Just want to spend a minute to pat myself on the back for reading Diary of a Young Girl. I was impressed by Anne Frank's writing; it was remarkably clear for someone so young. I read the "complete" version after starting the traditional version that was edited by her father in the '50s. The traditional version, I think, hits harder because its focus is on the horror of the war and also because there is no writer alive that doesn't benefit from good editing. I also want to add that I picked it up after revisiting Neutral Milk Hotel.
The brutal tragedy of her time in the secret annex and eventual murder, I can't begin to process. What a waste...
Was this your first time reading this? Or a revisit? Such an important work.
ReplyDeleteThis was my first time to read it. It is important, and I was surprised to note that I felt that when I was reading it. It contains such a convergence of elements that make it vital; if it was less poorly written, or less dramatic, or if they hadn't been in hiding for so long, or if they hadn't been found out relatively shortly before the liberation of the Netherlands, or if they all hadn't died except Otto... then it wouldn't have the impact that it does. I think if I was a girl I could have been obsessed by this. I was kind of obsessed by it when I was reading it. It's that urge to want to help - to shout to her to get out now, to be her friend and make it better - that overcomes the reader. And the needless, cruel tragedy of it all - such brilliant, productive people cut down.
ReplyDeleteIt is really incredible that this writing survived at all, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI remember being devastated by this book as a young girl. I just couldn't fathom the fact that this sort of evil truly does exist in the world. It is remarkable that Anne Frank's diary survived at all.
ReplyDeleteNeutral Milk Hotel is a very strange bad. I like 'em, but they're strange. I have In the Aeroplane over the Sea but I haven't listened to it in a while.