Tag: classics

#BookReview A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith @ourclassicsclub

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A Tree Grows in BrooklynAbout the Book

The Nolan family are first-generation immigrants to the United States. Originating in Ireland and Austria, their life in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn is poor and deprived, but their sacrifices make it possible for their children to grow up in a land of boundless opportunity.

Francie Nolan is the eldest daughter of the family. Alert, imaginative and resourceful, her journey through the first years of a century of profound change is difficult – and transformative. But amid the poverty and suffering among the poor of Brooklyn, there is hope, and the prospect of a brighter future.

Format: Paperback (496 pages)                         Publisher: Cornerstone
Publication date: 17th September 1992 [1943] Genre: Literary Fiction, Modern Classics

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My Review

It’s always tricky to write a review of a book that so many people love and that is regarded as a modern classic. Having now joined the ranks of admirers of the book, I thought I’d share just a few of the things I especially loved about the book.

  • Completely identifying with young Francie’s love of reading: “She read everything she could find: trash, classics, timetables and the grocer’s price list.”
  • How the neighbourhood is brought to life: Francie’s and her brother Neeley’s Saturday morning trips to the ‘junkie’ to sell rubbish they’ve collected during the week followed by a visit to Cheap Charlie’s penny candy store; the musicians, pretzel seller and organ grinder who visit their street from time to time.
  • Learning of occupations you didn’t know existed, such as singing waiters.
  • The multicultural nature of early 20th century New York with Jewish, Irish and other nationalities living side by side.
  • The strong female characters. “Those were the Rommely women: Mary, the mother, Evy, Sissy, and Katie, her daughters, and Francie, who would grow up to be a Rommely woman even though her name was Nolan. They were all slender, frail creatures with wondering eyes and soft fluttery voices.  But they were made out of thin invisible steel.”
  • The way the book is a love letter to Brooklyn: ‘She looked out over Brooklyn. The starlight half revealed, half concealed. She looked out over the flat roofs, uneven in height, broken once in a while by a slanting roof from a house left over from older times. The chimney pots on the roofs…and on some, the shadows looking of pigeon cotes… sometimes, faintly heard, the sleepy cooing of pigeons… the twin spires of the Church, remotely brooding over the dark tenements.. And at the end of their street, the great Bridge that threw itself like a sigh across the East River.’
  • The theme of resilience and overcoming adversity, epitomized by the tree of the book’s title. Katie: “Look at that tree growing there out of that grating. It gets no sun, and water only when it rains. It’s growing out of sour earth. And it’s strong because its hard struggle to live is making it strong. My children will be strong that way.”  
  • The power of a book to take Francie, as so many other readers, to other worlds. ‘Books became her friends and there was one for every mood. There was poetry for quiet companionship. There was adventure when she was tired of quiet hours. There would be love stories when she came to adolescence and, when she wanted to feel a closeness to someone, she could read a biography,’
  • Imagining the mischievous smile on Betty Smith’s face as writes the following section in which her teacher responds to Francie’s choice of subject matter for a composition competition. “But poverty, starvation and drunkenness are ugly subjects to choose.  We all admit these things exist.  But one doesn’t write about them.”
  • The echoes of Hitchcock’s film Rear Window in the view Francie has into neighbouring apartments on a Saturday night. ‘Through the leaves, she looked into the open uncurtained windows and saw growlers being rushed out and returned overflowing with cook foaming beer. Kids ran in and out, going to and returning from the butcher’s, the grocer’s and the baker’s. Women came in with bulky hock-shop bundles. The man’s Sunday suit was home again.  On Monday, it would go back to the pawnbroker’s for another week… Francie saw young girls making preparations to go out with their fellers. Since none of the flats had bathrooms, the girls stood before their kitchen sinks in their camisoles and petticoats, and the line the arm made, curved over the head while they washed under the arm, was very beautiful.’

As you may have gathered, I loved my time spent with the Nolan family. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a book from my Classics Club list. In fact, I’ll confess it’s a book I was supposed to read for a Classics Club spin – and not even the last one, but the one before that. Worth the wait.

In three words: Absorbing, emotional, inspiring

Try something similar: O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

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Betty SmithAbout the Author

Betty Smith was born Elisabeth Wehner on December 15, 1896, the same date as – but five years earlier than – her fictional heroine Francie Nolan. The daughter of German immigrants, she grew up poor in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, the very world she recreates with such meticulous detail in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Smith also wrote other novels and had a long career as a dramatist, writing one-act and full-length plays for which she received both the Rockefeller Fellowship and the Dramatists Guild Fellowship. She died in 1972. (Photo credit: Publisher author profile)

#BookReview The Long Traverse by John Buchan #ReadJB2020

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The Long TraverseAbout the Book

Negog, an old Native American Indian, uses his magic to provide Donald, a Canadian boy with visions of seven significant moments in the history and heritage of Canada.

