A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

By: Betty Smith

Narrated by: Kate Burton

Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

A moving coming-of-age story set in the 1900s, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn follows the lives of 11-year-old Francie Nolan, her younger brother Neely, and their parents, Irish immigrants who have settled in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Johnny Nolan is as loving and fanciful as they come, but he is also often drunk and out of work, unable to find his place in the land of opportunity. His wife Katie scrubs floors to put food on the table and clothes on her children's backs, instilling in them the values of being practical and planning ahead.

When Johnny dies, leaving Katie pregnant, Francie, smart, pensive and hoping for something better, cannot believe that life can carry on as before. But with her own determination, and that of her mother behind her, Francie is able to move toward the future of her dreams, completing her education and heading off to college, always carrying the beloved Brooklyn of her childhood in her heart.

©1947 Betty Smith (P)2001 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Critic reviews

"There's a reason this tale remains beloved after almost 50 years, and it stands with memoirs like Angela's Ashes for its happy-ending triumph over a bad childhood." (AudioFile)
"A profoundly moving novel, and an honest and a true one. It cuts right to the heart of life." (The New York Times)

Beautiful and raw

Any additional comments?

This book was an interesting experience for me. It wasn't until a week or so after I finished it that I began to really love it. I guess I was processing it for a while and once it sunk in, I loved it. While listening to it I never felt bored, but I never got very invested either, and I think that was due to the narrator. She wasn't bad by any means, but she read it in a somewhat monotonous and quiet manner so it never felt very alive to me. But the characters were richly developed over the course of their lives and it was a beautiful look into one family's pain, joy, struggles, and accomplishments.

ONE OF THE BEST I HAVE EVER LISTENED TO

Any additional comments?

Absolutely loved this classic novel. Even though written in the 40's, the story stands the test of time So many underlying meanings in the story but such a slice of history when many new immigrants arrived in the new world. I cannot stop talking about it!

Loved It Very Much

At first the accent of Francie put me off. As I listened and listened I learned to love her all over again. I read this book many times as a young girl and certain things that stood out in my memory when reading did not do so as a listener. I really enjoyed it.

Great for All Ages

I first read this when I was twelve, and I thought it was wonderful. I recently re-read it, and I can easily remember the beauty I saw in it when I was a young girl. It is stories like this that are timeless and touch the hearts of all people. In this book, I saw God.

Enchanting but Not a Sweet Childhood book. Real.

This lovely, engrossing book is beautiful, and very real. The story is simple and quiet and builds quietly. Francie Nolan is a wonderfully smart, bookish girl being raised poverty in the first decades of the 20th Century, Brooklyn, New York. Her life is often ugly and is filled with the difficulties of poverty and the tensions of the Irish immigrants in those days. And it is also filled with beautifully fierce love -- from her mother, father, brother and aunt. It is filled with moments of humor such as those found when the children sell junk or buy candy and pickles.

Francie is loyal, funny, smart, headstrong, loving, and sometimes angry. She is a character that I loved with an intensity that surprised me and which brought me to tears upon completion of the book. I will miss her and I am sure to revisit her. I fell in love with her very early in the book when I learned about her daily visits to the library and how she was reading everything in the library in alphabetical order. I recall vividly a day in elementary school when the teacher told our class how many millions of years it would take to read every book ever written. I was heartbroken. (I still am.) So when I read about her strategy for reading I had an affinity with her, and it grew throughout the book.

"From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood. There was poetry for quiet companionship. There was adventure when she tired of quiet hours. There would be love stories when she came into adolescence and when she wanted to feel a closeness to someone she could read a biography. On that day when she first knew she could read, she made a vow to read one book a day as long as she lived." - Betty Smith

I enjoyed Kate Burton's narration. It felt as though she were sitting nearby with a cup of tea reading aloud to me from her favorite novel. Her accents were good, her quietness and subtlety were spot on. However, I hated the very loud and inappropriate musical breaks between chapters. They completely destroyed the spell being woven by the words on the page.

Classic

Easy to enjoy, with timeless characters and a great narrator. Never boring, tho never really enthralling. A great listen.

stands the test of time

It was as though I was in the journey alongside Francy Nolan. The moments from the perspective of the grandmother and mother have profound insight that stands true to today.

Best book I have ever read

I would be doing the world an injustice by not recommending this book to everyone I know. I love to read and I have read so many amazing books, but this one is tiers above the rest. My personal rule is to not judge a book until I pass page 100. This book had me hooked in the first chapter. I love the characters, the progression, the lessons, the writing style. Just everything. It made me feel nostalgic for a life I never lived. When I wasn't reading the book, I was thinking about the book. That's how you know it's good.

Year written: 1943
Page count: 401
Times I cried: 2

There is a quote I have thought about several times today. "To look at everything always as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time: thus is your time on earth filled with glory."

Read the book. I promise it is just what the doctor ordered.

An American classic...Timeless as the Odyssey

Along with Harper Lee’s to kill a Mockingbird, Betty Smith a tree grows in Brooklyn, is undoubtedly one of America’s most beautifully written autobiographical fiction pieces that has lasted through several generations. And you have done well Audible.Com in the way that you have presented it. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this and I did not stop until it was finished and I plan to go back and listen to it again. She grew up during the time of my father and his brothers. The songs I heard them sing that Johnny sang. Betty Smith ingeniously brought the father daughter relationship between Francie and Papa into an unforgettable etching on a stone granite statue that few writers can accomplish.

Evergreen

Why is this book perennially wonderful. It just is. Listening to it was a new and compelling revisit. Loved it!