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neufangledmark 's review for:
The Diary of a Young Girl
by Anne Frank, Otto H. Frank, Mirjam Pressler
This was my third read of Anne Frank's "The Diary of a Young Girl", as I am fairly certain I read it a couple times as a teenager. Reading it as an adult was truly an interesting experience. I am visiting Amsterdam - and the annex where Anne and her family hid during World War II - next month, and wanted to refresh my memory of her story prior to my visit. It will be a poignant, haunting, and overwhelming experience, to be sure, and I am so thankful I reacquainted myself with Anne's story, words, and innermost thoughts prior to.
As an adult reading it, I was so struck by how self-absorbed Anne Frank was - and I don't say that to knock her in any way. I don't think I noticed it as much when I was a teen as, let's face it, teenagers are very introspective during their formative years and can be, indeed, very self-absorbed. Again, not a negative; only an observation. On the other hand, for being ages 14-15 when she wrote in this diary, I am incredibly impressed at how maturely she expressed her thoughts, and how - in many ways - precocious she was. She felt things very deeply, and articulates her feelings in words and expressions you would really only expect out of an adult author. I frequently had to remind myself I was reading the words of a 14 to 15 year old girl. Anne Frank was astute, a keen observer, and often very wise beyond her years. One could easily understand how, at times, the adults who had to live with Anne might have found her exasperating and outspoken - but I could see even in the space of reading 2 years in her diary how she was definitely on the path to maturity in thought and deed. She was also incredibly idealistic - and stubborn to holding onto her ideals, which I think is what pulled her through the monotonous, doldrum-like, cramped existence she had to face living in such close quarters with 7 other people of various temperaments. Her ideals and dreams pull her through and keep her believing that (as she is often famously quoted), "in spite of everything, that people are good at heart". Towards the end of her entries, she remains steadfastly hopeful, and yearns to be outside where the air is clean and the skies are blue - to have a taste of freedom at last. How frightening and sad to reach the abrupt end to her diary and realize that she is only able to finally experience this as her family is hauled out from hiding and deported off to concentration camps... and (aside from her father, Otto, who survived) their subsequent deaths.
I read the updated version that contains previously unpublished material (most of it pertaining to Anne's own sexual development and discovery, and some frequent passages of flat-out hatred of her mother). It's been so long since I read the book, so naturally, I didn't discover any glaring differences. I cannot rate this anything other than 5 stars, because it is an honest, real, and unflinching document from WWII that must be read and remembered. Bless Anne and her family.
As an adult reading it, I was so struck by how self-absorbed Anne Frank was - and I don't say that to knock her in any way. I don't think I noticed it as much when I was a teen as, let's face it, teenagers are very introspective during their formative years and can be, indeed, very self-absorbed. Again, not a negative; only an observation. On the other hand, for being ages 14-15 when she wrote in this diary, I am incredibly impressed at how maturely she expressed her thoughts, and how - in many ways - precocious she was. She felt things very deeply, and articulates her feelings in words and expressions you would really only expect out of an adult author. I frequently had to remind myself I was reading the words of a 14 to 15 year old girl. Anne Frank was astute, a keen observer, and often very wise beyond her years. One could easily understand how, at times, the adults who had to live with Anne might have found her exasperating and outspoken - but I could see even in the space of reading 2 years in her diary how she was definitely on the path to maturity in thought and deed. She was also incredibly idealistic - and stubborn to holding onto her ideals, which I think is what pulled her through the monotonous, doldrum-like, cramped existence she had to face living in such close quarters with 7 other people of various temperaments. Her ideals and dreams pull her through and keep her believing that (as she is often famously quoted), "in spite of everything, that people are good at heart". Towards the end of her entries, she remains steadfastly hopeful, and yearns to be outside where the air is clean and the skies are blue - to have a taste of freedom at last. How frightening and sad to reach the abrupt end to her diary and realize that she is only able to finally experience this as her family is hauled out from hiding and deported off to concentration camps... and (aside from her father, Otto, who survived) their subsequent deaths.
I read the updated version that contains previously unpublished material (most of it pertaining to Anne's own sexual development and discovery, and some frequent passages of flat-out hatred of her mother). It's been so long since I read the book, so naturally, I didn't discover any glaring differences. I cannot rate this anything other than 5 stars, because it is an honest, real, and unflinching document from WWII that must be read and remembered. Bless Anne and her family.