A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943) by Betty Smith. Sentimental, melodramatic, but also supremely evocative of a time long past, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" is one of those books that you read and never forget. It tells the story of Francie Nolan, a girl coming of age in the first two decades of the 20th Century. She lives in the slums of Brooklyn, and on reading the book, one gets the feeling that that's the way things were -- that the author was really there, as indeed she was. Smith has said that she wrote the book, not as it was, but as it should have been. There has been much debate about what she meant -- how much of what she describes in "Tree" really happened, and how much is made up? But it scarcely matters. The book is profoundly satisfying, a true classic of American literature. Grade: A