Francie Grows in Brooklyn

[A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith]

Before it's all said and done, you'll tire of hearing me say how much I heart coming of age stories. Something about witnessing a literary heroine go from bookish nerd to awkward young adult just pulls at my heartstrings.

So, I really, really wanted to like A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith instantly. But, I didn't. Francie Nolan, the book's protagonist, was so similar to so many other girls in other books. She read. A lot. She wrote. A lot. She daydreamed, she was teased. In other words, she was the type of girl that writers love to write about. A lot.

As a result, I was pretty bored with the first 50-60 pages, but then I began to love Miss Francie and realize why the book is heralded as a classic, great book. It wasn't her charm or intelligence, it was her love for and commitment to Brooklyn, and everything in it, including her great, big family.

An overview: The Nolans are a working class, second generation Brooklyn family. Mommy Katie's a beautiful, hard-working and practical Austrian while Dad Jimmy is a fanciful, loving and kind of lazy Irishman. They've got two kids: Francie, who's smart and shy plus Neely, who's more outgoing, but doesn't have the patience for more intellectual pursuits. The family's central struggle is with poverty and Jimmy's alcoholism, which costs the family precious dollars and constantly chips at the dignity Katie tries so hard to preserve.

The tree referred to in the title is a Tree of Heaven, suspiciously planted in the concrete jungle of Brooklyn, but still managing to survive. This is, of course, akin to the Nolan's. Like Ashleigh pointed out, so much of the book is about the will to live, and for that life to be meaningful/dignified, which I think makes it so relatable to nearly everyone.

Throughout the book, Francie grows from a little, awkward girl, freezing in threadbare clothes and feeling inferior to prettier, cleaner girls that manage to get the teacher's attention, to a similarly awkward teenager forced to leave school and work reading newspaper headlines after her dad dies and her baby sister is born.

All in all, it was a really good read. I enjoyed Smith's acute attention to detail in recreating everything about her beloved Williamsburg, Brooklyn. From the way it looked, to the way it smelled, sounded, felt and how it was able to nurture a small, poor immigrant family.

What did you think about the book?