Miep

It's really all about Miep.

I'm watching Youtube videos about Anne Frank and Miep Gies. Miep was the Austrian born Dutch woman who, along with her husband and another Dutch woman, aided the Frank and Van Daan families in keeping their attic hideout a secret. (Right--these names are not the actual names; rather the pseudonyms Anne gave them.)

It was a very cute moment at a pub in Thurles, Ireland, I am telling the lovely Ms. Rhea about the play I will be doing in Connecticut and she tells me about her sister's brief foray into acting--when she played Miep. How she really wanted to play Anne but then came to realize the importance of Miep.

"It's really all about Miep!" SR tells me "Miep should get her due".

And she does! In this version--which I believe was based in part on interviews the playwright conducted with Miep--one gets an equal perspective of what it was like for the people hiding the refugees as they do of what it was like to be doing the hiding. It's really a remarkable story all around. Ultimately tragic, but still innately hopeful. It kind of gets under your skin.

Miep is still alive! Did you know that? She's almost one hundred now.

It occurred to me today that I should re-read the book (since I last read it about 20 years ago--no exaggeration) so I stopped by Riverby Books and picked up a copy, along with a copy of her additional writing (stuff that didn't make it into the Diary).

And (drum roll) I finished THE GROUND BENEATH HER FEET about twenty minutes ago. Man. That Rushdie. It's great, it really is, and feels like an accomplishment, but truly--I don't remember half of what happened in the first half of the book. And that is partly because I spread out my reading it over so much time, but also because so friggin' much happens. But really, his use of language, breathtaking.

I am embarrassed to admit however, that book took the front burner in part to avoid my Ireland project, ULYSSES. Which I WILL FINISH. And it was going so well--but then I thumbed ahead to the final third of the book and realized that at some point Joyce STOPPED PUNCTUATING ANYTHING.

Come the fuck on, really?