Good books are unlike good restaurants. When you find a great, local, hole-in-the-wall favorite, you want to keep it all for yourself in fear of too many people flooding the establishment. Books, you can share with everyone. And here, my friends, I want to share with you the wonderful A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. Not that it's an undiscovered hole-in-the-wall. But I find that a lot of people "have been meaning to read it" and please - do. I didn't want it to end. A story full of heart and humanity, a partly autobiographical tale about a little girl growing up in the slums of Brooklyn (the then Williamsburg!!) and coming of age at the beginning of World War I. Smith writes with a no-fuss clarity and affectuous honesty, in a book that the New York Public Library has awarded one of the "Books of the Century."
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'Dear God,' she prayed, 'let me be something every minute of every hour of my life. Let me be gay; let me be sad. 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 honorable and let me sin. Only let me be something very blessed minute. And when I sleep, let me dream all the time so that not one little piece of living is ever lost.'
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Goodnight,
C
2 comments:
So true. I loved this book so much as a kid and I still adore it. It's beautiful.
i love this book! it's wonderful! great recommendation!
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