|
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (P.S.) | 
 enlarge | Author: Betty Smith
Creator: Anna Quindlen
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy New: $9.99
You Save: $6.96 (41%)
New (28) Used (21) Collectible (5) from $8.19
Avg. Customer Rating:  537 reviews
Sales Rank: 1238
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 528
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.1 x 1.5
ISBN: 0061120073
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780061120077
ASIN: 0061120073
Publication Date: June 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: B20080724215545T
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Francie Nolan, avid reader, penny-candy connoisseur, and adroit observer of human nature, has much to ponder in colorful, turn-of-the-century Brooklyn. She grows up with a sweet, tragic father, a severely realistic mother, and an aunt who gives her love too freely--to men, and to a brother who will always be the favored child. Francie learns early the meaning of hunger and the value of a penny. She is her father's child--romantic and hungry for beauty. But she is her mother's child, too--deeply practical and in constant need of truth. Like the Tree of Heaven that grows out of cement or through cellar gratings, resourceful Francie struggles against all odds to survive and thrive. Betty Smith's poignant, honest novel created a big stir when it was first published over 50 years ago. Her frank writing about life's squalor was alarming to some of the more genteel society, but the book's humor and pathos ensured its place in the realm of classics--and in the hearts of readers, young and old. (Ages 10 and older) --Emilie Coulter
Product Description
The beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness -- in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.
Download Description
E-Book Extra: Self-Reliance: A Reading Group GuideNamed by the New York Public Library as "one of the books of the century," A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is the story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan -- and her erratic, eccentric family -- in the turn-of-the-century Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn. Originally published in 1943, this true American classic has sold millions of copies worldwide, and includes a foreword by Anna Quindlen.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 532 more reviews...
 My favorite book of all time July 13, 2008
ATGIB is a great classic novel full of memorable characters and touching emotion. I have and will continure to reread this book often.
 Too Close to Reality to be Powerful June 24, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
I just finished reading this book a few minutes ago. I am not trying to be against the grain here at all but I don't understand how this book is so reputably powerful and a classic. It's not terrible reading because this story was by far very well written and my vocabulary has increased by atleast 13 new words. Overall though, this book felt like a auto biography, too close to reality to really wow me. As the reader, I was experiencing poverty, hunger, bulleying, chronic rejection and loss of innocence through Francie's eyes and yet, she progressed beautifully by independently finding ways to be educated and learning about the world and the people in it. I did find myself physically reacting to certain parts like when this young woman whom had a baby but was unwed was bedeviled by the neighbors and having rocks thrown at her and her child. Also, an important character in my mind passed on which changed my mood from then on. For the record, I feel the need to defend Francies Father Johnny. Yes, he did drink but I don't feel like he deserved to be treated like an acute alcoholic. He was never biligerent or hurtful to his family. Johnny wasn't the type to pour whiskey in his morning cereal and he was always singing and being chipper. But because every night when he performed he had gotten inebriated this is how he was remembered. Luckily, Francie saw past it because he was the only one that truely understood her and supported her ideas and dreams. Katie, Francie's mother lacked a sense of humor, obviously favored Francie's younger brother Neely, and could not let go of her control issues. It was her way or the highway. I don't want to give away the entire story but I must say that although I did enjoy reading this book, it did not satisfy my hunger from what I expected based on all the reviews I read about it. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is an adventure and will more than likely relate to you in some way, this book just illustrated what we all must go through... Life.
My favorite book June 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
To all the one star reviewers out there complaining about the tedious details in the book. Betty Smiths gift for detail is what makes the book so wonderful. I was fascinated with this book as a kid. I even tried to recreate the stale bread cutlets with ketchup sauce that Mama Nolan made!To this day, if I find a book about turn of the century NY tenements I will stop everything to read it. I've had a copy of ATGIB for 30 years now and I don't think I've ever gone a year without rereading it. Now I need to buy a new copy as my treasured copy (with illustrations!) has become lost. I hope whoever finds it enjoys it as much as I did.
A True Classic May 26, 2008
I just bought this for a young lady I know who is graduating High School. I read it at that age as well, and it is the perfect tale for a young woman on the verge of adulthood as it moves from the children to the young, and eventually middle-aged adults as it tells the multi-generational tale of the Nolan family. Heartbreaking and heartwarming without ever delving into sentimentality and highly, highly reccomended.
Don't wait as long as I did May 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book was very popular when I was in eighth grade (1968.) Lot's of the girls were reading it. While I read books that were considered "girl" books then for some reason I avoided A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Thirty years later I picked it up in the bookstore and couldn't put it down. I avoided rereading it for a few years because I didn't think I could enjoy it as much the second time around but I did.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
