Betty Smith is revered, of course, for "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn," her 1943 semiautobiographical novel about young Francie Nolan growing up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in the early years of the 20th century.įor those of us who proudly call ourselves native New Yorkers, "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" is our very own outer borough epic.
There's usually a reason why the forgotten work of a famous author has been forgotten.
So when I saw the phrase a rediscovered classic slapped onto a new edition of an old novel by Betty Smith, I was understandably skeptical. Exhibit A - "The Breast," his 1972 Kafkaesque novel where the male protagonist morphs into a giant mammary gland. MAUREEN CORRIGAN, BYLINE: I think Philip Roth should have been awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, but I don't think everything he wrote was prize worthy. It's called "Tomorrow Will Be Better." Our book critic Maureen Corrigan says that optimistic title isn't the only thing to recommend this novel. A just reprinted novel from 1948 by Betty Smith has a title that seems perfect for the present.
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