Book Review
Jul. 24th, 2019 10:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariA Tree Grows in Brooklyn
by Betty Smith
This early YA novel is the story of Francie, a girl growing up in poverty in Brooklyn during the 1910s. She lives in a tenement with her mother, father, and brother. Her mother, Katie, works as a janitor to support the family and is a hardened realist. Her father, Johnny, is loving and charming but also a feckless alcoholic. As Francie grows up, her family struggles to both make a living and provide a good education for the children.
I loved reading this book. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is beautifully written - Smith ably combines both lyricism and realism, finding the beauty in the tenements of Brooklyn and the lives of its residents without romanticizing the ugliness and brokenness of it. Smith and her characters are also surprisingly frank and realistic about sex and, while not explicitly feminist, pretty pro-woman.
by Betty Smith
This early YA novel is the story of Francie, a girl growing up in poverty in Brooklyn during the 1910s. She lives in a tenement with her mother, father, and brother. Her mother, Katie, works as a janitor to support the family and is a hardened realist. Her father, Johnny, is loving and charming but also a feckless alcoholic. As Francie grows up, her family struggles to both make a living and provide a good education for the children.
I loved reading this book. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is beautifully written - Smith ably combines both lyricism and realism, finding the beauty in the tenements of Brooklyn and the lives of its residents without romanticizing the ugliness and brokenness of it. Smith and her characters are also surprisingly frank and realistic about sex and, while not explicitly feminist, pretty pro-woman.
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Date: 2019-07-24 06:01 pm (UTC)I'm so glad it holds up! I know it mostly by reputation.