A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943) by Betty Smith

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943)

by Betty Smith

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Brooklyn/Queens/Long Island/Staten Island: 23/26 

New York: 100/103

  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, the 1943 hit by author Betty Smith, was a great find from the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America.  Like many of the popular novels from the earlier parts of the 20th century, I'd never heard of this book and certainly would not have if it were not for the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America.  I'm sure, if I lived in NYC, or grew up there, etc, I would have read it as a kid, since it's probably the first and definitive Brooklyn based bildungsroman written from a female POV.  According to the foreword of the anniversary e-book I read,  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was originally written as an autobiography of Francine/Betty Smith before publishers asked for changes.  Smith seems like an interesting dame- certainly for her era, with the rags-to-riches backstory and three husbands.

  I went in skeptical/uninterested but the I was convinced by the end. It was nice, at long last, to get a book where the New York City based working-class protagonist actually escapes in the end instead of just continuing the cycle of never-ending misery.  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was written before the YA category existed but there is no doubt its a YA title- and a good example of why an adult might want to read a YA title.