Melissa Müller

A great biography of Anne Frank; its style is simple and selfless, entirely in service of the subject.

I'm a slow reader, but it took me less than two days to finish.

Actually I felt as if I read three books here.

The first of these consists of the years before the Franks went into hiding. Ms. Muller tells us vividly about what was going on in Germany in the eyes of ordinary people like Anne's father, Otto. It is gripping to read about people's decisions in those days to leave or not to show more leave Germany. Their growing fear is palpable, and if you've only read Anne's diary, it may be especially interesting for you to read about the impact on the Franks of Hitler's occupation of Holland, which took place two years before Anne began her diary.

Then come the years in hiding, which is a very different part of the biography -- the second of three "books" or distinct experiences that I had. The prelude to the hiding consists of a portrait of the "external" world, in which Anne herself appears as an extroverted child, one with a personality more difficult than I had imagined, and one who was not yet aware of the larger history taking place around her; I dare say she can be the least interesting element of the first part of the biography. But once we come to the years in hiding, Anne is forced to become more introspective, and her inner life comes to the fore.

This part of the biography actually becomes something of a meditation on family life and human intimacy. My reading slowed down, but the content was actually more interesting than the large-scale historical portrait. This was really more than I had expected from a biography of one girl -- it turned into a sympathetic account of Anne's whole family and its individual members. The discussion of a formerly unpublished diary entry concerning the Franks' marriage, which delves as well into the issue of censorship, is, I think, the highlight of the book. It is obvious that Ms. Muller is both sympathetic to the protagonists and committed to the truth, which makes the subsequent turn to other well-trod subjects, like Anne's own love life, appear like an anticlimax.

Still, the story does not flag, and we arrive finally at the "third" section of the biography, the account of the betrayal and the concentration camps. To say that this material is gripping is to say nothing. Yet I was newly disturbed by the details here. From a historical point of view, what Ms. Muller has highlighted to great effect is how everything the Nazis did was intended not just to destroy, but also to humiliate. This had already been clear in Ms. Muller's chronicling of the sequence of restrictions placed upon the lives of Dutch Jews, which are rightly described as "malevolent." Here at the close of the book we see it repeatedly, as when Ms. Muller describes the disorientation that Jewish prisoners must have felt upon disembarking from trains at Auschwitz and being greeted with high floodlights and whippings. This is large-scale history from the personal vantage point, as with any biography -- but it enhances the history around it. Often what the Nazis did, because it is analyzed in an attempt to understand how it came about and how it functioned, is remembered in the abstract, so that, for instance, the restrictions on Dutch Jews can seem merely like the necessary steps to genocide rather than the malevolent expressions of hatred that they also were.

In the end the biography, though impossible to put down, becomes hard to read. The one negative thing I can say about the last part of the book is that it is so horrifying, it overwhelms a reader's reception of the gifts in the earlier sections; those have to be taken in again under a second reading. show less

This is an excellent biography of a fascinating woman, until this past February she was the oldest Holocaust survivor, at 110 years. Born in 1903 she saw an immense amount of change in her life. The book was an easy read, something you just want to keep on with until you're done. If I hadn't been in such an awful state this week I probably wouldn't have finished in a couple of days.

Alice was a concert pianist and piano teacher in Prague, well-regarded by many, imprisoned in Theresienstadt show more when he son was very young. She credits music with saving her life, and being a talented musician certainly did save her life in a very literal sense. The book brings in many statements from people who heard her perform, in Theresienstadt and out, and the effect her playing had on their will to survive. It also talks of the specific character of certain pieces of music and her relationship to them, including the 24 Chopin etudes, which Alice devoted significant time to mastering after her mother was sent the camps.

The book is well-written and very well constructed. When certain pieces of music were being discussed I had them playing as I read, which adds a lot, especially when they're talking about the etudes. I am so glad she agreed to have this book written. Highly recommended. show less

Anne Frank has become one of the most important icons of the holocaust. Her diary and its dramatizations have been most effective at creating the image of an innocent who was murdered by the Nazis for nothing more than being Jewish. Unfortunately, some of her humanity, human relations and family history have been lost in those portrayals. This excellent biography restores that focus, introducing the reader to a new, more human version of Anne and her family. Moreover, it introduces many show more others to the story -- helpers, possible informers, Nazi officials, etc. The cast of characters is a little overwhelming, but the epilogue his quite helpful in that regard because it follows their fates. The chapter on the fates of Anne and her family is especially hard to read, especially when one considers the magnitude of the crime. show less

"Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl" has become such a mainstay in culture and literature that is can be easy to forget that Anne Frank’s life did not begin (or end) in the famous Secret Annex and that the diary only tells a small part of her story. After reading the diary and Francine Prose’s excellent "Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife" and teaching the two theatrical versions of the diary, I thought I had a well-rounded knowledge base on Anne Frank’s life. However, show more Melissa Muller’s "Anne Frank: The Biography" filled in some notable gaps, specifically in terms of Edith and Otto Frank’s early lives.

Muller’s biography is impressive on a number of fronts. Although the ending is a foregone conclusion for most people, she builds a sense of suspense. Reading the book, I felt myself hoping for a different outcome even though I knew the inevitable conclusion. This biography skillfully melds meticulous research with an engaging and approaching writing style, and the outcome is a compulsively readable and informative work. I especially appreciated the epilogue, which provides details on the fates of many of the people mentioned in the book. The only problem this caused was that, each time I encountered a person in the book, I felt the urge to flip to the back to see what happened to him or her (this, I realize, is an issue on my part and not on the part of the author).

While this book can’t (and wasn’t meant to) act as a substitute for the diary, it makes an excellent companion piece and supplement. I could see it being a great resource for educators who teach the diary, students who want to learn more about Anne Frank, or anyone who has read the diary and wondered about the rest of Anne’s story. show less