Anglewannabe, just so you know – ***A Tree Grows in Brooklyn ***doesn’t have any explicit content, but it DOES mention premarital sex, extramarital affairs, bigamy, and even prostitution. Although certainly, there is no detail given to any of it. I actually was surprised by how dark and cynical the book is at times, compared to the movie, though it does ultimately end of a hopeful note. (For example, while many of the scenes in the movie, taken at face value, seem to show people acting altruistically, but the book makes clear they were usually mostly selfish, or at least pragmatic. In one case, outright bribery is the motivation for the “good deed”.)
So, while it is a “classic”, I wouldn’t particularly care to read it again.
I also read Joy in the Morning by the same author, it is a shorter book, and makes for much lighter reading. It does hint, though, that the main character was a victim of sexual abuse by her stepfather – she mentions this very early in the book, so I wouldn’t consider it a spoiler. Indeed, the young marriage she depicts as happy and successful, ironically would have a strong case for annulment had it been a failure, since one reason the character rushes into marriage as a teenager is to escape the stepfather, though everyone assumes she must be “in trouble”.