Synopsis
Set in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn at the turn of the century, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn offers a detailed and unsentimental portrait of a struggling urban family. Eleven-year-old Francie Nolan and her younger brother, Neeley, collect scraps of rag and paper to sell to the junkman, contributing half the money to a tin-can bank nailed to the floor of their tenement flat. This bank, a shared resource among all the family members, becomes a recurring symbol of the Nolans’ self-reliance, burdens, and dreams. Those dreams sustain the children as well as the parents: their mother, Katie, who works as a janitor to provide the family with free lodging, and her husband, Johnny, a singing waiter, who is often drunk and out of work. Francie is particularly drawn to her father, whose charm and sense of fun seem to make wishes come true. When Johnny dies an alcohol-related death, Francie cannot quite believe that life can carry on as before. Through a shared and dogged determination, the family does manage to carry on, and the children eventually seek to expand their lives beyond the boundaries of home. As she heads off to college at the end of the book, Francie leaves behind the old neighborhood, but carries away in her heart the beloved Brooklyn of her childhood.thank you
Betty Smith
Betty Smith was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1896, the daughter of German immigrants, and grew up in the borough's Williamsburg section. In addition to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith's novels include Tomorrow Will Be Better (1947), Maggie-Now (1958), and Joy in the Morning (1963). She also had a long career as a dramatist, during which she received both the Rockefeller Fellowship and the Dramatists Guild Fellowship. She died in 1972.amazon links
The link opens in a new window.A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
