza possibilità di discussione.
Francie, la figlia di Katie, il personaggio principale (nel senso che la storia è raccontata dal suo punto di vista, anche se scritta in terza persona). La figlia “brava�, ubbidiente, rispettosa dei genitori, sempre pronta a dare una mano in casa, bravissima a scuola e con una passione smodata per la lettura. Lo sguardo impietoso e lucido sulla loro realtà . La sonda umana in grado di cogliere con uno sguardo l’essenza degli adulti che la circondano. Katie ha fatto suo l’obiettivo della madre di studiare, ma fallisce nel raggiungimento di sé. Studia - ma a spizzichi e bocconi, perché a soli 14 anni riesce a trovare un lavoro che permette di far stare meglio tutti (incluso il mandare a scuola il fratello che non vorrebbe invece andarci, ma la madre gli ha imposto di diventare medico) che poi abbandona per tornare sui banchi di scuola. Studia ma è scontenta. Scontenta di vedersi passare avanti il fratello, scontenta di aver perso qualche anno a scuola e di conseguenza anche i contatti con le sue amiche. Scontenta perché si metterà con un uomo per bene ma di cui non è veramente innamorata. Scontenta perché frequenterà sì un’università , ma una che non le interessa. Scontenta soprattutto perché non è riuscita ad imporsi (in primis a sé stessa), a portare davvero avanti quelli che erano i suoi desideri ed obiettivi.
E questo fallimento è proprio quello che impedisce al romanzo di decollare: resta soprattutto un documentario, molto umano, ma pagina di storia, di sociologia, di urbanesimo. Non un romanzo con un arco narrativo vero e proprio.
L’ultima grande protagonista è zia Sissy, il personaggio più interessante del romanzo nonché interessante a prescindere. Ritratta magnificamente, Sissy è straordinaria perché è quel tipo di donna senza alcuna formazione scolastica che però nella vita non incontra maggiori difficoltà rispetto ad altri perché è una svelta a capire come gira il mondo. Dotata di grande capacità di pensare out-of-the-box ma soprattutto di mettere sé stessa davanti a tutti è altrettanto straordinaria perché lo fa con una splendida umanità e irraggiungibile sense of humour.
Non è difficile da credere il successo che ha conosciuto questo romanzo quando fu pubblicato nel 1943 perché molta gente ha potuto identificarvisi facilmente. Oggi però purtroppo tolto appunto l’indimenticabile affresco di Brooklyn di primo Novecento, ha perso molto del suo smalto.
November 14, 2018
This was an interesting book and I really liked the authors writing style. The story was very long for me though. Depending on when you pick up a book to read, you might have a lot of time and drink up every word or you might be in a skimming mood because you want to be able to participate in the conversation at bookclub. I am guilty of skimming, and I really felt this book was demanding more respect and wanted me to take in every word. Unfortunately I was in a time crunch.
December 29, 2010
I love historical biographies, and this is a unique window into a transitional time in American history and the evolutions of a city. It is primarily though, about one girl and her family in Brooklyn, as they brave poverty, alcoholism and everyday trials. All the while her perspective is positive and prosaic. Very enjoyable.
December 31, 2017
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith is an American classic. The author writes about growing up poor in Brooklyn at the turn of the 20th century.
The tree is a both real and a metaphor for the challenges life gave the family. Yet, had they not had those challenges, would they be who they are by the end of the story?
I highly recommend reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn yearly.
The tree is a both real and a metaphor for the challenges life gave the family. Yet, had they not had those challenges, would they be who they are by the end of the story?
I highly recommend reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn yearly.
September 14, 2018
I'm calling this one done, as my goal here was to re-read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (not Maggie-Now). Re-reading this book with a more critical eye now it doesn't thrill me as much as it once did, but I think it will always be a favorite of mine.
June 27, 2012
I have probably read this book 5 times and never tire of it. A wonderful book to give a preteen or teen grandchild.
July 19, 2018
There are reasons why books are considered "classics". This is one of them!
August 19, 2021
I loved this book, it’s so good :)
September 5, 2022
This review is for Maggie-Now, but A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was just as good and is now officially my favorite book.
This story is set around the 1910s/1920s in Brooklyn and focuses on the titular character of Maggie-Now. While Maggie-Now is not the reader or dreamer that Francie Nolan is, she still maintains a sunny disposition and has a caring heart. When her mother dies following the birth of her baby brother Denny, Maggie-Now takes on the role of being his mother-figure and running the house for he father at the age of sixteen. The novel continues to follow the daily life of Maggie-Now and her search for fulfillment. Whether it is caring for her father and brother, putting up with her husband who comes and goes at various intervals, or fostering children, Maggie-Now never loses her ability to make the best out of any situation and always wants something better for those around her.
This story is set around the 1910s/1920s in Brooklyn and focuses on the titular character of Maggie-Now. While Maggie-Now is not the reader or dreamer that Francie Nolan is, she still maintains a sunny disposition and has a caring heart. When her mother dies following the birth of her baby brother Denny, Maggie-Now takes on the role of being his mother-figure and running the house for he father at the age of sixteen. The novel continues to follow the daily life of Maggie-Now and her search for fulfillment. Whether it is caring for her father and brother, putting up with her husband who comes and goes at various intervals, or fostering children, Maggie-Now never loses her ability to make the best out of any situation and always wants something better for those around her.
February 16, 2023
A story you will want to read again. Although it is fiction it tells a factual history of an Irish family that lives in the poor part of town. I read this in high school at my father’s suggestion and learned what it was like to be a poor Catholic boy in the early 1900s through Francis’s life in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. This has held a special place in my heart ever since. You will love the way Francie idolizes her father in spite of the neighborhood calling him a drunk. She finds a way to look past his faults and understand the man who loves her. The Nolans are hardwired to make it in spite of the problems they face. Like � the tree of heaven� they are able to grow in the cracks of Brooklyn and become a tree that lives where nothing else grows.
