A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

This was a lovely book that I am so glad to have read. Set just before World War I, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith is the coming-of-age story of a little girl named Francie growing up in New York. We meet her as a child, get flashbacks to her parents lives to learn the circumstances into which she was born, and follow her through her early teens as she experiences school and work and life. In my version there is a forward by Anna Quindlen, who explains that the plot of the book is hard to pin down, but the best way to describe it is as a book about "what it means to be human." I would agree, this novel is not just about a little girl growing up in a sad family in a poor neighborhood, but it's about relationships with your parents, learning about love, doing your best, making the most out of life, and all those little lessons that life teaches you without you really realizing it.

Francie is a wonderful character. She reminds me a little bit of Scout Finch in her intelligence and tenacity. She's not as much of a tomboy as Scout was, but she has that same understanding of the world - that doing what's right is important. She didn't understand when people treated others unjustly, just like Scout. They both have this quality that makes them simultaneously innocent and mature beyond their years, and I suspect that this is part of what has made both of them such beloved characters.

I could see myself a lot in Francie - she was a shy and quiet little girl, who loved reading and spent much of her time at the library. She vowed to read every single book they had and later wanted to become an author, writing stories and compositions in school. Her proudest moment was getting published in her school's magazine, and I could resonate with her excitement as she saw her name in print for the first time. She was also the kind of girl who was often lonely, especially in a crowded room of people, but was independent and didn't mind spending time by herself.

It was interesting to read this right after The World According to Garp. Both books follow the lives of a young character who wants to become a writer, discussing their lives and their families and their thoughts. Both of them have plots that are hard to pin down and both are set in a specific time and place in American history, both on the outskirts of a war. And yet the two are told so differently! I think I've decided that part of the reason I didn't like Garp was that I couldn't find any meaning behind it. People tried to do things that made them happy, but for what? Most of them ended up unhappy, having lived a ridiculous and bizarre life. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, on the other hand, featured people struggling through unhappiness in a routine and mundane life, and ending up happy. Where the characters of Garp seemed to spiral out of control into weirder and weirder individuals, the characters of Brooklyn gathered themselves and stood proudly, becoming better than they were at the start. Even if it didn't have an outright moral, Smith's book gave live meaning - even boring, everyday life. I would recommend it in a heartbeat and am sure I will read it again.