Stephen Chbosky - The Perks of Being a Wallflower

acclaim for stephen chboskys
the perks of being a wallflower

Charlies loving instincts are very strong. Again and again throughout the book he exhibits pure wisdom we all like to read about and witness. And Stephen Chbosky doesnt let us down. The language is plain and springy and blunt In this culture where adolescence is a dirty word, I hope nothing bad ever happens to this [protagonist].

LA Times

Charlie, his friends and family are palpably real [he] develops from an observant wallflower into his own man of action. This report on his life will engage teen readers for years to come.

School Library Journal , starred review

Chbosky captures adolescent angst, confusion, and joy as Charlie reveals his innermost thoughts while trying to discover who he is and whom he is to become. Intellectually precocious, Charlie[s] reflections are compelling. He vacillates between full involvement in the crazy course of his life and backing off completely. Charlie is a likeable kid whose humor-laced trials and tribulations will please both adults and teens.

Booklist

Chbosky adds an upbeat ending to a tale of teenaged angstthe right combination of realism and uplift to allow it on high school reading lists. [The protagonist] oozes with sincerity, rails against celebrity phoniness, and feels an extraliterary bond with his favorite writers (Harper Lee, Fitzgerald, Kerouac, Ayn Rand, etc.) A plain-written narrative suggesting passivity, and thinking too much, lead to confusion and anxiety.

Kirkus

An Amazon.com #1 Young Adult Bestseller

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PERSON/A PAPER/A PROMISE
by Dr. Earl Reum used with authors permission
A PERSON/A PAPER/A PROMISE REMEMBERED
by Patrick Comeaux used with authors permission
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

An Original Publication of MTV Books/Pocket Books

GALLERY BOOKS, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
Copyright 1999 by Stephen Chbosky
MTV Music Television and all related titles, logos, and
characters are trademarks of MTV Networks, a division of
Viacom International Inc.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
For information address Pocket Books, 1230 Avenue
of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
ISBN-13: 978-0-671-02734-6
ISBN-10: 0-671-02734-4
eISBN-13: 978-1-439-12243-3
First MTV Books/Pocket Books trade paperback printing February 1999 40 39 38 37 36
POCKET and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc.
Art direction by Stacy Drummond and Tracy Boychuk
Design by Stacy Drummond
Photography by Jason Stang
Printed in the U.S.A.

For my family

acknowledgments

I just wanted to say about all those listed that there would be no book without them, and I thank them with all of my heart.

Greer Kessel Hendricks
Heather Neely
Lea, Fred, and Stacy Chbosky
Robbie Thompson
Christopher McQuarrie
Margaret Mehring
Stewart Stern
Kate Degenhart
Mark McClain Wilson
David Wilcox
Kate Ward
Tim Perell
Jack Horner
Eduardo Braniff

And finally

Dr. Earl Reum for writing a beautiful poem
and Patrick Comeaux for remembering it wrong when he was 14.

part 1

August 25, 1991

Dear friend,

I am writing to you because she said you listen and understand and didnt try to sleep with that person at that party even though you could have. Please dont try to figure out who she is because then you might figure out who I am, and I really dont want you to do that. I will call people by different names or generic names because I dont want you to find me. I didnt enclose a return address for the same reason. I mean nothing bad by this. Honest.

I just need to know that someone out there listens and understands and doesnt try to sleep with people even if they could have. I need to know that these people exist.

I think you of all people would understand that because I think you of all people are alive and appreciate what that means. At least I hope you do because other people look to you for strength and friendship and its that simple. At least thats what Ive heard.

So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and Im still trying to figure out how that could be.

I try to think of my family as a reason for me being this way, especially after my friend Michael stopped going to school one day last spring and we heard Mr. Vaughns voice on the loudspeaker.

Boys and girls, I regret to inform you that one of our students has passed on. We will hold a memorial service for Michael Dobson during assembly this Friday.

I dont know how news travels around school and why it is very often right. Maybe it was in the lunchroom. Its hard to remember. But Dave with the awkward glasses told us that Michael killed himself. His mom played bridge with one of Michaels neighbors and they heard the gunshot.

I dont really remember much of what happened after that except that my older brother came to Mr. Vaughns office in my middle school and told me to stop crying. Then, he put his arm on my shoulder and told me to get it out of my system before Dad came home. We then went to eat french fries at McDonalds and he taught me how to play pinball. He even made a joke that because of me he got to skip an afternoon of school and asked me if I wanted to help him work on his Camaro. I guess I was pretty messy because he never let me work on his Camaro before.

At the guidance counselor sessions, they asked the few of us who actually liked Michael to say a few words. I think they were afraid that some of us would try to kill ourselves or something because they looked very tense and one of them kept touching his beard.

Bridget who is crazy said that sometimes she thought about suicide when commercials come on during TV. She was sincere and this puzzled the guidance counselors. Carl who is nice to everyone said that he felt very sad, but could never kill himself because it is a sin.

This one guidance counselor went through the whole group and finally came to me.

What do you think, Charlie?

What was so strange about this was the fact that I had never met this man because he was a specialist and he knew my name even though I wasnt wearing a name tag like they do in open house.

Well, I think that Michael was a nice guy and I dont understand why he did it. As much as I feel sad, I think that not knowing is what really bothers me.

I just reread that and it doesnt sound like how I talk. Especially in that office because I was crying still. I never did stop crying.

The counselor said that he suspected that Michael had problems at home and didnt feel like he had anyone to talk to. Thats maybe why he felt all alone and killed himself.

Then, I started screaming at the guidance counselor that Michael could have talked to me. And I started crying even harder. He tried to calm me down by saying that he meant an adult like a teacher or a guidance counselor. But it didnt work and eventually my brother came by the middle school in his Camaro to pick me up.