The Perks of Being a Wallflower

I have just finished reading the book “Perks of Being a Wallflower’’ by Stephen Chbosky. This book is very powerful and talks about life in High School. The book is told from Charlie, the main character’s perspective. While he's not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. Charlie is shy, and socially awkward.  Charlie is also smarter than he thinks he is.  He is a wallflower, caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it.

        While Charlie does not speak much and usually prefers to be a “wallflower” he is a keen observer. He has a very hard life though. Starting his first year of High School, Charlie is attempting to find his way through the world of first dates and mix tapes, family dramas and new friends; the world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all he needs is that perfect song on the radio to feel infinite. But he can't stay on the sideline forever. There comes a time to see what it looks like in the middle, “from the dance floor”. In the book, Charlie writes:

      “It's much easier to not know things sometimes. Things change and friends leave. And life doesn't stop for anybody. I wanted to laugh. Or maybe get mad. Or maybe shrug at how strange everybody was, especially me. I think the idea is that every person has to live for his or her own life and than make the choice to share it with other people. You can't just sit their and put everybody's lives ahead of yours and think that counts as love. You just can't. You have to do things. I'm going to do what I want to do. I'm going to be who I really am. And I'm going to figure out what that is. And we could all sit around and wonder and feel bad about each other and blame a lot of people for what they did or didn't do or what they didn't know. I don't know. I guess there could always be someone to blame. It's just different. Maybe it's good to put things in perspective, but sometimes, I think that the only perspective is to really be there. Because it's okay to feel things. I was really there. And that was enough to make me feel infinite. I feel infinite.”

I thought “Perks of Being a Wallflower” was an excellent    book. It talks about a teenage life of a socially awkward kid and how he gets through it. This book has been one of the best books I’ve read in a long time.