“Tomorrow – next month – next year. Everything was always going to be better in the future. And suddenly the future had come. It was a brief present. Too soon it would merge into the past to be remembered.”
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Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is one of my favorite classic novels. With Tomorrow Will Be Better, she continues her exploration into the tenor of life NY in the 1920s. This novel focuses more on the generational pain of poverty. Margy’s story highlights the dynamics of many families and their different ways of surviving. You see how each generation dreams for more, for a bigger life than they’ve been given but finds themselves settling hoping to make their life into more than it is.
This novel is equal measures of heartbreak and hope. There are times where you are frustrated with each character and other times where you want to sob for them. I wished for 100 more pages to see where they each ended up.
There are lots of trigger warnings for this one, it is not a story for the faint hearted, its a beautiful story that is well done but it deals with issues like domestic abuse, racism, infant loss and suicide.
Thanks to Harper Perennial for a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest opinion.
Do you have any classic reads on your upcoming TBR?
~ Dana
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