A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

I was talking with Jason today, and I discovered that everyone isn't immediately familiar with the novel by Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. There was also a TV movie and a musical based on the book. I thought I was so clever to come up with my blogger name somewhat based on that book/movie.

As I looked online to get the author, (sorry Betty Smith) I discovered that I didn't know the book either! When I remembered A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, I actually thought of Barefoot in the Park! (A movie with Jane Fonda and Robert Redford.) The two movies are not similar at all!

Then I read a bit on the description of the book, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and discovered the following quote:

"She was made up of all of these good and these bad things...She was the books she read in the library...Part of her life was made from the tree growing rankly in the yard. She was the bitter quarrels she had with her brother whom she loved dearly. She was Katie's secret, despairing weeping. She was the shame of her father staggering home drunk...She was all of these things and of something more...It was something that had been born into her and her only." Chapter 8, pg. 71

Now I am more intrigued than ever and am putting this book on my 'to read' list.