A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty SmithMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I wasn't sure how I was going to review this book. It is slow paced, sometimes a very detailed, look at the poor in the early 1900's. Very fascinating if you can stick with that kind of reading. There wasn't a plot to this story, but there is foreshadowing of the climax. This book has a lot of emotional ups and downs. The ending kept it from being a five star book. I felt it was all very factual - possibly even biographical, until the last 30 pages. Then the story took on a rather fanciful, happy ever after too good to be true tone. Any truth the story may have had lost it's shinyness and left me unsatisfied. I recommend this book just for the historical merit.
Synopsis: The beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness -- in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.
Recommended Reading:
Wicked by Gregory Maguire
Giant by Edna Ferber
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Cider House Rules by John Irving
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
1 comment:
Sherry, book reviews are indeed not as easy as we usually think, especially if there are some chapters you like a lot and some which are so-so. However, for me I rate the books higher if I get to read the book in just a day or a few hours with much enthusiasm. I mean the type that you just can't put down until you read the last part.
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