A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

There are some books you read. And forget

And there are some books you read. And remember. For life.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is life.

Like the foreword says, let's not muck around by asking irritating, reductionist questions like "What is the book about?"

I read the book through the night and day of a Saturday evening. For hours after that, I was in Brooklyn, wondering about Francie, Katie and her sisters, and the Nolans as well as dear Neeley. Anything else I say will be prosaic. The book is a masterpiece.

"A profoundly moving novel, and an honest and true one. It cuts right to the heart of life...If you miss A Tree Grows in Brooklyn you will deny yourself a rich experience...It is a poignant and deeply understanding story of childhood and family relationships. The Nolans lived in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn from 1902 until 1919...Their daughter Francie and their son Neely knew more than their fair share of the privations and sufferings that are the lot of a great city's poor. Primarily this is Francie's book. She is a superb feat of characterization, an imaginative, alert, resourceful child. And Francie's growing up and beginnings of wisdom are the substance of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn."
--New York Times

"One of the most dearly beloved and one of the finest books of our day."
--Orville Prescott

"One of the books of the century."
--New York Public Library

First They Killed My Father

I felt sick reading this book. Don't mistake me - it is a marvellous work of non-fiction and the pain in it is heart-rendingly real - it is precisely this that made me sick. First They Killed My Father is the story of the Khmer Rouge's murderous regime under Pol Pot as retold through the five-year old eyes of Loung Ung.

I confess I didn't know much about Cambodia - and had only fleetingly heard of Pol Pot during his death a few years ago - I know now what destruction his mad soldiers wreaked. Loung is scathingly frank - and so descriptive in her details that it makes me wonder how a child of five or six could recall so well. Do really scathing memories scythe their impression on our minds at such an young age in such vividness? In a desperate bid for survival - Loung tries everything - from eating live baby shrimps to stealing from her younger sister, Geak -except perhaps eating earthworms.

Be warned - Loung's details are descriptively gruesome - skulls are chopped, membranes are slivered, brains split open in graphic detail - I read this book during a bout of nauseous sickness and left me pining for a book that spoke of sunshine, little dogs and useless antics. Loung's endurance is one of the great surviving feats of our time - her courage is an inspiration but her book, sadly, I can't read again.

Recommendation: Pick at your risk. Make sure you are on a light stomach.

And check out Loung's website