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Tree Grows in Brooklyn, A

Tree Grows in Brooklyn, A

List Price: $39.95
Your Price: $25.17
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Timeless Classic
Review: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a timeless classic. This is a book that warrants more than one reading, it is a keeper, with a special place of it's own. The metaphor of the tree that kept surviving is highly appropriate and mirrors the life of the novel's heroine, Francie Nolan. This tree, not unlike Francie herself, has been subject to harsh conditions, but it continued to grow and bloom. Both the tree and Francie are able to rise above the adversity and thrive.

The characters are lively and real. The main character, Francie, who is articulate and bright, desperately seeks affection from her mother. Katie Nolan, is a mother that can not recripricate that love to her daughter. Instead, Katie directs her energy and affection to her son. Neeley. Francie is drawn to her father, a local drunkard, who pays her much attention. The reader expereinces the pain of growing and reconciling her relationships with her family.

Francie Nolan is a survivor. The reader will follow Francie as she faces numerous challenges and diversions in life. We watch as she learns and becomes resourceful. We struggle with her during the hard and traumatic times in her life. Most importantly, we see her resiliancy and perserverance shine through.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a novel that should be read more than once in a lifetime. It's poignant message speaks volumes to all readers. I encourage you to read this book and share it with others.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: And it grew
Review: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a true classic. It is the poignant tale of a young girl forced to grow up too fast because of her family's poverty. This book makes one cry, laugh, and most importantly think about what we take for granted and what we have never experienced. A must read for any avid reader.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: MOST TOCHÝNG BOOK
Review: This book is my favorite. I red this book in Turkish my native language. I loved the charecters.Francie who is a combination of Katie and Johnny and herpassion for life and the love of reading,her brother Nelly that is favored by Katie,the character I love most is Johnny he has an increadible imagination ,one of the best father charecters I ever red I didn't think he was a badperson because despite his drinking problem he was a good dad.Katie is the mother and she is so strong while reading the book I always taught she would survive anything.The story is how this family survives death, poverty and love between them and Brooklyn

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Moving, Poignant Novel
Review: This story is basically about the struggle to overcome adversity.

It chronicles the childhood of Francie Nolan, a very wise girl, mature past her years, who grows up in the mean slums of turn-of-the-century Brooklyn, New York.

In spite of quite a terrible childhood, filled with indignities, unfairness, and pain, Francie is determined to succeed, so that she may rise up above her surroundings. Although she must leave school before getting to high school, to work in a factory, she fights her way back to an education, eventually making it to college and out of Brooklyn.

Francie's fight out of the slums is truly inspiring--like the "Tree of Heaven" that grows out the broken cement of the sidewalk, she fights through setbacks and never gives up. What I found to be especially wonderful was the fact that Betty Smith made no character all good or all bad. This enables the reader to feel what the character is feeling, and understand their motive in doing what they do. Thus the story is felt and experienced on many different levels and in many different ways.

I really love this book and I would recommend it to everyone.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A microcosm of life.
Review: This book takes the reader on a voyage through memories so heartfelt you will feel like you have become a part of the Nolan family. The story is of an Irish Catholic family bringing up their children in the heart of Brooklyn during the beginning of the century. Francie and her brother Neeley are characters that you will take away with you, never to be forgotten.

Life is hard and times are poor, but love of family and a good moral upbringing by the ever-present, yet distant mother Katie, gets them through. Life in Brooklyn struggles along with a laugh and a song from their drunken father Johnny who tries his best. With love and respect they watch their father's decline over the years. Life is a roller coaster of emotions, trials, and tribulations, all layed out by the author in a manner that will keep you reading late into the night.

This book was written back in the 40's and is as much a classic today as it ever was. It continues to reach people into the new millennium. Though the century may change the lessons remain the same, love of family, strength of character, honesty, and hard work. The American Dream is there for the having and this book exemplifies it. Bravo a truly worthwhile read for everyone. Kelsana 9/11/01

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Classic Coming-of-Age Book That Touches Your Heart
Review: Francie Nolan is a character who will long be remembered by anyone who reads "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn." Bright but lonely, poor but resourceful, Francie Nolan is captured from ages 11 to 16 with poignancy and love. Francie is her daddy's "prima donna" and she treasures his love while fighting to win her mother's. Although she never achieves the place in her mother's heart that her brother holds, her strength and sheer perserverance guide her through difficult times. Like the sturdy tree that grows outside her window and survives all catastrophes, Francie Nolan survives poverty, lack of formal education, sexual assault, extreme loneliness, and lost love.

