Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife - Francine Prose

This book focuses on Anne's diary itself, and more specifically, how the diary came to become a bestselling classic. I had already read about this topic here and there in my reading, but I had no idea about the controversy surrounding the creation of the stage play based on the diary - that was all news to me, and it's a very strange and absorbing story. The author also talks about Anne as a writer, and about how her writing shows real development and talent during the time she kept her diary. I knew that Anne had made revisions to her own diary, with an eye toward possible publication after the war, but it was interesting to hear another writer talk about Anne's skill in doing so; how she handled characterization and details and showed talent.

One quibble - the author kept referring to the hiding place as "an attic." I realize that a lot of people use this term to describe the Achterhuis/Secret Annexe, but I'm a stickler for accuracy and it's simply not accurate. I wish she hadn't propagated the use of "attic" in this book.

All in all this is an interesting read and I enjoyed it.

No comments:

Post a Comment