If you’re a fledgling writer and you want to know how to write “voice,”
read The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Chbosky throws you inside the head of teenager Charlie, and as a reader, you feel what he feels, see what he sees. I haven’t before experienced an author who does this with the same level of skill.
The story evolves through a series of letters from Charlie, and they sound like an actual teenager wrote them. In the early letters, he scribbles run-on sentences with awkward phrasing, then as he progresses through the school year and works with a mentor/english teacher, his writing improves and he starts to use more complex words.
The meta here is so thick you could sop it up with a biscuit.
Just like I’ve said about John Green, it all starts with character. Our hero Charlie seems to be a perfect encapsulation of a troubled teen… he loves his family but hates how they push his buttons. He’s prone to panic attacks when he’s in danger of disappointing the people he cares about. He’s smart, curious, unsure about girls, but he has confidence when he most needs it.
(spoilers below)
Despite being a coming-of-age story, The Perks of Being a Wallflower doesn’t fall victim to any paint-by-numbers pattern. Charlie loses his only friend to suicide prior to high school, and over the course of the book, he makes new friends.
Left at that, it would have been the predictable story arc where he discovers he had the power of magic inside him the whole time!
But Chobsky twists it because the friends he makes are seniors, and Charlie knows these new friendships are finite. Everything is finite, and Charlie yearns to be infinite. In some ways, Charlie isn’t any better off at the end of the book… kids in his own grade still think he’s a freak; he still has no social standing after the seniors graduate.
He’s still lost and confused and only beginning to understand himself.
But it’s more the journey than the destination. We get to see Charlie learn a few things about himself and how to relate to other people. We see him fall in love, even if it doesn’t turn out the way he hopes.
The movie does an admirable job of capturing the spirit of The Perks of Being a Wallflower book, and of necessity leaves out much, like the focus on Charlie’s family dynamics in the early sections. That just serves to make the book a richer experience, but the movie stands fine on its own.
Plus, if you’re one of those pervs who can look at Emma Watson and see anything other than 12 year-old Hermione Granger, there’s plenty of titillation like this:
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| you dirty old man, you |
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a must-read for all ages, and the movie is also worth a look. Highly recommended.