Book of the Week

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Recommended by George Khairallah

It’s the weekend in England on an unpleasant winter day with the wind howling outside. With nothing much to do and my brother reading, I searched my bookshelf looking for a good book to delve into, and that is how I found Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, a semi-autobiographical story recommended to me by my mom and grandparents.

I had never before heard of this book and only knew that it seemed to be a classic book, written about the author’s childhood growing up in the slums of Brooklyn. I was intrigued and so, with nothing better to do, I started to read.

The story, I soon realised, was about the author's own childhood, yet written through the eyes of a fictional young girl called Francie Nolan living in the slums of early 20th century Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It details her experiences living in poverty ranging from success to rejection as she grows up in the area and becomes a young woman. At first the title may seem confusing, yet the tree in the title is an Ailanthus tree which grows in urban environments without water, light or soil and will grow despite being cut down.This tree comes to symbolise perseverance and hope among poverty and hardship.

Francie grows up the daughter of the pretty and hardworking Katie Nolan and the good-mannered yet alcoholic Johnny Nolan and sister of the charismatic Cornelius a.k.a Neely.Through tough times at home and mixed experiences both at school and later work, the author forces us to root for the young, curious and somewhat gullible Francie as she navigates her way through an unforgiving Brooklyn. The book contains moments of cruelty and betrayal as well as a harsh and yet eye-opening description of poverty. Over time as she grows up, she sees the world differently and previous thoughts and mysteries are solved and disproved as she comes to realise the tough reality of her family's life and what she must do to escape from the poverty she grew up in.

Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows In Brooklyn was an engrossing read which opened my eyes to aspects of the period and place in time in America which had been forgotten and overshadowed by an economic boom and the events of the Great War. It is not to everyone’s taste and does not contain much action for thrill seekers yet if you are looking for a deep, heartwarming, enlightening page turner which you can read again and again and continuously enjoy, then A Tree Grows In Brooklyn is a must read.