Review of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

There are lots of books that I have read and that I love. And my intention is to review most, if not all of them, on this blog ….. one day.  I am currently in a book club with my sons reading a series of books that will eventually lead us to Ulysses, a novel that my sons claim is the best novel ever written.  To prepare us we will read a number of books, poems, and plays, including The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, The Odyssey and Hamlet.  

As a break from all of this “dense reading,” I decided to pick up A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and read it again.  I am glad I did.  The novel was written in 1943 and was an immediate success.  Written by Betty Smith as semi-autobiographical novel, the story focuses on an impoverished but aspirational adolescent girl and her family living in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn during the early 1900’s.

The main metaphor of the book is the “Tree of Heaven”, whose persistent ability to grow and flourish even in the inner city mirrors the protagonist’s desire to better herself. Highly inspirational as well as aspirational, the book was also released in a small paperback version so that it could fit in an army uniform pocket, allowing American soldiers fighting during WW II to easily carry it.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn may have resonated with me more this time around because I had just finished the non-fiction book The Bully Pulpit – Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism, which not only described the political, economic and social landscape of the United States during the early 1900’s, but also detailed the economic divide between the rich and the poor during that era, specifically detailing the awful living conditions of new immigrants to the United States.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a powerful coming of age novel, and like all great novels, contains numerous nuggets of wisdom folded into its pages. And they usually surface as epiphanies realized by the protagonist, a device that I am finding was used often by James Joyce in his writings. There are two specific epiphanies I want to share with you today.

Without giving away the plot, the first epiphany occurs while the protagonist reflects on her relationship with another character that most readers would describe as the “perfect man.”  However, she realizes she does not love him.  As the reader, you think she must be crazy.  But then comes the anguished truth. “I want him to need me.  I want him to need me.  And because he does not need me, I cannot fully love him.”

All of us want purpose and we want to be needed.  Some of us have this desire to be needed so much that it is becomes unhealthy.  However, because we are extremely social animals, it is healthy to want to be needed.  It is what gives us purpose. And our protagonist points this out to us. We may not want to admit this, but a component of love is being appreciated and being needed.

The second epiphany occurs when her maternal grandmother passes away. During the novel, quotes from the grandmother, who is from the “Old Country”, are offered up. This one really stuck with me. “To really appreciate life, you should look at things as if you are looking at them for the first time or you are looking at them for the last time.” I decided to try it out this morning when I walked with Emmy Lou to the paper box at the beginning of Olive Branch Court to pick up my Sunday paper.  It is a three hundred yard walk there and a three hundred yard walk back.  

When we selected our lot on the lake almost 15 years ago on which to build our dream house, one of the reasons we selected this particular lot was the beautiful view of the lake the driveway offered as you drove towards the house. So, as I walked back from the end of the street and turned into our driveway, I pretended, I mean I REALLY PRETENDED, that it was the first time I had ever walked down our driveway and the first time seeing our house.  It WAS beautiful, even in February.  And I got a jolt of pure joy just standing there and taking it all in.  And the feeling then became a wave of happiness.  And I was content with life.

Thank you, Betty Smith for writing a beautiful novel that is as relevant today as it was almost 80 years ago. And thank you for imparting some practical wisdom to me that I plan on using the rest of my life.  So, I highly recommend reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.  And if you have already read it, it is worth reading again.