The Perks of Being a Wallflowerby Stephen Chbosky: Book Review

So begins The Perks of Being a Wallflower, a novel that has been compared to J.D. Salinger's A Catcher in the Rye and John Knowles' A Separate Peace in the sense that it is a story essentially about growing up. This could explain the tie-in with MTV; yes, The Perks of Being a Wallflower was published by Music Television Books, and, yes, advertisements were run on the channel for the Stephen Chbosky premiere. One would think that a book associated with a company that has given us pop-culture gems such as "Total Request Live" would be laughed at, mocked, and rejected by mature readers. Surprisingly, Chbosky's piece has not been, thanks to a touching and personal narrative that anyone who went to high school (or anyone who grew up) can associate with. Even though he may always, through The Perks of Being a Wallflower, be linked to Carson Daly, Stephen Chbosky is a formidable talent, one whose work is worth experiencing.

Stephen Chbosky was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Graduating from the Filmic Writing Program at the University of Southern California, Chbosky's first interest was in the big screen. After his first movie, entitled The Four Corners of Nowhere, debuted at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival, it won "Best Narrative Feature" honors at the Chicago Underground Film Festival. Everything Divided, a screenplay, earned Chbosky the Abraham Polonsky Screenwriting Award. Currently, Chbosky resides in New York City and is involved in the Sundance Institute's filmmaker's lab, working on his new undertaking Fingernails and Smooth Skin. Published in 1999 by MTV Books/Pocket Books, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, is Chbosky's first and only novel ("About"). The book has been recognized as a YALSA Best Book for Young Adults, a YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, and a YALSA Popular Paperback for Young Adults (Wilder).

The Perks of Being a Wallflower has been categorized as a "coming-of-age" story; it is a tale of a teenager, Charlie, just beginning his high school career. From the very beginning of the novel, Charlie is portrayed as a pensive "recorder or assistant," as Anne Wilder labels him, a boy who "sees things ... [keeps] quiet about them ... and [understands]." Written as a series of letters from Charlie to an anonymous individual, The Perks of Being a Wallflower narrates Charlie's experiences throughout his freshmen year: his first encounters with drugs, alcohol, and his sexual identity; the aftershock of his best friend's suicide; and the conflicts caused by his impregnated sister, homosexual friend, and dead aunt. With the help of two seniors and his English teacher, Charlie develops from a diminutive, naïve "wallflower" into an individual ready to "participate" in life. The transformation unearths incidents in his childhood that may have molded him into the young adult he is today.

While examining Stephen Chbosky's style in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, you must realize the boundaries he is encaged by: his narrator is a freshman, barely out of a grade school, a constraint Chbosky tries to alleviate by placing Charlie in "advanced English classes." Still, Chbosky writes in a very straightforward, plain manner (stressing the status and meekness of Charlie [Kirkus]), and is never slow to remind us of the character's age. Shortly into the novel, Charlie explains what "masturbation" is (following the definition up with a "Wow!") and makes a crude and unfunny joke before asserting that he's "only being cute" (Lisa's Book). Book critic Lisa looks at this particular passage as a reason to question the believability of the protagonist: "Chbosky cheapens his character by poor phrasing such as this, and Charlie's obvious immaturity starts the reader on the path to not caring about him."

Brangien Davis disagrees by saying: "What is most notable about this [novel] is the resounding accuracy with which the author captures the voice of a boy teetering on the brink of adulthood. ... Charlie...is a kindred spirit to the generation that's been slapped with the label X."

The first-person form the novel takes, the letters from Charlie, is another technique Chbosky uses. The dates that head each entry symbolize the passage of time throughout a year in the life of a student and allow Chbosky to bounce around and highlight major events without threatening the reader's understanding of the novel (Wilder). While the anonymity of the addressee may confuse readers at first, it becomes apparent later why Chbosky decided upon it; the person Charlie is writing to acts as a "third party," an individual that our protagonist can tell anything to without worrying about consequences and judgments (Lisa's Book). It is as if Charlie is keeping a journal and the reader just happened to come upon it (Davis).