The reader first meets Francie at age 11 when, as an inquisitive young girl, her favorite time of the day is on Saturday when she can go to the library then rush home with her treasure and read the afternoon away on the fire escape of her Brooklyn tenement. As a young girl, she feels "rich" when she receives bits of chalk and stubby pencils her mother and father bring home from their janitoring job at a local school. She finds simple pleasures in her life, like being allowed to sleep in the front room on Saturday night and watch the busy street below. You will ache to go back in time and be Francie's best friend as she battles loneliness and rejection by her peers but learns to live a solitary life. But, like the tree, she is ready to burst into bloom and when she does it is beautiful to read about.

This book is a wonderful description of life in turn-of-the-century Brooklyn and a strong statement on the hope offered to the immigrants who came to the United States. The story emphasizes quite clearly the value of reading and a good education, but most importantly the strength of family and the dreams that sustain people. As Francie learns, "there had to be the dark and muddy waters so that the sun could have something to background it flashing glory." Young teens and mature women alike will relish Francie's story and hold its message in their hearts forever.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: THE BEST BOOK EVER!!!
Review: I don't know anyone who did not enjoy this book. It is definetly the greatest book I ever read. It deals with themes like hope, poverty, finding your faith, pride, family issues, patriotism, political issues, and growing up. I was hooked on the first page, it may be 425 pages long, but it felt like 90! I read the book so fast, and I couldn't put it down!!! After reading the last page, I just held onto the book. The story was so moving and it's unforgettable. I'm gonna require all my children to read it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Touching Classic
Review: In Betty Smith's novel, Francie Nolan is a poor Brooklyn girl, growing up at the turn of the century. Francie's father is a drunk, and her mother favors her younger brother. She deals with life in a wonderfully entertaining way. I found myself suprised, and crying, as well as touched by this heart-felt must read. As it has been proclaimed before, this is a book of the century.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Treats of every form of human love
Review: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn has a depth of themes and characterisation sufficient for composition of a thesis on the topic, cleverly hidden in the depiction of banal, every day happenings. In the relationships depicted, one gains a deep picture of every form of love, with no minimising of the joy, pain, sacrifice, or strength which each presents. Heroine Francie is an intriguing character - both a dreamer, who always is looking for the happy ending, and a creature of habit in the midst of an otherwise individualistic family. She is a curious lonely child who realises, always after the fact, that her isolation was entirely her own doing. One can practically feel Francie's conflicts, for example in that, where she knows she should think her mother is noble and her father "no good," she so favours Papa (and the reader can certainly see why.) I shall admit that one prominent theme kept me wondering - and this perhaps was the author's intention. There is much excessive patriotism in this book, as if everything is best just by being American (particularly if one was born in the States rather than an immigrant.) Francie's mother, Katie, is the sort of "noble" poor woman who would be acceptable to those believing in the American dream - totally hard-working, and ultimately rewarded by a marriage to a wealthy politician. Yet it is all too clear that Katie, the tolerable poor lady who insists she'll kill herself and her children before she'll take a basket from the Catholic Charities, is often the very source of her children's sufferings. Her pride has a very dark side which her dedication to hard work does not lessen - she would let her children starve, or leave a pleasant home for a dismal one, entirely because she needs to be superior, not equal to, those of her own class and background. Without giving away the ending to new readers, I must add that it has its paradoxical elements. The supposedly immense good fortune of the conclusion concurrently makes it clear that these people will be isolated from people and places which they had loved and enjoyed. In fact, the single poor point in the book's development is the trite rags to riches theme. These are only a few of many examples of the sort of gritty realism, countered by warmth and humour, which make this book so fascinating. It is easy and engaging reading on one level, but enormousely insightful and complex. There is no stock "good and evil" or "right and wrong," nor are situations resolved in any fashion neater than that of "true life." It is true that there is no actual plot, but I believe that this is key. Betty Smith is giving us much truth about life and love, which never fits into a clean story line. Even the minor characters provide strong depictions of the beauty, weakness, and complexity of human nature.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: THE FINEST BOOK I HAVE EVER READ
Review: The world seen through the eyes of a child in Brooklyn. Many people have seen the movie which was excellent. The book however takes you from the courtship of the Francie's parents until Francie is a grown woman making her way in the world. The book is a piece of literature that will be read long past our life time. Read it and then read it again. It is nothing less than a masterpiece.


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