"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"

"She was made up of all of these good and these bad things...She was the books she read in the library...Part of her life was made from the tree growing rankly in the yard. She was the bitter quarrels she had with her brother whom she loved dearly. She was Katie's secret, despairing weeping. She was the shame of her father staggering home drunk...She was all of these things and of something more...It was something that had been born into her and her only." --- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Ch. 7

"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" is our book club selection for the month of April. I started reading it a little early because it's on the long side and I've been known not to finish a book in time for book club every once and awhile. As it turns out, finishing this book quickly was not a problem with this book. From the time I started reading, I was hooked.

The interesting thing about that is, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" isn't even a plot-driven book. Instead, the author relies on character development to engage her readers. I believe that it takes a great deal more talent to engage a readers through characters than through plot. Any Dan Brown or Steven King style serial novelist can hook readers with a thrilling plot that has an unexpected twist waiting around every corner. It's a lot more unusual to maintain that level of interest in a story that focuses on characters. But "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"'s author, Betty Smith, does just that... and she does it extremely well.

The book is about a little girl named Francie Nolan, who is growing up at the turn of the century in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. She and her brother Neely, her mother Katie, and her father Johnny, are very poor and live in tenement housing. They are often cold and hungry in their home. Their mother works hard manual labor, while their father, a well-intentioned man who happens to be an alcoholic, is constantly in and out of work as a waiter. Despite their rough living conditions, the Nolans want better for their children than what they had themselves. Katie and Johnny, both first generation Americans, never had the option to attend high school, but they recognize the value and importance of education and want that for Francie and Neely.

The interesting thing about the book is that it moves both forwards and backwards in time. The book starts when Francie and Neely are about 9 and 10, and moves forward in time until they are young adults. However, the author also often shifts backwards in time, all the way back to when Katie and Johnny, the parents, were born. Through that, we learn about their own parents and upbringings, and are able to figure out why things are the way they are. Once again, it takes a really talented writer to make something like this interesting. I think what is most captivating about her characters, though, is that they are real. Often, characters in the novels that I read seem contrived. Although the male lead in Nicholas Sparks book may be extremely romantic, for instance, such a man is unlikely to exist in real life. In "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," Smith dares to be honest... she lays all of her characters attributes out on the table... for better or worse. But they have flaws, just like the rest of us. It takes talent to prove to a reader that Johnny, an alcoholic "lazy bum" who can't support his family, can actually be a kind man with good intentions, but Smith does it successfully. Likewise, she shows that Katie, despite being a completely self-sacrificing mother, is no saint. Case in point, she often thinks to herself that she loves her son more than her daughter.

There is nothing remarkable about the plot of this book. Characters are born, characters die. Children grow up. Money is gained, money is lost. People move away. The world changes. Characters learn and grow. But this, in itself, is in fact remarkable, because this is real life. It was so refreshing to read a story that was so real. Despite the fact that it took place nearly 100 years ago, it was completely and entirely relatable to a modern reader such as myself. It goes to show that times may change, but human nature does not.

This book has definitely made it to my short list of favorite books of all time. If you haven't read it, you are missing out.

--- Emily