Format: Hardcover (254 pages)                Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Publication date: 10th November 1941 Genre: Nonfiction, History

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My Review

My Buchan of the Month for December is The Long Traverse. It was unfinished at the time of John Buchan’s death on 11th February 1940 so was completed by his wife Susan and published posthumously in 1941. The book was titled Lake of Gold in the US and Canada. It contains illustrations by John Morton-Sale, whose work also appeared in books by J. M. Barrie and Beverley Nicholls.

John Buchan described the book as a Canadian Puck of Pook’s Hill. The role of Puck in Rudyard Kipling’s original is played in The Long Traverse by Negog, a member of what we would today call the First Nations people. The book consists of eight stories, interspersed with poems, plus an epilogue added by Buchan’s wife based on notes he left for a final story.

20201202_142426-1The first story, ‘The Long Traverse’, introduces the reader to Donald, a young Canadian boy whose interests lie more in Hollywood movies and outdoor pursuits than in the study of Latin, Mathematics or History – as his recent school report shows! The reader also meets Negog, a Cree Indian whose people originated from the southwest corner of Hudson Bay but moved eastward towards Labrador. Negog reveals the concept of ‘the long traverse’, a journey into the past that can be viewed in the ‘Lake of Gold’ when conditions are right and by use of traditional magic.

The story ‘The Gold of Sagne’ captures Donald’s boyish enthusiasm for fishing and mineral collecting and describes his first experience of the visions conjured up by Negog in the Lake of Gold. Donald sees, reflected in the water, scenes showing how his treasured possession, a stone with flakes of gold in it, was passed from hand to hand through the centuries. “He was looking at a motion picture, one without captions. He did not need any explanatory words, for he seemed to recognize each scene and to know precisely what it meant.”

In ‘The Wonderful Beaches’, the setting sun on the water is transformed into a vision of Viking long-ships setting off from Norway, sailing across the Atlantic and arriving in Canada many centuries before Columbus. I liked that when Donald, a little confused, asks “What people came here first?”, Negog replies “My people have been here from the beginning”.

‘Cadieux’ is the thrilling tale of Cadieux de Courville, a coureur de bois or independent French-Canadian trader who travels up and down river trading furs. Donald witnesses an epic journey in which Cadieux and fellow traders are pursued downstream by Iroquois and only a heroic act allows some of them to survive.

In ‘The Man who dreamed of Islands’, Donald has a vision of one of his ancestors who, employed as a voyageurs by one of the trading companies, finds himself drawn to exploration rather than trading. He sets off to find a route through the mountains to the Pacific coast, travelling on foot and by canoe. Donald witnesses the previously unknown result of this expedition which, if true, would predate the exploits of a more famous Canadian explorer.

‘Big Dog’ depicts the skirmishes between two warring Indian tribes, one of which possess horses (the ‘big dogs’ of the title) and the other to whom horses are unknown and who are forced to seek out other means to defend themselves.

‘Whitewater’ is another action-packed story of adventure.  Whilst observing the log drive down river, Donald hears exciting tales from the loggers of navigating white water rapids by canoe or raft.  These trigger a vision of an Orkney man, Magnus Sinclair, who has to overcome his fear of water in order to take up a role as a voyageur.  Having learned to swim, the river is transformed for Magnus from a menace to a ‘playmate’ and he undertakes an epic river journey westward.

In the final story, ‘The Faraway People’, Donald listens avidly to dinner table stories of ‘secret and wonderful things in the very far North’ and witnesses evidence of the existence of a fabled ancient race.

In my earlier blog post introducing the book, I mentioned that one of Buchan’s reasons for writing The Long Traverse was his desire to improve upon what he considered the rather dull manner in which Canadian history was taught in schools. The book certainly contains lively scenes of adventure but it seemed to me the stories were more illustrative than factual. For example, I was left unsure which of the characters existed in real life and which were fictitious. Therefore, although The Long Traverse encapsulates the spirit of the country John Buchan had grown to love during his time as Governor-General of Canada, I’m not sure it would help a Canadian pupil pass a history examination! However, I’m sure it would have made an excellent companion to more traditional history books.

In three words: Spirited, imaginative, adventure

Try something similar: The Last Secrets by John Buchan

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John BuchanAbout the Author

John Buchan (1875 – 1940) was an author, poet, lawyer, publisher, journalist, war correspondent, Member of Parliament, University Chancellor, keen angler and family man.  He was ennobled and, as Lord Tweedsmuir, became Governor-General of Canada.  In this role, he signed Canada’s entry into the Second World War.   Nowadays he is probably best known – maybe only known – as the author of The Thirty-Nine Steps.  However, in his lifetime he published over one hundred books: fiction, poetry, short stories, biographies, memoirs and history.

You can find out more about John Buchan, his life and literary output by visiting The John Buchan Society website.

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