The Diary of a Young Girl

NOTE: For the uninformed reader, I will be talking about Version C versus the Definitive Edition of the Diary in this review. When I say this, I really mean that there are several versions of the Diary in the world. Version A was the edition that Anne Frank wrote while she was in the Annex. Then, while in hiding, Anne got the idea that people would want to read the diary after the war and began to re-write it on her own. This, Version B, contained less information about her growing sexuality and her negative relationship with her mother. Then the diary was published in 1947 by the only known survivor of the Annex, Otto Frank, Anne's father. He had combined entries both from Anne's diary (Version A) and the diary she planned to publish (Version B). He also edited and changed some elements to the diary, especially references to Anne Franks' sexuality, and her negative relationship with her mother that were cut down further still. This version, Version C, is what people have enjoyed for years. By 1997, a Definitive Edition had been printed that combined the material of all three versions for a 25% increase in reading material. The Definitive Edition is the one that I am reviewing today.

The diary of Anne Frank is perhaps one of the most famous recounts of a Jewish person during WWII. It features the writings of a girl hidden in a home from the ages of 13 to 15 to escape the events of the Holocaust. I had originally read Version C of her diary years ago when I was in high school. I liked it, and the end hit me hard as I saw her mature from a young girl into a teenager who came to care about herself and her place in the world that she believed she was going to inhabit after the war. Now, after having read the Definitive edition, which contains material cut out of Version C, I can say that I both like this book all the more, and yet understand why there is a Version C in the first place.

The best element of this book is seeing Anne Frank grow up and develop into a teenager. I am convinced that, had she lived, she would have been an excellent writer. (Though bear in mind, I read an English translation, so how much of this is due to the translator, I do not know.) She manages to show us that she is far less than what people have made her be. Many people have built up the Diary, as the pinnacle of the Jewish experience in WWII, with excellent characters and all. But when reading it, especially the Definitive edition, we see that she is just a pre-teen girl. She has her thoughts and feelings, some of them justified, some not. While living in the Annex, She hates some people and loves others, and by the end of the story, her opinions on them change drastically. This shows her to be human, which is the best kind of praise that you can give a writer. She has chosen to bear her faults to the world, something that, given today's society obsessed with the image social media presents, is admirable for a teenage girl.

That said, I think you will get the most out of this story if you were once a teenage girl and can use that mindset. As a late 20's male, I will admit that there were some things that annoyed me here because I just couldn't relate to them. Perhaps other female readers will feel the same, but that is just me.

So, should you read the Definitive Edition if you have already read version C? Well, the answer is a definite maybe.

This book features many excellent qualities that the reader may get out of this story, but there are many things that could annoy the reader. For one, Anne is a teenage girl, for better or worse. This means that the reader may understand where she is coming from. On the other hand, some readers may want to roll their eyes at her angst, so they will find her annoying as a result. For me personally, I must admit that I did find the times where Anne talked about her mother to be a tad annoying, since it went on for too long, and made the pacing drag for me. I can understand why it was cut from Version C, if for no other reason than for the reader today, let alone the image of the mother at the time.

Then there is the sexual content. When the book was first published, it was removed, since Young Adult literature (such as it was back then) simply did not talk about sexuality for that crowd. Here, it is put back in. Anne talks in extensive detail about her sexuality and how she has discovered things work now that she is becoming a woman. Some may find this fine, since she is a young woman and she naturally would be curious about her body, and confide this into her diary. Some, however, would find the passages graphic and obscene, given the tone of the rest of the text. Personally, I didn't mind it but I can understand why it was cut from the book, as I can see parents struggling to have their teenagers read it when the goal is to talk about the Holocaust. Parents should read the book for themselves and find out, in any case.

In the grand scheme of things, though, this book was an excellent re-read for me, as I loved reading this book and found it to be just as fun and enlightening as the last time that I read it. If you have not done so already, then I suggest that you pick this book up, as this version of the diary displays a young girl at the center of a very trying time in world history, and her account should not be forgotten. I give it a five out of five.