A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

By Betty Smith

Thank you to Katie Huey for today’s submission! I ask everyone who shares a book to respond to these three questions: What did you learn about yourself? What did you learn about your world? What new possibilities did the book help you imagine.

What I learned about myself: Books are solace. They are my accompanying companion when everyone else seems to be just a little bit busier than me. I first read this book when I was in high school and caught myself, fifteen years later, wondering if the designation of 'favorite novel' could still hold water. 
In re-reading the classic, I was drawn, once again to Francie's love of literature, her curious approach to the world, and the permission she gives herself to find friends in the stories she invites into her consciousness. One need not go far to have every day adventures. I'm now allowing this truth to influence my choices in how I live my life. I want to marvel in the leftover coffee, embrace simple gifts of Christmas pine boughs, and delight in the luxury of little gifts to oneself as I age.  

What I learned about my world: The Nolan's live in extreme poverty - wondering each day how their work will provide enough to put food on the table and shelter overhead. Their scrappy resilience is something different than I've experienced - as my physical needs have never been wanting. However, Smith captures the unifying desires of the human heart as she sings connections throughout the work. 
All of the characters long for connection and seek a sense of betterment as they carve out tiny spaces for themselves in the world. The mother Katie develops imaginative scenarios to explain away her children's' hunger. The father Johnny insists on being valued as a member of his professional union. Francie's determined to attend the school across the city and finds work at a higher pay rate. Regardless of circumstance, we long to feel valued, to be seen, and to have a place for our creativity to flow. Growing up tends to batter the imagination out of us. The Nolan's helped me to remember we can't fully make our mark until we tend to our own growing awareness of the gaps in what is with what we wish could be.

New possibilities this book helped me to imagine: Reviews of this book often say that not much happens in the book's five hundred or so pages. I disagree, for it is in the ordinary unfolding, the feeding ourselves, the broken expressions of love, the doing the best that we can, where life takes root.