Old in a new way

         

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

Consider this: what's the difference between a diary and a memoir?  Answer: The Diary of a Young Girl.
Huh?

It's both.  The originally published version--the one I read a a child--was a diary.  Anne wrote the diary but later revised it, taking out some of the personal storms of adolescence and adding in pieces of universal interest.  Anne's father took the original and revised versions and (if I understood this correctly) restored much of the original content but sometimes kept the revised words and phrases that were superior to the original.

Anne's revisions were aimed at producing a book for publication after the war--a memoir.  I never knew any of this, nor did I ever consider that the content had undergone extensive revision by Anne, herself, as she advanced as a writer.  I don't have a copy of "the critical edition", to compare the copies, but maybe I'll get one someday.

This book by Francine Prose made me look at a childhood classic from an adult perspective and I thank her for that. Ms. Prose's work is not, as I expected from the title, a 3-part volume with an artificial boundary between the three topics of book, life and afterlife.  It's an adventure in mind, space and time, simultaneously explaining who wrote what, what it meant, and what it has come to mean now.  Good work!