Dear Freshers…
At the beginning of this new stage in your life there is no better time to read the book that could alter it. This article’s direct way of addressing you will also make sense if you read Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower. It is a cult favourite in America because of its straightforward, unembellished honesty, which partly arises as a by-product of the epistolary format. We have no idea who Charlie is, or who he is writing to as he addresses each letter ‘Dear Friend’. We come to realise none of this matters.
Standing ‘on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective… But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor’. So states the book’s blurb. This pretty much parallels what the beginning of university means to any student. With a plethora of new experiences and activities all waiting around the corner, whatever you get involved in is bound to be different and exciting.
Charlie is a ‘wallflower’, a being that exists on the peripheries, passive and alienated, but as he starts the next stage in his life he must learn to strike a balance between observing and participating. He is helped along the way by his English teacher and misfit friends, Patrick and Sam. But this is more than just a high school coming-of-age novel; Charlie must also cope with mental illness and emotional trauma as well as the seemingly trivial issues of day to day life. He navigates through this journey with a wealth of film, music and literary references, which are all worth diving into afterwards. With the aid of the right people and the right song on the right drive, he discovers what it is to feel infinite but, ultimately and more importantly, what it is to take responsibility.
Author Stephen Chbosky has directed and produced the upcoming film adaptation starring Emma Watson and Logan Lerman although it is difficult to see how its subtleties and ambiguities can translate into film. All I can say is: read this book, and hopefully in the course of the next three years, you too will have the chance to experience a moment in your life in which you feel truly ‘infinite’.
“Sam sat down and started laughing. Patrick started laughing. I started laughing. And in that moment, I swear we were infinite.”
Yours,
Katrina Northern