January 10, 2025
A book I had in my queue for years. I can't say why I never read it or why I never got rid of it. Nevertheless I started it and fell in love with it. I couldn't stop reading it. A coming of age story about Francie Nolan. She and her younger brother were born to poor Irish immigrants who lived in Brooklyn. Francie's father was an alcoholic who couldn't keep steady work. Her mom kept the family afloat by scrubbing floors. Their father was adored and treated with respect in spite of his inability to provide for his family. I formed an intimate relationship with each of the characters and was sad to see them go when I finished the book.
To me, the book had similarities to Angela's Ashes.
Nevertheless, it has moved into a spot of top 10 favorite books of all time for me.
To me, the book had similarities to Angela's Ashes.
Nevertheless, it has moved into a spot of top 10 favorite books of all time for me.
March 31, 2025
4.5 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.
connectedness -- in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.
October 31, 2024
In this 2 book set in one volume I have just finished A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and will now read Maggie Now. I own the 1947 edition of this set. I had this book my whole life and have read it several times. This book would be in the top ten of my favorite books. Betty Smith’s book is about a young girl in the early 1900’s in the tenements of the Williamsburg part of Brooklyn, New York. It was an area where immigrants from various countries lived in abject poverty. The main character, Francie, weaves the story of her life and her family’s life, much of it tragic, with her love of books and a desire to someday have a better life. I have always loved this classic book.
November 2, 2019
My sons summer read from his book list. Really enjoyed this book. All the little details about deep poverty in NYC in the early 1920’s.
It’s a very important reminder how much things have changed for most people today. There was so little to be bought, everything that was purchased back then was treasured. Small things had big meaning.
It should be a must read for middle to high schoolers. A glimpse into a time, where nothing was guaranteed. Not even school. Everything had to be earned the hard way.
It’s a very important reminder how much things have changed for most people today. There was so little to be bought, everything that was purchased back then was treasured. Small things had big meaning.
It should be a must read for middle to high schoolers. A glimpse into a time, where nothing was guaranteed. Not even school. Everything had to be earned the hard way.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 9, 2020
Rereading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was so wonderful. It was my favorite book the first time I read it in 8th grade. Now that I'm 23, my perspective (and reading skills) have changed so much. The book only got better. Francie is a lovable character. Every character is so alive and human; their backstories are so vivid and complete. Her writing style is beautiful, poignant, and, as I noticed this time, fairly humorous. This is THE coming of age story, and should be required reading everywhere.
September 14, 2023
An incredibly heartfelt account of the life of the Francie and her family growing up in poverty in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Francie grows up tough and is forced to take on an adult role at a very young age. Throughout the novel, you can feel Francine’s undying love for her family that permeates everything she does and you get to experience some difficult life events along with her. Francie is wise beyond her years and her analysis of life are extremely moving and inspiring. Highly recommend.
March 25, 2025
An excellent read. Wonderful characterisations of an Irish family living with resilience in poor conditions early last century in Brooklyn. Their love for each other and their strength pulls them through the harsh realities of life. I learned so much about living conditions at that time from a historical perspective and some political references show nothing much has changed in 100 years, ‘it was ever thus�.
June 23, 2017
One of the best books I've read in recent memory. Beautifully written, characters fully developed and so interesting to see how little has changed. The story takes place a century ago, but so much of it could have been today, if you just added TV and cell phones. :)
Love the protagonist, love the lessons learned, painful as many of them are.
Love the protagonist, love the lessons learned, painful as many of them are.
July 10, 2017
Reading this as a young adult, I loved how Francie kept a happy outlook despite all of the challenges she faced. I also remember thinking that even though it was a different time, a lot of things were still the same. In many ways I identified with Francie - I think it would be interesting to re-read this book as an adult, to see how my views about it may have changed.
December 1, 2017
I thoroughly enjoyed this classic, especially on CD. This is the story of a young girl growing up in poverty in Brooklyn in the 1920's. The relationships between her, her father, brother, and others of that time is especially poignant. The book shows how the support of a strong Mother and her sister influenced the children's lives. I also enjoyed learning more about the 1920's.
July 12, 2018
It took awhile to adjust to the writing style of the 40's but once I did, I thoroughly enjoyed this coming of age story set in the 1900's in Brooklyn. The author did a wonderful job of describing the richness and poverty of life in a city home to many different immigrants. How they cope and manage to survive is fascinating and awe inspiring.
July 17, 2018
p.84 "...the child must have a valuable thing which is called imagination. The child must have a secret world in which live things that never were. It is necessary that she _believe_. She must start out by believing in things not of this world. Then when the world becomes too ugly for living in, the child can reach back and live in her imagination."
October 15, 2020
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - I didn't expect to like this story as much as I did. It is very well written, and really brings you to the place and era of the story. I like that it didn't have a grand fairy tale ending...I was left with a feeling of hope and sweetness as I was reminded that life goes on often as it always was, but that doesn't have to be a bad or sad thing. I will read another book or two before I tackle Maggie-Now. 4 days later - I couldn't find another book, so I dove into Maggie-Now. I loved the writing, and once again, I could feel the place and era. I found her marriage to Claude to be improbable, but perhaps not for those days. Pat never got any more likable which I appreciated. But it is time for me to move on to something more modern now!
January 12, 2023
4.5 stars. This is one of those books that somehow I never got around to reading, although I’ve wanted to forever. When it was staring me in the face at my favorite used book store, I knew I needed to buy it. I do not regret it. A wonderful coming-of-age tale set in the tenements of Brooklyn in the 1910’s. Tender but honest.
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