Book name: The Perks of Wallflower Author: Stephen Chobsky Genre: Novel Goodreads: <Link> Storygraph: <Link> I remember this book being extremely popular a decade back around the time of the release of the film by the same name, but I never got around to reading it until it was picked for this months TNBC book pick. The novel is told in the form of epistles written by Charlie, a 15 year old high school student where he writes to you, the reader about his high school friends and experiences. Throughout the novel, Charlie describes his experiences with his two friends Patrick and Sam and the various social situations they find themselves in from football games, high school proms & parties and the associated experiences from falling in and out of love to anxieties over college and the future in general. “He's a wallflower. You see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand.” Alongside these experiences, the novel touches on a wide range of serious issues including abortion, drug abuse, sexual violence, generational trauma etc. While these issues don't receive equal treatment throughout the novel while some only getting a cursory mention, this may have been a deliberate choice on the part of the author in order to to appeal to a wider audience, where even if the reader hasn't experienced the specific situation the characters are going though, the reader can pickup on and related to aspects that resonate with them. In my case, being an introvert and the weird & awkward kid in school, I very much fit into the mold of the "wallflower'' which is a reference to Charlie who is someone who observes wha'ts goes on around him and internalizes it. “The inside jokes weren’t jokes anymore. They had become stories . Nobody brought up the bad names or the bad times. And nobody felt sad as long as we could postpone tomorrow with more nostalgia.” One interesting point that came out from the discussion of the book is that your experience with reading the book very much depends on how close you were to your teenage years given the context and type of issues discussed in the book which might be the typical anxieties of teenagers. For those who read it during their formative years, this book has a special resonance and has become a cultural touchstone to their experiences similar to books like Catcher in the Rye from a previous era, which this book is compared to. But even if you read it sometime later as I did, there are alot of interesting points of discussion one can pickup from the novel. Another interesting point about the novel is that even though is set in the early 90's and written in the late 90s seems to transcend time and is not speaking about the experiences of a particular generation. The references made to literature such as On the road, Fountainhead, Naked lunch which Charlie's English teacher recommends and pop references to the Rocky Horror picture show and Fleetwood Mac seems to be speaking of an earlier era. “Things change. And friends leave. Life doesn't stop for anybody.” The novel is filled with a diverse cast of characters going through varied experiences, from Charlie and his family, his best friends Patrick and Sam and the circle of friends around them, to Charlies English teacher who recognizes Charlie's talent and encourages him. One point brought out during the discussion which sets the novel apart is in terms of the experience of an LGBTQ character such as Patrick who is gay where Charlie and his immediate circle of friends are fully accepting of it and where Patrick's issues and trauma is is not defined by his identity and not made the centre of attention, which makes the novel standout in that respect. "I just wish that God or my parents or Sam or my sister or someone would just tell me what’s wrong with me. Just tell me how to be different in a way that makes sense. To make this all go away. And disappear." A number of characters in the book including Charlie are going through mental trauma's which the book highlights the varied symptoms of it in a very effective and realistic manner. This also makes Charlie and unreliable narrator, which, given the structure of the novel, means that as the reader you may fail to pickup on certain cues on an initial read of the novel and hence some developments in the novel might seem very unexpected. “It's strange because sometimes, I read a book, and I think I am the people in the book.”. One issue I felt in the novel was with respect to the voice of Charlie which seemed more 'kid like' and didn't seem to match up with his experiences and his age. But this simply might be because that's really the level of sophistication of a Teen's thoughts at that time! Overall the novel has an interesting story and makes for an interesting novel to discuss and would quite recommend it.
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AuthorAvid reader of Historical fiction, High fantasy novels, Comics & Graphic Novels. Passionate about teaching & the future of education in general. Categories
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December 2023
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