Anne Frank: A Hidden Life

With so much that has been written about Anne Frank it can be difficult to find a new angle on a life cut short. "Anne Frank: A Hidden Life" by Mirjam Pressler is not a straightforward biography, but rather a sketch that includes aspects of Anne's life, her diary entries, and the author's wonderings as well. She has set a wide net to fill a small canvas, and the writing too often reads like extended (and sometimes repetitive) footnotes. There is not a lot of new information that is given in "Hidden Life". For anyone who has read beyond the diary (like Miep Gies memoir or Carol Ann Lee's exceptional "The Hidden Life of Otto Frank"), much of what Pressler relates is not new. What she does add to the Anne Frank lexicon, as an expert on Anne's life and editor of the definitive edition of her diary, is her own thoughts and analysis into life within the Secret Annex. She tries to round out the lives of the other occupants and of their helpers but there is too little firsthand information to do so. The best point she makes is in examining Anne's desire and craft as a writer: one must remember that Anne began editing her diary for eventual publication and may have crafted her fellow Annex companions into characters, or sometimes even caricatures, and may not have captured the real person. It is indeed a shame that Anne Frank's life was cut short, and while we have her voice, it would be nice to know these people beyond her words; (and a better attempt was made by Barry Denenberg in "Shadow Life", where he crafted a diary that Margot Frank might have kept while in hiding). That seems to be the point Mirjam Pressler makes, but "Anne Frank: A Hidden Life" doesn't deliver on that premise. At best, it is a companion piece to the diary for young adults (its targeted audience) that expounds upon that final sentence "Anne's diary ends here" with details of her life before and after going into hiding.

"A Hidden Life" A book is worth a thousand words, this is worth 10,000. Mirjam Pressler has created a chapter book that includes the others who affiliate with Anne's story, and personalities through the whole book. This book is not just about how Anne suffered it's about everyone and what they had to do to survive. It gives deeper insight on whom Otto Frank was, Margot and other people I didn't even know, who also shared the same agony. This book is the final chapter to all books; it gives every event from beginning to end; past to present. You can easily tell this book took time to write, most books you read on Anne are usually just bits and pieces taken out Anne's diary, there is no mention of anyone else, any mention of who Anne was before the Secret Annex or as a person for that matter. This book was different. I know that the author's purpose for writing this book is the same reason I decide to read this book. She wanted to give everyone a chance to know the whole story, and not from one point of view. The story doesn't just surround the horrible event taken place it let us to know Anne before the Secret Annex, during the changing of the Jewish laws, and after, when all was done. To me it's the "missing link" to all Anne Frank biographies. Anne Frank herself could only write a better book.

"A Hidden Life" A book is worth a thousand words, this is worth 10,000. Mirjam Pressler has created a chapter book that includes the others who affiliate with Anne's story, and personalities through the whole book. This book is not just about how Anne suffered it's about everyone and what they had to do to survive. It gives deeper insight on whom Otto Frank was, Margot and other people I didn't even know, who also shared the same agony. This book is the final chapter to all books; it gives every event from beginning to end; past to present. You can easily tell this book took time to write, most books you read on Anne are usually just bits and pieces taken out Anne's diary, there is no mention of anyone else, any mention of who Anne was before the Secret Annex or as a person for that matter. This book was different. I know that the author's purpose for writing this book is the same reason I decide to read this book. She wanted to give everyone a chance to know the whole story, and not from one point of view. The story doesn't just surround the horrible event taken place it let us to know Anne before the Secret Annex, during the changing of the Jewish laws, and after, when all was done. To me it's the "missing link" to all Anne Frank biographies. Anne Frank herself could only write a better book.

If you are looking for a book that is straight biography, then this is not the book for you. There is biographical material, of course, but there are better biographies of Anne out there. This is already a very slight book and Pressler has more on her mind than biography. She is also interested in analyzing Anne's life and, in particular, her relationships with the people she knew.Pressler is an "expert on the life of Anne Frank" so many of her observations clearly come from a solid basis in research. Much of it seems to be coming from the Critical Edition of Anne's Diary and from Miep Gies' book, Anne Frank Remembered. (These are two excellent books I would read before reading this.) Still, for someone who has already formed an idea about Anne some of Pressler's opinions can be disconcerting, particularly when it comes to her analysis of Anne's sexuality.This does not mean Pressler's opinions are not worthwhile. For someone truly interested in imagining a full picture of a real person, there is a lot of food for thought in this book whether you end up agreeing with Pressler or not. However, this book goes beyond the simple hero-worship in which Anne's memory usually finds itself.In my fairly wide reading on the subject of Anne's life, this book is unique in its attempt to understand Anne as a real person beyond the character she creates for herself in the Diary. Since this is an impossible task, all attempts are somehow tinged with futility, especially for someone who never knew Anne in life (unlike Gies and van Maarsen, for example). This casts a pall over this book which Pressler, unlike some highly talented biographers, does not quite have the ability to overcome. However, this book could be very important in opening up the field for a future analysis that may be better.

This is a fine, well -written account of the famous diary and the writing thereof, including information that I have never seen before. She describes exactly what Anne used for her diary (the famous red and white checked book did not begin to hold it all), and describes life in hiding as it must have been for all of the people in the Secret Annexe, not just Anne. The author speculates on Anne's writing and some of the choices she made--to have a romance with Peter, for instance. I recommend this highly to anyone who loves Anne Frank, but it is definitely for older young adults and adults as opposed to children.