In case you missed it, yesterday Early Word reported that Disney has acquired the rights to a new film version of The Diary of Anne Frank, with David Mamet helming the project. Our very own Francine Prose was mentioned in the article, as was her forthcoming book Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife (9780061578267). Early Word reports: "One of Prose’s objections to the earlier versions is that they don’t show Anne’s growth as either a person or an artist; 'On the pages, she is brilliant, on the stage, she is a nitwit.' She also points out that they attempted to 'universalize' the story to broaden it’s appeal; few mentions are made of the family’s Jewishness and Anne was made to seem more hopeful. Says Prose about the movie, 'She sounds like an American girl. And why not? It’s an American movie.'" David Mamet is sure to challenge our assumptions about this beloved piece of literature, just as Francine Prose has done with her book. Be sure to check out Booklist's starred review, in full, after the jump.
*Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife.
Prose, Francine (Author)
Oct 2009. 336 p. Harper, hardcover, $24.99. (9780061430794). 940.53.
Prose is commanding and illuminating whether she’s writing fiction or books about books. In her latest, most capacious and profound adventure in interpretation, she portrays Anne Frank not as a saint or a plucky girl making the most of a horrific situation but, rather, as a literary prodigy excruciatingly aware of the human capacity for evil. In this definitive, deeply moving inquiry into the life of the young, imperiled artist, and masterful literary exegesis of The Diary of a Young Girl, Prose tells the crushing story of the Frank family, performs a revelatory analysis of Anne’s exacting revision of her coming-of-age memoir, and assesses her father’s editorial decisions as he edited his murdered daughter’s manuscript for publication. As Prose judiciously assesses the book’s phenomenal impact and dissects the way the book is taught in schools, she deplores the glossing over of the monstrous realities of the Holocaust and the “simplistic, falsely consoling idea of Anne Frank as an endlessly optimistic spirit.” Yet, ultimately, Prose finds that she can trust the undeniably humanizing power of Frank’s indelible book and sees a glimmer of redemption in the fact that Frank’s dream of success as a writer did come true. Extraordinary testimony to the power of literature and compassion.— Donna Seaman
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