One of the relationships in Chbosky's novel is the bond between Charlie and his English teacher Bill, who pushes the boy to excel, assigning him extra books to read and write essays on. The allusions range from The Fountainhead to The Great Gatsby. Publishers Weekly does not understand the connection between "excelling" and reading advanced novels: "Charlie's English teacher and others have a disconcerting tendency to rhapsodize over Charlie's giftedness, which seems to consist of Charlie's unquestioning assimilation of the teacher's taste in books."

But the cultural references and do not stop at literature. The Rocky Horror Picture Show and bands such as The Smiths, U2 and the Smashing Pumpkins are mentioned. This literary device is implemented by Chbosky to add a sense of realism to the story, and to possibly gives nods toward books and art that had an impact on his life. Lisa calls these allusions "the most fascinating parts of the novel."

With the help of an excerpt from The Perks of Being a Wallflower, we can point to specific techniques used by Chbosky. He writes: "Anyway, Patrick started driving really fast, and just before we got to the tunnel, Sam stood up, and the wind turned her dress into ocean waves. When we hit the tunnel, all the sound got scooped into a vacuum, and it was replaced by a song on the tape player. A beautiful song called "Landslide." When we got out of the tunnel, Sam screamed this really fun scream and there it was. Downtown. Lights on buildings and everything that makes you wonder. Sam sat down and started laughing. Patrick started laughing. I started laughing. And in that moment, I swear we were infinite."

The first word in the passage, "anyway," augments the journal-like style of the novel. While ordinarily you would find a conversational word like "anyway" in dialogue, Chbosky uses it in the narration; this enhances the reader's sentiment that he or she is being directly spoken to.

To stay dedicated to the realism of the narrator, Chbosky uses fragments like "Downtown." and awkward wording like "screamed this really fun scream." Purposely abandoning correct grammar aids the reader in connecting with Charlie, a freshmen who isn't a professional writer. Accordingly, Chbosky must place himself in the mind of a teenager when describing images in the scene. Stephen Chbosky succeeds with a simple but realistic metaphor like "the wind turned her dress into ocean waves," and effortless imagery like "lights on buildings."

Of course, there is the allusion of the song "Landslide," a popular tune originally by Fleetwood Mac. It is the accompanying description--the absence of sound upon entering the tunnel and then the opening notes of "Landslide"--that paints the most stirring picture in the excerpt. Chbosky shows a knack for capturing those moments in life that all teenagers experience: in this case, a car ride with friends with a favorite song on the stereo. He even partly admits this in the next few sentences when all of the characters smile and Charlie declares: "And in that moment, I swear we were infinite."

Stephen Chbosky is sometimes compared to J.D. Salinger, but more particularly, The Perks of Being a Wallflower has been equated with A Catcher in the Rye. Both novels use young teenage boys (Charlie and Holden Caulfield, respectively) as chroniclers. While Charlie relates his experiences through letters, Holden tells about three consecutive days in his life while he is recuperating in a sanitarium. Much like The Perks of Being a Wallflower, A Catcher in the Rye weaves together a myriad of characters and events around its central character, Holden, as he suffers through a nervous breakdown. Both Chbosky and Salinger's works share an analogous theme: a young adult's gain of worldly knowledge with age. The two novels are so similar that Kirkus Reviews says that "more sophisticated readers might object to the rip-off of Salinger."

While the plot, the coming-of-age tale, may be trite and uncreative, a major weakness, Stephen Chbosky shows a strength in The Perks of Being a Wallflower with connecting to the reader. Taking a protagonist who should by all intents be boring, Chbosky crafts a character that envelops you in the story through his uncomplicated narration. Using literary techniques, Chbosky stays true to the characteristics of the narrator, which could be why this debut novel is a relatively easy-read. With Chbosky's second piece or work, it will be interesting to see if he can craft a story that gains some attention beyond the Young Adult genre. Until then, Chbosky fans will have to remain content with reliving their teenage years and feeling "infinite" vicariously through Charlie.

Works Cited
"About the Author." The Perks of Being a Wallflower. New York: MTV/Pocket Books, 1999.

Davis, Brangien. Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Lisa. "The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky." Lisa's Book Reviews. November 2, 2003.

"The Perks of Being a Wallflower." Kirkus Reviews. Kirkus Associates, 1999. "The Perks of Being a Wallflower." Publishers Weekly. Reed Business Information, Incorporated, 1999.

Wilder, Anne. "Book Discussion Guide: The Perks of Being a Wallflower." NoveList. November 1, 2003.