The Diary of Anne Frank
The Diary of Anne Frank. By Anne Frank.This is not on my reading list but since I am doing a course about the Second World War I figured it would be simply embarrassing to have complete it having never read this classic.
posted by Benjamin Nakizo at 6:14 PM
1 Comments:
It is surprisingly good since for some reason I wasn’t expecting much from it. In my mind anything that my mum has once read can’t be that great. Perhaps I need to revise my opinions of both. It’s good not just from a historical perspective but also because it has a captivating and heart breaking narrative full of all the drama and heat ache associated with being a teenager. Being cooped up in their small flat, eight of them in total for over two years brings out in the worst and best in all of them. It is almost an experiment in psychology as well to see what happens to individuals kept under such conditions for so long.
Of course their existence was not totally isolated with their Dutch friends being frequent guests at the dinner table as they dropped off supplies. While there is some talk of politics it is a very personal account with most entries doing little but noting the various arguments that were taking place within the house at the time. Yet having said that it does provide a great account of what it was like to be there, to suffer as they did. Being totally outlawed simply because of your race/religion is difficult to imagine these days and it is terrifying to see a casual acceptance of the reality come through in Anne’s writing.
Writing which it has to be said is simply amazing. Considering she was thirteen when she started and writing it is incredibly well written. Obviously it has been translated and the translator may have added an extra smoothness to the text but it is simply mind blowing to think someone so young could write with such perspective.
All in all a good read that I shall be shortly posting off to a friend who I think would enjoy it. It reinforces your perception of the plight of the Jews yet doesn’t provide a comprehensive account of all that happened to them. Yet that is far from its intent.
Anne Frank said she wanted to be a journalist or an author after the war. Based on this limited material the world lost out on a very talented natural writer.
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