Synopsis

It’s 1912 in Brooklyn the Nolan family is tormented by poverty. The matriarch, Katie, works tirelessly as a janitress to make ends meet while her alcoholic husband Johnny takes a back seat. Even among the hungriest and loneliest of days, their eleven year-old daughter Francie finds escape in the world of literature. She goes from picking and selling trash for pennies with her brother Neeley to the pursuit of higher education and economic mobility. In this poignant coming-of-age, the reader gets to experience Francie’s growing and changing along with her. There is a loss of childlike innocence as she is exposed to life’s many dissolutions—from the struggles of the working class to war and gender inequality. This classic novel illustrates how we develop our individual perspectives, as well as the expectations for women to carry emotional burdens. It’s about beating the odds and finding beauty everyday jn even the smallest of things. 

Review

It was so interesting to see the world through Francie’s lens. She has a curiosity for the world around her that is so charming and infectious. What stood out for me the most in her characterization was her capacity for self-reflection and growth. Overall, these characters are real, honest, flawed, but also familiar. They have a way of reflecting the kinds of people we know and love in the real world—absent, substance abused parents, self-sacrificing single mothers and naive younger siblings. This book is so sentimental and bittersweet, working to remind the reader that suffering never lasts forever—there is always and inevitably light after darkness.