Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Perks of Being a Wallflower

It seems to me that at least half of the movies released in the last few years - at least, the most popular - were based on novels.  With each movie, you have a large group of people walking into the cinema with high expectations because they're already huge fans of the book (although rarely does the movie, regardless how fantastic it is, live up to those expectations - as they say, books are always better). I am one of those people.  As a matter of fact, if a novel is turned into a movie, I will read it purposefully before seeing the movie (or reread it, as usually the case).  My most recent project is Perks of Being a Wallflower. 

I read this book years ago when it was published, but it was recently released on the silver screen - featuring none other than Emma Watson - so I picked it back up. It was as great as I remembered it.

The book is an epistolary novel (10 points to the person who knows what that means!) -- it is written entirely in letters.  The main character writes these letters to an unnamed person as he goes through his first year of high school.  He is a "wallflower" who struggles to fit in anywhere except with a stepbrother and stepsister who embrace him and all his weirdness.  What follows is an honest, heartbreaking tale of his freshman year as he encounters drugs, sex, love, heartbreak, etc.  He is one of the kindest, most sincere characters in a novel, and yet also one of the saddest.  This book is a sad book (do I read another type?) but it's a great book. One of the greatest quotes from the book is "We accept the love we think we deserve," which I find so true.

I'm not lucky enough to have watched the movie yet - it never came close to home.  But I definitely will.   For those of you like me, waiting the arrival of the movie in a Redbox, check out the book in the meantime.  After all, don't forget, books are always better.

1 comment:

  1. The movie really is brilliant. Chbosky directed the movie, and I think that made all the difference. Brilliant, I say.

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