Welcome to the first offish meeting of the FF Book Club. Thanks for coming! I've baked us some cookies and we're gonna chat up Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower! Many of you have commented how much this book has meant to you over the years and first I want to say thanks so much for sharing it with me. It's everything you said it would be: funny true beautiful sad hopeful real.
I think this book does such a magical job of capturing moments of life that are rather difficult to describe: the electricity of making new friends, the heightened rush of first-time experiences, those late-night drives where no one need say a word. The book had such a dreamy quality to me...
What were some of your favorite parts? I really love on page 69 when Sam gives Charlie the typewriter. Sam has written on a piece of paper, "Write about me sometime." And Charlie simply types, "I will." I love that. Oh! And I loved that part on page 17 when Charlie discovers his dad crying after the series finale of M*A*S*H... Soooo cute. Also, can I say I was kinda shocked about the ending? Did not see that coming. What did you think of that?
Lastly, I don't think any discussion of Perks would be complete without us talking about mix tapes. For fun I dug one out that a friend made me during my freshman year of high school, way way WAY back in 1986. I really think Charlie would have LOVED it! Here's the track list of side B:
Dear Prudence, Siouxsie & the Banshees
Make Up with Me, Let's Active
Sleep Comes Down, The Pyschedelic Furs
All Cats Are Grey, The Cure
Back to the Old House, The Smiths
God to Rust, Get Smart!
Do You Wanna Hold Me? Bow Wow Wow
Thieves Like Us, New Order
Kooks, David Bowie
The neat thing is my friend Nadine gave it to me in 1986 but I had never realized that she had written me a note on the inside fold of the tape insert. I only discovered it a few years ago. Written in pencil, she mostly apologizes for taking so long to make it and wishes me the best but it has this spooky deep quality to me. Having been hidden so long, it's like a message from the past. One of the things she writes is, "Hold on to youth." Girl, I am trying!
Independence Day Style!
"So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be."
Totes life-changing! And trés deep!
xoxo
My favorite parts -- and the ones I identified most with -- were (1)Charlie's need to buy each of his friends and family members "the perfect gift." (Like the M*A*S*H videocassette for his father.) I have spent countless hours in malls and shopping online doing the exact same thing! And (2) the sense of loneliness Charlie had when his older friends were all graduating and going off to college. His letters during that time had such a bittersweet tone to them: he was happy and excited for his friends but sad and a little nervous for himself to be left behind. I remember dealing with the same feelings back in high school and was impressed how well Stephen Chbosky captured them here.
Anyway, sorry this is so long, but I just loved the book and can't wait to see what is in store for next month!