Book Review, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Hi
A friend recommended this book to me. She said it was one of her favourite novels. It was first published in 1944 so has been around a long time. It is the story of a poor family in Brooklyn. The main character is Francie Nolan, who lives with her parents and brother in a tenement apartment. She loves reading and regularly visits the library and, weather permitting, sits outside on the fire escape to read. The story is a very detailed account of her life between the ages of about six to twenty. It is an excellent insight into life in those times. It takes you on a rollacoaster ride through a whole host of emotions as we watch Francie coping with her father's death, her secret hopes for her own future being reshaped, her knowledge that her mother favours her brother, her desperate attempts to complete her education while being forced to work to keep the family together and finally her first love. It is a long story but well worth a read. It is a reminder of what it really was like to be poor and not have enough money for food or heat at a time when there was no one to help out.