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    Maggie-Now: A Novel
    Maggie-Now: A Novel
    Maggie-Now: A Novel
    Audiobook13 hours

    Maggie-Now: A Novel

    Written by Betty Smith

    Narrated by Nicola Barber

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Betty Smith, the beloved author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, weaves a riveting modern myth out of the experiences of her own life in this rediscovered classic.

    In Brooklyn's unforgiving urban jungle, Maggie Moore is torn between answering her own needs and catering to the desirous men who dominate her life. Confronted by her quarrelsome Irish immigrant father, the feckless lover who may become her husband, and others, Maggie must learn to navigate a cycle of loss, separation, and hope as she forges her own path toward happiness.

    With characteristic warmth, compelling insight, and easy, conversational prose, Maggie-Now poignantly illuminates one woman's struggles and successes as she grapples with timeless questions of desire, duty, self-sacrifice, and the quest for fulfillment. Maggie-Now is an unforgettable masterpiece from one of the twentieth century's greatest talents.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCaedmon
    Release dateMay 5, 2020
    ISBN9780062988669
    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 Maggie-Now

    3.5/5

    68 ratings2 reviews

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    • 2/5
      I have to say that I might have set myself up for not liking this book from the start. I chose to read it right after reading A Tree Grows In Brooklyn and, as superstitious as it might sound, there's not really anywhere to go but down when you like a book as much as I liked A Tree. The writing itself is okay but it didn't seem to connect me with the experience of the book or the lives of the characters in any noticeable way. It also felt like Smith was trying her hardest to make sure all the characters were as contrary as possible. Which can breed a good plot. But eventually something has to cave in order to grab on to my attention and it just didn't happen for me in Maggie-Now.

      I do think I'll reread it at some point in the future. Just to be able to experience it on its own instead of colored by my experience of A Tree.
    • 2/5
      Smith's book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is basically flawless, but this one didn't do it for me at all. It's completely different, to be sure: I think that Smith deliberately makes all the characters in MAGGIE-NOW unsympathetic, which is more like reality than we'd like to admit. However, it's *literature*, dudes, and self-involved human reader that I am, I'm not going to spend several hours of my life on people who are never happy, won't ever be happy, and don't deserve to be happy, not on account of unfortunate external circumstances but because of their own mindsets.There are plenty of books with unsympathetic characters that I appreciate (the book, and their depiction of those characters, not the characters themselves), and it's not like Smith does this badly. But MAGGIE-NOW is unrelentingly unsympathetic, and a little less than halfway through, I was forced to close the covers to this book forever, to spare myself the agony of watching these characters cause their own train wrecks.