Helpful Score: 4
I enjoyed this book, but don't expect it to be AS informative as other "historical fiction", though you do find out some interesting tidbits about the frank family themselves. It focuses very closely on the narrarator's (Peter VanDamme in the Anne Frank Diary) acceptance of what had happened to him and his personal history from his now mid-life perspective.
The book is a very quick read. I give it an average rating, having found neither the writing nor the story to be anything extra ordinary. I expected it to be a retelling of the Anne Frank annex story from the perspective of Peter, which it is NOT - again it is much more a tale of someone who suffers from all the classic symptoms of Post traumatic Stress syndrome - very similar to the type of psychological drama you would read in post-war narratives.
The book is a very quick read. I give it an average rating, having found neither the writing nor the story to be anything extra ordinary. I expected it to be a retelling of the Anne Frank annex story from the perspective of Peter, which it is NOT - again it is much more a tale of someone who suffers from all the classic symptoms of Post traumatic Stress syndrome - very similar to the type of psychological drama you would read in post-war narratives.
Helpful Score: 1
I really enjoyed this book. Even tho it was fiction, it gave a really good perspective of someone who has survivors guilt. I totally could see Peter being a real person who had survived, and then tried to change who he was, but at the same time, retain his history. So many people went through the same things, and so many hid their pain and suffering, and it's a shame.
Helpful Score: 1
This is a very interesting book about what might have happened to Peter van Pels--the boy who loved Anne Frank--if he had not died in a concentration camp. Interesting read!
Helpful Score: 1
What happened to Peter, the boy on whom Anne Frank, as per her diary, had a big crush? Beyond the imaginary exploration of this question lie issues of survivor guilt and how Germans were perceived and treated in post-WW2 America. Very creative and compelling writing, both in content and style.
A fasinating novel of how life may have turned out for Peter (the boy Anne had a crush on) had he survived
Interesting "alternative history". Peter comes to live in America instead of dying in a camp and his story is recorded as he builds a life and deals with the past, and the publication and popularity of Anne Frank's diary.
I kept having to remind myself that this was a work of fiction-it is that believable. The lead character, Peter is really a shattered man. Surviving the unthinkable, and unable to talk about it. He lived through what becomes in the book, an incredible part of a very dark time in history, and he knows what actually happened, but he is unable to talk about it. Even if you have never read Anne Frank's diary, this is still a riveting story. I have read Anne's story, many times, and I found this to be an important chapter in that story, again, remembering that it is fiction, although that is hard to do. After I had finished this book, I wondered how many 'Peters' were there after the war, who were also unable to talk about it?
Thought provoking book -- what if Peter had lived???? Did NOT disappoint!
Didn't care much for it. Peter is ashamed of being Jewish. Marries a Jewish woman but does not admit to being Jewish. Did not rate high for me at all.
