I’m not quite sure why Betty Smith’s amazing novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn didn’t win a Pulitzer Prize. It was my pick for our book club … it’s one of those books I’ve always wanted to read but never got around to it (being nearly 500 pages and all!).
Smith masterfully put words to a childhood none of us dream of — poverty, hunger, loneliness. In her tale of a young girl growing into womanhood in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY, Smith gets at the heart of what is really important in life — love, family, and dreams. I’m not going to say much more about this one because we haven’t had our book club meeting about it yet, but I’ll sum my opinion up with this — Book Rating: * * * * *
This is a MUST read for anyone interested in what living in poverty in the early 1900s America really means.
