Tree Grows in Brooklyn

A PBS Great American Read Top 100 PickThe beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the twentieth century. From the moment she entered the world, Francie Nolan needed to be made of stern stuff, for the often harsh life of Williamsburg demanded fortitude, precocity, and strength of spirit. Often scorned by neighbors for her familys erratic and eccentric behaviorsuch as her father Johnnys taste for alcohol and Aunt Sissys habit of marrying serially without the formality of divorceno one, least of all Francie, could say that the Nolans life lacked drama. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the Nolans daily experiences are tenderly threaded with family connectedness and raw with honesty. Betty Smith has, in the pages of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, captured the joys of humble Williamsburg life-from junk day on Saturdays, when the children of Francies neighborhood traded their weekly take for pennies, to the special excitement of holidays, bringing cause for celebration and revelry. Betty Smith has artfully caught this sense of exciting life in a novel of childhood, replete with incredibly rich moments of universal experiencesa truly remarkable achievement for any writer.