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    Tomorrow Will Be Better
    Tomorrow Will Be Better
    Tomorrow Will Be Better
    Audiobook8 hours

    Tomorrow Will Be Better

    Written by Betty Smith

    Narrated by Nicola Barber

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    ""A rediscovered treasure."" — Maureen Corrigan, Washington Post

    From Betty Smith, author of the beloved classic A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, comes a poignant story of love, marriage, poverty, and hope set in 1920s Brooklyn.

    Tomorrow Will Be Better tells the story of Margy Shannon, a shy but joyfully optimistic young woman just out of school who lives with her parents and witnesses how a lifetime of hard work, poverty, and pain has worn them down. Her mother's resentment toward being a housewife and her father's inability to express his emotions result in a tense home life where Margy has no voice. Unable to speak up against her overbearing mother, Margy takes refuge in her dreams of a better life. 

    Her goals are simple—to find a husband, have children, and live in a nice home—one where her children will never know the terror of want or the need to hide from quarreling parents. When she meets Frankie Malone, she thinks her dreams might be fulfilled, but a devastating loss rattles her to her core and challenges her life-long optimism. As she struggles to come to terms with the unexpected path her life has taken, Margy must decide whether to accept things as they are or move firmly in the direction of what she truly wants. 

    Rich with the flavor of its Brooklyn background, and filled with the joys and heartbreak of family life, Tomorrow Will Be Better is told with a simplicity, tenderness, and warmhearted humor that only Betty Smith could write. 

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCaedmon
    Release dateNov 24, 2020
    ISBN9780062981424
    Tomorrow Will Be Better
    Author

    Betty Smith

    Betty Smith (1896–1972) was a native of Brooklyn, New York. Her novels A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Tomorrow Will Be Better, Joy in the Morning, and Maggie-Now continue to capture the hearts and imaginations of millions of readers worldwide.

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    Reviews for Tomorrow Will Be Better

    4/5

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    • 5/5
      This book should be read by everyone under thirty who is contemplating marriage for the first time. I thought it absolutely brilliant and inspiring. It charts a young woman's growth from romantic innocence to the mature recognition that only she is in charge of her life. It is unflinching about the pain we cause one another, even inadvertently, and the lack of options for the working-class.I was reminded by a review below to mention the scene at the Chinese laundry. So often these days classic books are derided for their lack of sensitivity towards people of color, but this book challenges that assumption. Frankie, too, is a character who is described with great sensitivity.
    • 4/5
      My goodness this book is sad. Not necessarily because a lot of bad things happen, but simply because none of the characters (except maybe Reenie?) end the book happy. The characters started unfulfilled and end the book in the exact same condition. In some ways, I loved that about it, since I really felt the melancholy of being poor in 1920s Brooklyn acutely while I was reading. Smith does a good job of painting different shades of discontent and coping mechanisms in a way that induces empathy rather than pity. But, I can't imagine re-reading this any time soon. It just leaves you with a feeling of almost hopelessness that was hard to take.
    • 4/5
      I first read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith when I was just a kid but it quickly became one of my favourite books so when I saw Tomorrow Will Be Better by Smith on Edelweiss+, I was thrilled. I will admit I was also worried how I would react - it is often hard, at least for me, to read other books by an author when the only one I have read is as beloved as A Tree. I worried needlessly. Long out of print, Tomorrow Will Be Better is finally being brought back and, like A Tree, it is beautifully written and, in many way, timeless. Written in 1948 but set in the 1920s in an impoverished Irish American neighbourhood, it is a story of young love and the efforts to overcome the crushing poverty of their youth that has left their parents worn out and able to relate to their children only in mostly negative ways. As I read the book, I found the date it was first published even more significant than the period in which it was set. WWII had ended just a few years previously, most western countries had enacted policies to prevent another Great Depression, and now new ones to help the general population move forward. It was a hopeful time as most looked towards the future, not sure what it would be like but sure that, as the title suggests, it had to be better. And like those times, after the young couple in the story has faced and overcome so many hardships, the ending is left open, leaving the reader to decide for themselves how their future will unfold - I, for one, am rooting for them. Thanks to Edelweiss+ and Harper Perennial Classics for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review
    • 4/5
      Tomorrow will be better by Betty SmithHave read another book by the author and have enjoyed. In the 60's and she's growing up in Brooklyn, has finished high school and has dreams.She attempts to get a job and lands one and still hopes to come out of life married and with kids and a husband who cares for her.Story follows her through the childhood years and later as she struggles to survive, marriage and children.I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).