THE CONTROVERSY ABOUT ANNEXED

Last week I blogged about Annexed, the historical novel by Sharon Dogar which tells the Anne Frank story from Peter Van Pels point of view.

Dogar has taken some heat for writing this book because naturally, the Anne Frank diary has come to feel sacred to us.

And, after all, her story is true.

Annexed, on the other hand, is a novel written by an author who was not there to know what Peter experienced.

But novels are true too. They may have fictional characters and made-up scenarios but they carry an emotional truth that is as essential as getting the facts straight. Dogar immersed herself in the facts of Anne Frank's story and the broader history surrounding it.  She gleaned emotional truth from Anne's diary, from other research, and from her understanding of human nature.  From that compassionate and careful position she told a truthful story.

I hope you will watch the video below in which Dogar discusses her intent.

Some of the heat she's taken has been unnecessary because it claims that she sexualized the relationship between Peter and Anne. She did not. Dogar may believe that Anne and Peter had sex but she did not include it in the book.  In fact, the amount of kissing in Annexed was less than that mentioned in The Diary of a Young Girl.

Peter is a teen-aged boy so there are some moments when he's alone in his room struggling with sexual feelings.   If I had written the book, I might not have portrayed those scenes in quite the way Dogar did but I don't see them as problematic for todays teens.

The whole point of the story is not sex at all.  It is personhood.  Peter is struggling to hang on to his sense of self in a world spiralling into the depths.  Dogar raises haunting questions about that world and for that reason I champion this extraordinary book and the brave author who followed the story that would not let her go. In the end that's what a writer has to do.



BTW, Annexed has a website all its own.  Do check it out!

ANNEXED by Sharon Dogar

Book # 1 in my YA Historical Fiction Challenge is

 Annexed.

I got it for Christmas (thank you, Chuck) along with a nonfiction called Anne Frank, The Book, The Life, The Afterlife.  Anne is my hero. So when I learned via The Fourth Musketeer that Sharon Dogar had written a book from the viewpoint of Peter, the teen that Anne fell in love with there in the secret annex, I knew it was just a matter of time until I owned that volume.

Dogar did not disappoint me. The book starts fast and scary, then lulls just a bit during those first boring days in the attic when Peter wants nothing to do with Anne. But the relationship changes in a believable fashion - until Anne and Peter are good friends.

I suppose I read the book because I wanted more of Anne, herself.  I didn't exactly love Peter's sometimes unfavorable description of her because she's always been larger than life for me.  And yet, by her own admission, Anne had many faults and it was good for me to see her through someone else's eyes.

So Peter did give me more of Anne. Conversations that may or may not have happened. Questions that could have been asked.  Their sure knowledge that under entirely different circumstances these two teens would not have shown the least bit of interest in each other.

But there was nothing normal about their being locked up together for two years, hiding for fear of their life, hoping for rescue, and above all not being able to make sense of any of it.

Peter asks the questions that all of us do about the Holocaust.  Are you there? Are you listening?  Can you hear me?

 How could anyone do this? 

I read Peter's story because I wanted more of Anne but in the end it was Peter I wept for. And not only for him, of course but for all whose story he helped to tell.

Not everyone thinks Sharon Dogar should have told this story but I have to agree with her statement in this article  "The problem is that a writer doesn't always choose what they write."  So very true.

I, for one, am glad that this story haunted Dogar for 15 years. And I'm grateful that she finally wrote it. Judging from the reviews, lots of others are too. Here's the trailer. Have a look.