I am at a loss on where to begin this rant that can do justice to the gem of a book. Let me begin by quoting Philip Roth (an American writer of Gaelic & Jewish descent):- "To read a novel requires a certain amount of concentration, focus, devotion to the reading". It has taken me many days and weeks to get through Anne's diary - not because it did not grip my imagination but because I had too many distractions. In that regard, I lost some of my focus.
Let me start at the beginning. Many years ago, in my youth - when playing was all I cared for - my father waxed lyrical about Anne Frank. I presuppose like me, he marvelled about how a girl so young could write a diary so poignant. I read so many books from my father's library but I steered clear of The Diary Of A Young Girl because subconsciously, I was afraid that I would fall short of the traits that endeared Anne to my father. I never thought of her until recently a friend of mine of the opposite gender was shocked that I too keep a diary/journal on and off where I jot my deepest thoughts. He did not - for the life of him - understand why one would want to write anything down. This conversation led me to exorcise Anne Frank from the recesses of my mind and led me to buy her book in an attempt to understand why anyone would want to do this.
Anne's comment at the beginning of her diary helped me appreciate why anyone would want to keep a diary. She begins "I hope I will be able to confide everything in you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support". Many years ago, I encouraged my kids - as my father had - to always keep a journal so that they would not forget their experiences. Unlike Facebook, Blogs or Social Media, a diary is very private & intimate - it is a place where you write your things and hope that someone chancing upon your diary will have the decency to understand that a diary is not for public consumption.
The Diary Of A Young Girl is written over a two year period amidst the daily grind of hiding in an annexe together with other families. It nonetheless, is written with lots of whit and humour. For me, it is by & large the story of growing up because it is during our adolescence that we make leaps from being children to being young adults. It is a story of hope because Anne always wrote as though she would survive the events of the time and publish her diary. She never really despaired that perchance she would not live to adulthood. The diary is also the story of comfort & friendship - albeit intimacy with an inanimate object like a diary - because Anne knew that come what may, she always had her diary to go back to.
I have highlighted so many passages in The Diary Of A Young Girl. I would have liked Anne because despite the fact that we are born so many years apart we 'suffer' the same emotional insecurities. Anne had to live under the shadow of her older sister Margot whom she loved, who she was bench marked against but to whose standards she felt she could never really measure. Anne suffered an identity crisis...She wanted to be herself and to be loved for who she was just as she was.
Oh Anne. I smiled when I read:- "I argued that talking is a female trait and that I would do my best to keep it under control, but that I would never be able to cure myself of the habit, since my mother talked as much as I did, if not more, and that there's not much you can do about inherited traits". When my school teachers wrote that I was a 'noise maker' in my school reports, my mother told me not to worry about it because she too had suffered the same comment from Mrs Bruce - her headmistress. My saving grace was that my mother understood that I could not do much about my chatting...well as long this was accompanied by good grades.
Amazingly Anne had a good appreciation about the world around her. I guess any child would if they lived through a war. Instead of skipping, playing dodge the ball or with dolls she analysed the situation around her in a way that many people in this day & age would not.
I would have loved Anne...She says to her diary that she has a lot of self knowledge. She understands her strengths & weaknesses and thinks about them objectively. She does not suffer from delusions of grandeur. But I wonder whether she was too serious about life even for a girl living in an annexe with & other people day in day out.
The Diary Of A Young Girl finishes rather abruptly as the people in the annexe are discovered by the Nazis and taken to concentration camps. The post scriptum is a sad one because everyone perishes except Anne's dad who lives to publish Anne's diary.
I should have read The Diary Of A Young Girl when I was younger. My father should have insisted on it. But then I am sure he was fighting his own demons and did not have the energy to force me into reading. I believe that I might have become the better for it.
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