Anne Frank, The Book, The Life, The Afterlife by Francine Prose

HarperCollins, 2009 ISBN: 9780061430794

In this latest book on the life and diaries of Anne Frank, Prose challenges the idea that the diaries were simply the immediate outpouring of a young teen. She takes on the diaries as literature, written by an author who had an eye toward a future audience, and who showed growth and development as a writer as she revised her work over time. Prose illustrates the refinement of Anne Frank’s skill, showing us versions of the same entries, which almost always show a more mature and literary eye, and emphasize her skill at dialogue and humor.

Prose describes how the members of the annex gathered around the radio, listening to the exiled Dutch Minister of Education who calls for the “establishment of a national archive to house the ‘ordinary documents’ – diaries, letters…and so forth – written by Dutch citizens during the war.” The members of the annex are suddenly aware of the importance of Anne and her diary, and Anne “took his speech as a personal directive,” (pp. 11-12).

She also shows how the diaries served as Anne’s safety valve: her release from the pent up energy and emotion and stress of living in a small, cramped space where she could never be alone.

Prose describes the awful scene in which the Franks are discovered and taken away, delves briefly into the questions of who betrayed them, and then moves on to discuss the life of the diaries following the war, when Otto Frank returned, the only member of his family to survive the concentration camps. Prose discusses the various versions of the diary that have been published, the editing, the restoration of edited parts, and the controversies surrounding these decisions. She then goes on to discuss the diary as a play, as the movie featuring the memorable performance by Shelley Winters, and the less than memorable portayal of Anne by Millie Perkins.

Finally, Prose looks at how the book has been taught in school, discussing the difficulties of presenting it with enough context for students to grasp the importance of the the diary given a 2008 study that showed only 25% of students could identify Hitler (p.254). She reviews the study and classroom aids available to teachers, and finds them wanting, and then discusses how she would approach teaching the diary, ending with descriptions of her experience doing so at Bard College, and the responses of some of the students.

For those readers who have turned back to the diary at various times, and who have poured over the definitive edition in which all three versions of the diary are laid out side-by-side, Prose’s work is a welcome addition to our understanding of Anne as a writer, and of the work she left behind her.