A review by 19paws
Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife by Francine Prose

5.0

I’m a little surprised by how much I loved this book which is about Anne Frank’s family, her diary, the story of how it came to be published and the play and movies that were based on it. I expected the parts about Anne and the diary to be interesting, but not the rest of it. The book is just packed with fascinating information and insights, though. I put it down several times to check out videos on the web—those of the movie, and most compelling of all, the rare 10 seconds of footage of Anne before she went into hiding. I had actually seen that before at the Anne Frank Museum, but there is something about it that is so riveting and heartbreaking.

It’s been many years since I’ve read the diary and much I didn’t remember—plus a whole lot more I didn’t know. I’m looking forward to reading the Critical Edition of the diary (or the Definitive edition? I get them mixed up.)