There
are some books that stay with you forever and become a part of you. No matter
what you do, the characters keep coming back to you and hang on to your psyche
and heart. Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of
Being a Wallflower is one such book. Written in an epistolary format, the
book touches the inner most cells of your heart and moves you. Being a fan of
letters, I loved his style of writing. The simplicity and confessional nature
of the entire novel kept me gripping. It is one of those books which don’t need
a bookmark because you can’t keep it down until you finish it.
It
is not one of those literary fiction books which is heavy in content or anything
of that sort. It is a simple narrative of a high school boy named Charlie and
his psychological proceedings. Chbosky has avoided the use of heavy words and
kept it very simple. That is the beauty of the book. I was able to connect with
it on many levels. The words not seem to come from but through and manage to
carve a niche in your soul. Chbosky has created characters which make you
believe that they do really exist in the real world; that you could instantly
be friends with them.
The
protagonist of the novel is Charlie who writes letters disclosing his personal problems and events of his life to this person whose
identity is not disclosed to the readers. Thus begins an epic journey of self
discovery, finding your own set of people and feeling infinite with them because you know that you belong. Charlie along
with his two best friends Sam and Patrick experiments with various things and
help each other out through those poignant days of what we call it as ‘growing
up’.
The
characters in this book seem very real. I developed a bond with them. After I finished
reading the book, I was devastated because I didn’t know what to do. I re-read
certain sections of the novel. I was hung-over with the characters and couldn’t
let them go. And finally I’ve managed to write this blogpost after almost a
month or something after finishing the book. Only a bibliophile knows what it
is to let go of a fictional character that you love so much. But then, I know
that they aren’t far away. All I have to do is open the book and read it, again.
Charlie, Sam and Patrick have become an eternal part of me (along with many
other fictional characters that I adore).
P.S – This one is for you Charlie, Sam and Patrick.
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