A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

A sublime bildungsroman centering on the keen, sensitive, and curious dreamer Francie Nolan.

The setting is from 1901 to about 1917 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Francie is compassionate, sentimental, a believer of everything, and a storyteller. She has an unbeatable spirit and a stirring imagination.

Francie, along with her family, copes against poverty, prejudice, and her father Johnny, a singing waiter who drinks, barely works, and often doesn't come home at night. His alcoholism, which eventually kills him, results from becoming a father at a young age. He's not ready for a family, loses his job, and, unable to handle it all, resorts to drink... Francie grows up lonely and has few friends, but is a voracious reader who is kept company by the books she consumes... She is also troubled by her mother. Katie feels that Francie's brother Neeley needs more encouragement, support, and show of love, leaving Francie to feel unfairly put off...

Certainly, Francie has something indomitable inside her, like her mother. While Johnny responds to his troubles by giving up and becoming an alcoholic, Katie is a hard worker who keeps the family together and believes that hope and a better future for her children are possible. Indeed, the tree referred to in the book's title is the Tree of Heaven, which commonly grows in New York, often through cement. Just as this tree triumphs over its environment, so does Francie grow up to ultimately triumph over her environment.

Smith depicts this coming of age seamlessly. She goes from Johnny and Katie courting to their marrying, to Francie's birth, her childhood, and finally to her becoming a young adult, all as a cohesive, engaging story. Although lonely and out of place as a child, Francie finds acceptance and becomes more aware of the world and adult things as she gets older... All this, and she and her family remember Johnny fondly long after his death.

Although some look down upon her as a dirty, poor scum, Francie finds beauty in her life. It is an inspiration and a pride. Towards the end, when Katie gives birth to a third child, Annie Laurie, she laments to her brother that their sister will not experience the poor, desolate life they have lived, and therefore will not have the happy, fun memories they acquired from such a life.

This is a marvelous book. A new favorite of mine.