Book – The diary of a young girl
Author: Anne Frank
Score: 9/10*
Year: 1972 **
Publisher: Washington Square Press
ISBN 0-671-61760-5
Pages 242+65***
Language: English (translated from Dutch)
This is a slightly different kind of review for me today.
It's about the famous diary by Anne Frank, aged 13 in June 1942, when she started writing in it.
I was afraid to read it, as I knew Frank was writing during WW2, and that I had a previous traumatic experience in a Holocaust memorial, so had put reading this diary off, indefinitely.
Upon my wife's recommendation, in view of some of my heritage, and her assurance that I could read it, I started.
Before I detail more, let me discuss those * above.
* is the score for this current edition, and the fact they should have included the extra 65 pages at the end, not where they did ; For Anne's style itself, it's really great.
** Is about the year, for this current edition but it was published first in Dutch much sooner (47).
*** is about the pages, discussed further in this review.
I like the flow of her successive entries - daily at first, but not always - with her musings of her daily life, her family, friendships and relationships with others as they go.
She seems bright, bookish and anti-conformist, and I can relate to many of her remarks.
She was a budding feminist and her talent is undeniable.
Coming from a Jewish family in occupied Holland, she follows her family into hiding, aided by non-Jewish friends for shelter, food and contact to the outside world.
Anne describes mostly her own experiences, concentrating on thoughts and feelings she is going through as an adolescent, giving a name, and face, and most importantly, human aspect in the midst of the war.
A few of her entries discuss politics and the war, as well as inhumane extreme conditions she and the others in hiding were put into, with all the issues that arise from limited access to food, safety rules that must be respected in their shelter, and living in constant fear of being discovered.
All the rest is about her growing up as a young teen, slowly maturing and discovering herself, distinguishing from the adults and defining who she is.
She feels very lonely, so she confides into her best friend, her diary, which she named Kitty. All entries are addressed to Kitty and signed Anne, in various forms, and because she hadn't anticipated publishing it, she confides very honest accounts of her thoughts and feelings, as if it weren't meant to be read by others, ever.
In the edition that my wife has, certain entries had been omitted but which would subsequently be published in un-abridged form in the 1990's.
In the one I read (reviewed here), there is a whole additional segment, right in the middle of the book. It's comprised of 64 pages of text - discussing the historical context, more about the Frank's family life ; photos, using Anne's diary entries, cultural and historical references that she used, and lastly critics about this book and subsequent adaptations.
But if you don't know her life and fate, this section gives not only background info but also post-diary, so it is a spoiler nature.
The book also has a short introduction by Eleanor Roosevelt, which I also put off reading until after the epilogue.
This section is between pages 116 & 117, and numbered separately 1-64.
The epilogue comes after 241 but isn't numbered, whilst the intro is before all of it, numbered VII-VIII, but AFTER the un-numbered page about the book and its author (spoils the ending too).
Of course, Anne's viewpoints were limited due to the information she could get and her perspective as a teen-anger, but this doesn't take away her talent for words. Her experiences are moving, touching, and the added sections detail all the rest of the information before and after the diary's content. I only wish it was situated at the end of the book.
I personally didn't know of Anne Frank's life, or rather, if I knew years ago, I'd forgotten and thus, the epilogue of this book and this aforementioned additional section+intro made my reading extremely difficult once finished. I'll discuss this further down, in the spoiler section below.
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The first spoiler is that the book was originally published in 1947, and that the epilogue mentions what happened just after the last recorded entry. This reminds of the tragedy that WW2 really was, with all its shattered dreams, hopes and human potentials, and yet, must be read to remember this horrendous aspect of our history as humans.
Reading the epilogue had really wrenched my heart, as upon reading, something in Anne was very compelling, attaching and moving. Successive dates gave me some hopes, which were shattered, but after reading this, and my wife telling me of additional info read on articles, I can see some positive effects from such human tragedy.
Despite the emotional state that I've been in ever since I finished reading this a few hours ago, and doubting that it was the best period for me to read when I'm so hypersensitive (even more than my usual) , it's still an important read that all humans should remember and put a face, beyond stats. Anne was a gifted teen, who's life was cut short, snuffing away hope and potentials.
The last few entries raise many unanswered questions, which remained so to this very day.
Reading this diary, from its inception to subsequently hiding, and all that came after are tremendous testimonials to human kindness, human atrocities, and some victories of the former over the latter as a result.
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