Book Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Wednesday, October 06, 2010 @ 1:30 PM | 0 comment(s)

The Perks of Being a Wallflower written by Stephen Chbosky revolves around a story, or rather letters, of a teenager who goes by the name Charlie. When I say letters, I really meant actual letters with a header for the date and greeting: Dear Friend. This novel has the strangest plot and style I have ever read. It is very liberal and rebellious. It is funny and talks about the real stuff that a struggling teenager finds hard to ask about.

Charlie shares his ideas and thoughts about the people and the things that are happening around him through sending letters to a person whom he haven't met and let alone know his name. He said that he had heard about this friend from his classmate. He had decided to write him letters because he believes that he "listens and understands and doesn't try to sleep with a person at a party even though he could have." He talks about Sam, the girl he really likes but is trying not to think of her that way because she is older than him; his pretty but mean to boys sister; his dad who doesn't hit and his mom who keeps quiet; his brother who plays football for scholarship, and had once treated him french fries at McDonald's the day he heard that his best friend Michael died; his gay friend Patrick and his homo relationship with Brad; The Rocky Horror Picture Show; smoking, taking drugs and getting stoned, masturbation, having sex; and everything that falls in between adolescence and adulthood. He loves making mix tapes and reading novels handed to him by his English teacher. He talks about his life with his family, in high school and outside it. He thinks that he is both happy and sad and is still trying to figure out how that could be. He once felt infinite while inside Sam's pickup truck when a song about a boy played and it started to rain. He writes about what it felt like to lose a friend, to get high for the first time, and to have reunions with his very chaotic relatives. Charlie is labeled a wallflower because he sees things, he keeps quiet about them, and he understands. He is caught between trying to live his life while growing up and wishing it to be different.
I have decided that maybe I want to write when I grow up. I just don't know what I would write.

I don’t know how much longer I can keep going without a friend. I used to be able to do it very easily, but that was before I knew what having a friend was like. It’s much easier not to know things sometimes. And to have French fries with your mom be enough.

But because things change. And friends leave. And life doesn’t stop for anybody.

And we kept dancing. It was the one time all day that I really wanted the clock to stop. And just be there for a long time.

So, I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them.

“It's great that you can listen and be a shoulder to someone, but what about when someone doesn't need a shoulder? What if they need the arms or something like that? You can't just sit there and put everybody's lives ahead of yours and think that counts as love. You just can't. You have to do things.” -- Sam


← older / top / newer →
a woeful & chaotic diary since 071409