Goodreads Review: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As a 12-year-old, I read a potrait of Anne and the Frank Family (Shadow Life by Barry Deneberg) - NOT her actual diary. That book left a huge impact on me and I could never get The Holocaust or Anne Frank out of my mind. The pain the victims had to go through, the loss they suffered and the life they were forced to live lie way beyond what you and I can even dare to imagine.
So naturally as I grew up reading all I could about the Holocaust, especially Anne and her companions in the Secret Annexe, I grew more and more curious about "The Diary of a Young Girl"
Now almost 10 years later, I got a chance to read the same and needless to say, it is absolutely heart-breaking.
The record of their lives right from when The Franks, Van Daans and Mr. Dussel were forced to go into hiding to Anne's last entry before getting caught by the "Green Police", the reader gets a detailed insight into what it was like to go into hiding when you are being ceaselessly hunted day in and day out. It is hard to fathom how 8 people lived under those circumstances and shared their lives locked up for 2 straight years! Not to forget their helpers - Mr. Kleimann, Mr. Kugler, Miep and Bep - who selflessly protected them, risking their own lives in the process!
However, with all due respect, THIS particular book wasn't quite what I had expected. It gets a little monotonous down the lane for it is, in fact, a compilation of the personal diary entries of a Young Girl living her confusing teenage years during the war and was never meant to be read for commercial purpose (though Anne wished to write a book named 'The Secret Annexe' after their misery was over).
Moreover apart from writing about the war and the situations they were facing, Anne often poured her heart and soul into the pages of the Red Checked notebook she recieved on her 13th birthday. Hence the reader must expect to face the opinions, worries and the inner most feelings of a talented, ambitious yet an average teenage girl, however superficial they may seem at times, for (as I would like to remind again) this is niether a novel nor a book representing historical facts and figures - it is a young girl's diary.
So if you choose to pick this book up for the sole purpose of learning about history, you may be disappointed.

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