I MISS YOU FRANCIE!!

I have only finished reading "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" a couple of hours ago and I already miss the world that Betty Smith creates.  It amazed me how well Smith captures the time period, the setting, and of course her amazing characters (most of which I feel that I now know personally).  


It was so interesting to learn about the early 1900s.  The way the entire family had to work for the money to support themselves - by finding scrap metal, by going to three or four different markets, working at a very young age, all to get the most for the little money they had.   The way Francie describes Brooklyn was with the utmost pride.  The reader gets a real sense just what it would have been like to grow up in Brooklyn-from a child's perspective is one without judgement.


Where Smith really hit the nail on the head was her characters.  I love Francie for her sweet innocence and strong mind.  I love Katie for all the pressure and worry she had on her shoulders.  It is, to me, the strength of a character that comes from struggle that makes them an amazing person.  I respect people who haven't been handed everything in life, people that have had to work hard for what they achieve.  Katie saw to raising her children with strong morals.  Towards the end of the novel when Francie begins to make a good amount of money, her and her mother have a discussion about being rich and being poor: Francie says, "...the poor do everything with their own hands and the rich hire hands to do things.  We're not poor any more.  We can pay to have some things done for us."  Katie replies with, "I want to stay poor, then, because I like to use my hands."  The glimmer of money shakes Francie's young mind, but Katie stays true that you have to work for what you want or else you'll never truly learn how to appreciate life.  


So many of the struggles that the Nolan family faced touched my heart.  I realized why it took me so long to finish this book...because I knew that I would miss the family.  I loved the writing, I loved the characters, I loved everything about this novel.  


Thank you Jess for introducing this book to book club!


Toni :)