The Perks of Being a Wallflower therefore tells us the story of Charlie who enters high school while still affected by the recent suicide of his best friend. Written in epistolary form is the impression that Charlie speaks to us all the way for us to share what he feels, what he discovers and impressions about his life in high school. This boy is a vulnerable character who discovers As letters. A reading of the first letters I was a little embarrassed by the very familiar writing style. The letters are written almost verbally with turns of phrase that are not found in novels habits. But you get used and it becomes very easy to read.
I was immediately taken into Charlie affection that I find touching in its naivety but in the sensitivity that he has transmitted to me. He observes his family, his life and describes it with its own analysis of the things that is often very fair. While Charlie discovers friendship, love and teenage debauchery (alcohol and drugs), it also defines who he is. Strange but often lovely to the point we would like to console him in his misadventures.
The other characters also all have something, we only know that through Charlie's eyes, but we learn to appreciate them. I loved the character of Patrick who also knows how to be affecting his way.
The end was deeply shocked, I had to read a passage several times to be sure I understood. We do not see things the same way after that. And that's the kind of end that does not leave you indifferent.
This novel about teenage anxieties and on the discovery of the complexity of relationships, but also more sensitive issue such as suicide or homosexuality, is really very successful. Stephen Chbosky has also had the intelligence to enrich a soundtrack you can listen while reading books but Charlie bed As of history and makes us want to read (By Heart Catcher example Salinger, The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald or Kerouac On the Road, which are important works of American literature).
