A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is the coming-of-age story of young, sensitive and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the turn-of-the century Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn. This poignant and moving tale is filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident.

From the moment she entered the world, Francie needed to be made of stern stuff, for the often harsh life of Williamsburg demanded fortitude, precocity, and strength of spirit. Betty Smith has artfully caught this sense of exciting life in a novel of childhood, replete with incredibly rich moments of universal experiences.

As a book group, we are no strangers to American classics. We’ve delved into more than a few over the 10 years we have been meeting, and on no occasion have they been described as ‘saccharine’. But there is a first time for everything, and this is exactly what approximately half of our group thought of Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

Francie was too good to be true and many of the outcomes in the story lacked in the reality stakes. Others believed the story was devoid of intensity and some of the more interesting issues were glossed over.

There were of course references made to McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes (which everyone had read), but as A Tree was written in the early 1940s, it was accepted that Smith had obviously written a book of her time, which we generally agreed was to some extent biographical.

On the positive side, others believed it to be a wonderful read and historically correct. There was a strong sense of place and Francie’s character was exactly what the book’s protagonist needed to be. We then proceeded to have a great discussion on the book’s many characters and it was mentioned that there was a clear depiction of pride written into them. Something that everyone felt and agreed was common among Smith’s social class of the time.

It was about here that we began some reminiscing, as several of us could recall similar childhood memories of a time when space and money was short. Growing up stories are always entertaining and a wonderful way of rounding off a great discussion. For, regardless of a book’s original intent, if it inspires thoughtful and enjoyable discourse, it is always a winner with us!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our readers. We look forward to another great year of reading and sharing with you!

The Alchemist by Paul Coelho

An Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a gypsy woman, a man who calls himself king, and an alchemist, all of whom point Santiago in the direction of his quest.

No one knows what the treasure is, or if Santiago will be able to surmount the obstacles along the way. But what starts out as a journey to find worldly good turns into a discovery of the treasures found within.

Lush, evocative and deeply humane, the story of Santiago is an eternal testament to the transforming power of our dreams and the importance of listening to our hearts.

How many self-help books does the world really need? This and other probing questions were inspired by this month’s book The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

A few of us had read this before, some a few times before, and in true Tuesday Book Club tradition we had plenty to say of its content and what it all might possibly mean. Deep and meaningful? Not completely, there were plenty of laughs thrown in, mostly to do with the self-help market and its promotion strategies. Many thought it to be a well written fable/biblical telling of life’s lessons. Viti searched for symbolic meaning, such is her way, but came up with no ground breaking insight, just that she had enjoyed it more with each reading, which to date has been three, and that it was a metaphor for life. We all tended to agree, but not sure exactly what the metaphor was telling us other than the obvious; learning of life’s lessons through experience and travel; be true to yourself; grass is always greener; own backyard; life’s real treasures, the journey …. etc.

Anne was the biggest fan and found it to be a wonderful story full of beautiful language, innocence of youth and an uplifting coming-of-age tale.

On the negative side were comments such as under-whelming, repetitive, and lacked involvement. We discussed the time, place and setting aspects and also whether anything was lost in translation from its Spanish origins. This we thought could be a possibility.

Unanimously we decided this story had certainly been told before under the guise of new-age literature, which there is no shortage of, and that in all probability The Alchemist is more adhesive to the young, inexperienced mind. And as there is an unlimited supply of such, there will always be a place for this type of literature.