so this book. this BOOK.

i don't even know where to start honestly. i picked it up because everyone's always like "oh it's a classic" and usually when people say that i'm like yeah okay whatever but this one actually deserves it.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, came out in 1943 i think? maybe 1942? whatever, around then.

the title makes it sound like it's gonna be about a tree right? WRONG. well okay it's about a tree but also not really. the tree is this metaphor thing for the main character Francie Nolan who's growing up in Brooklyn in like the early 1900s and it's rough. really rough. poverty everywhere, tenement buildings, the whole deal.

Betty Smith wrote this and you can tell she lived through some shit herself (she was born in 1896, grew up poor) because the way she describes everything feels TOO real. like uncomfortably real sometimes. she wrote other books too but honestly i haven't read them and probably won't because how do you top this?

Francie lives in Williamsburg/Greenpoint area. her dad's Irish, mom's Austrian, they're broke as hell. and when i say broke i mean BROKE. like the kind where you're deciding between food or rent broke.

the neighborhoods back then were packed with immigrants—Irish, German, Italian, Jewish families, everyone just trying to survive. Smith doesn't romanticize it either which i appreciate. she's just like "yeah this is what it was" and moves on.

here's the thing though. the book is slow. like REALLY slow. if you need constant action this will bore you to tears. it's just... life? Francie goes to school, does chores, reads books, deals with family stuff. page after page of ordinary life.

but somehow it's not boring??? i don't know how she does it but Smith makes you CARE about the smallest things. Francie going to the library becomes this huge deal. washing laundry matters. everything matters because you're living it WITH her.

i've never been to Brooklyn (probably never will tbh) but i feel like i know those streets now. the way Smith describes things is so specific—the junk man coming through, the fire escapes, the way the light hits the buildings. it's gritty but also kind of beautiful?

Francie is everything. she's this smart kid who loves reading and sees books as her way out of poverty. her whole family knows education is the only way to break the cycle. her grandmother literally tells her mom "make sure the kids read every night" because that's how you escape.

there's this quote: "the world was hers for the reading"

and yeah. that's it. that's the whole thing.

oh and there's this prayer Francie says that absolutely destroyed me:

"Dear God, let me be something every minute of every hour of my life. Let me be gay; let me be sad. Let me be cold; let me be warm. Let me be hungry... have too much to eat. Let me be ragged or well-dressed. Let me be sincere - be deceitful. Let me be truthful; let me be a liar. Let me be honorable and let me sin. Only let me be something every blessed minute. And when I sleep, let me dream all the time so that not one little piece of living is ever lost."

i had to put the book down after reading that. just sat there for a while. she's literally asking to feel EVERYTHING—the good, the bad, the contradictory stuff—just to be ALIVE.

most of the book is about poverty and class and how it traps people. Francie's family is constantly struggling. every single day is a fight. but it's not depressing in a hopeless way? it's more like... this is reality and you keep going anyway.

that tree from the title grows in the worst conditions possible. concrete, no water, barely any sun. shouldn't survive but does. you see the metaphor right?

when i finished this book i didn't know what to do with myself. i just sat there feeling this weird mix of sad and warm and full? can't really explain it. it's been weeks and i'm still thinking about it.

i've already read it three times. might do a fourth soon idk.

5/5 stars but also more than that. it's one of those books that sticks to your ribs (is that a weird way to say it? whatever you know what i mean). changes how you see stuff.

if you've ever felt stuck or like you're trying to grow in impossible conditions you need to read this. also if you just want to read something REAL.

anyway yeah. read it.

that's all i got.