The Perks of being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
The perks
Dear Friend,
I’ve met the most wonderful chap he’s funny, slightly
blunt at times and as cute as a button unfortunately he’s fictional. Charlie is a young teenage boy and main character in Stephen Chobsky’s novel “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” who finds comfort in books, good music and friendship. I want Charlie to be my best friend. Throughout the book we read intimate letters between the main character and an anonymous friend who I wished was me.
Never bothering to socially interact Charlie gets a shock when his English teacher, and friend Bill, tells him to finally immerse himself in a regular teenage experience when entering his freshman year in high school. As if by some magical coincidence two seniors, Patrick and Sam, enter Charlie’s world coaxing him into a world of typical teenage antics such as Friday night theatre shows, a lot cooler than it sounds I promise. Charlie doesn’t know it yet but they will change his life in wonderful ways. Much like his attitude towards his school work Charlie applies himself, flanked by his new found friends, fully to Bill’s challenge; he falls in love with a girl whom he cannot have, drinks regularly, gets tricked into eating a very special brownie and relishes in the moments that make his heart want to explode.
Although it seems like he has bloomed into a social sunflower, peeling himself off of the wall and basking in the sunshine of his youth, there are certain aspects of his personality that seem to hold him back and, rather annoyingly, you never find out what! When reading the first chapter I thought I had it sussed, autism I proclaimed to my co-worker who’d also read the book, but it’s not the case. Sure he’s socially awkward and not the most sensitive of fellows but as Charlie’s story unravels the petals flourish he comes out of the shade.
A book compared to Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye” I would recommend this novel to anyone who takes pleasure in a story that changes your perspective and provides you with a friend that teaches you to appreciate the feeling of being infinite.
Love, always
A Wallflower.
