Reviews
Reviews of Betty Smith: Life of the Author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
“This is not only a biography of a fascinating person; it’s her place in the history of the time and in the women’s movement, as well as a writer’s guide to the craft, all wrapped into one stunning work. Growing up I read and reread, and loved Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I was Francie Nolan. Valerie Yow’s biography is like being there all over again. Beautifully written, Francie and Betty live in every word. “
–Ruth Moose, poet and short story writer, Rules and Secrets and other books, professor, Creative Writing Department, University of North Carolina
“In this engaging, skillfully written biography, ValerieYow combines painstaking historical research, well-argued psychological insights and interpretations, and good narrative style to tell the story of a writer who rose from childhood poverty in a Brooklyn tenement to extraordinary popular acclaim and financial success. With a special sensitivity and perception, Yow describes the struggles Smith faced in both her personal life and her writing career But, ultimately, this is the triumphant story of a talented, tenacious woman whose important place in American letters is more secure because of Yow’s excellent biography.”
–Robert Anthony, Curator, North Carolina Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hil
“Yes, Smith’s life is a story of rags-to-riches—cycling sometimes back to near-rags, then again to comfortable circumstances. But biographer Valerie Yow has made it much more. With historical training she provides a rich panorama of Brooklyn at the turn of the century and Chapel Hill from 1936 to 1972. Her experience as a psychologist deepens our understanding of this complicated woman.’”
“Yow herself is a gifted writer, as was proven by her earlier biography of North Carolina author Bernice Kelly Harris. Given Yow’s expert touches, Betty Smith’s biography reads like a novel, one that would make an engrossing film. The final page includes Betty’s advice to writers: “First: Be understanding always. Keep the understanding you have and add on to it. Try to understand how it is with other people—especially the mean, the cruel, the selfish. There is a reason for the way every person is.”
–Sally Buckner, The Pilot (Southern Pines, N.C., June 22, 2008):
“I highly recommend this first and as of yet, only published biography to those who have read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, for it is well known that the book is based on Smith’s real life experiences in poor, working-class Brooklyn. Those who came away from the novel desperately wanting to know what happened to Smith in her later years, well now is your chance. Valerie Raleigh Yow covers Smith’s life from birth to her death all in a narrative style that reads more like a story and successfully avoids falling into “dryness” by not overloading the reader with mere facts and dates….Betty Smith is engaging, informative and highly readable. If you are stumbling upon this review, allow me to recommend Smith’s novel first—and then following that, this biography.”
–Jessica Schneider, Book Review of Betty Smith: Life of the Author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Moderate Voice, (17 January 2008)
“Yow’s biography of Smith provides an intimate look into Smith’s life and the influences that would shape her life as a writer. Yow charts Smith’s personal life and writing life with painstaking research and insightful acuity. She probes into Smith’s feelings of always being on the margin in her personal life, her writing career, and her academic life and provides a wonderfully rich and psychologically complex portrait of Smith.”
–Candice Nieman, Women’s Studies 37 (2008):4:433035
For readers’ reviews, see Amazon.com.
