Reviews with content warning for Murder - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

This is one of the most beautiful books I've ever read.

When I first picked it up it was under the impression that it would be sort of Anne of Green Gables-y, but boy was I wrong.

This book is a collection of impressions of an outcast girl in an impoverished and changing little world. Her life is exposed to very intense subject matter and it illustrates how she and her family, much like the tree of the title, grow, even though it seems impossible.

I didn't grow up in anything resembling the tenements of Brooklyn, but I was able to connect with the characters and understand on an empathetic or personal level everything that is in this book. Everyone has their flaws, but everyone is beautiful in their own way. I felt the sadness of Francie from being unique and therefore misunderstood by her peers, I sympathized with Katie at being strapped with a financially useless husband and having to save and protect her family, and I felt the American spirit of self-determination and hard work coursing through this book. The author tapped into the human experience and as a reader you know exactly how Francie feels when she falls in love, you burn with anger at the injustice of the powers that be *cough* Democrats *cough*, and you ache with the pure beauty that lives in the human spirit.

I wouldn't recommend this book for children, there is a lot of heavy and complicated subject matter. Also, until you gain a little more experience this book's beauty would be lost on a young reader. For those of an appropriate age though, this book is wonderful and a forgotten masterpiece it seems.

I urge you to read it, take your time with it, and enjoy the experience of reading this for the first time. Books just aren't written like this anymore and you come out the other side of this book with empathy, education, and appreciation for truth and beauty.

Content Warnings

b0ygenius's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

Content Warnings

slayne's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

4.0

Content Warnings

kierscrivener's review against another edition

Go to review page

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.

Content Warnings

More...