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Reviews tagging 'Miscarriage'

Er groeit een boom in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

25 reviews

b0ygenius's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

WOWWWW i love this book so much definitely one of my favorite coming of age stories ever. such a beautiful story about hope and family and strength and survival and i think i really needed that right now. i’m always hesitant to read classics bc sometimes they are very slow and long and the language is hard to read but this one isn’t like that at all; the language is very accessible and easy to read i don’t think i had to look up any words the whole time i read it, it was slow at first, not necessarily boring i thought it was interesting but there was a lot of backstory and a lot of setting the scene for the second half of the book so it took me like 2 weeks to read the first third but then i read the last two thirds in two days. highly recommend 

this book is this is me trying and nothing new by taylor swift in book form 
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sjanke2's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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applesaucecreachur's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Not even sure what I can say about this book. I spent so long reading it during a very strange, turbulent time in my life. To be sure, some portions did not age well in both their language and their attitudes. Other passages, though, felt almost like biblical prescriptions. (Mary Rommely could sell me every single copy of a book she wrote on life advice.) Following a lonely, reflective, bookish protagonist as she grew more and more aware of the world was heart-breaking in the most unexpected ways. It made me want to cry, cheer, and scream with rage over the lot of women in a world built on our labor and suffering. Not a page went by where I wasn't rooting for the loving, gritty, and at times luckless Nolan family. I look forward to returning to this book as a time capsule of who I was when I read it. 
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kierscrivener's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 
"Everything struggles to live. Look at that tree growing out of the grate. It gets no sun and water only when it rains. It's growing out of sour earth and its strong because it's hard struggle to live has made it strong. My children will be strong that way."

Sn absolute favourite. I adore the way Betty Smith tells stories and characters, not only Francie but her family and those around her are fleshed out. Especially her parents Katie and Johnny and her aunt Cissy. They are full characters with flaws and abounding personality but despite all their mistakes they are akways given a compassionate lense. This isn't a nice story, she tells a story of Francie at fourteen (based on herself) being told by a teacher to burn her work for it being ugly and sordid as she wrote what was true. Of her experience with poverty and alcoholism. But despite the grim subject matter, there is so much humanity. She writes with care, always believing good intentions that she imbued compassion for every character.

She never shies away from reality, writing honestly about things that especially in 1943 would have been scandalous. Even eighty years later writing as honestly about sex, harassment and assault as she did is not common.

I have over a thousand words of notes, and ordered a copy so that I can comb through, highlight and annotate and will return with full thoughts. But for now, know I recommend.

And that firstly, I think the opening chapters aren't the best hook, I understand why she wanted to start with Francie but once we move on to 'book two' and see the Nolan and Romley families and Katie and Johnny's life, romance and dynamic. I cared inenormently more. I had context and I had grounding in the story.

Second this is one of the funniest books I've ever read. Her delivery of humour and poignancy is flawless



"The tree hadn't died. It hadn't died. A new tree had grown from it's stump and it's stump had grown along the ground until it reached a place where there were no washlines above it then it had started to grow toward the sky again." 

"This tree in the yard. This tree that men had chopped down. This tree they had built a bonfire around trying to burn up its stump. This tree lived. It lived. And nothing could destroy it. 
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keepsleep's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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