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| Perks! |
We are featuring Stephen Chbosky's coming-of-age epistolary novel (novel written through a series of documents, i.e. letters), The Perks of Being a Wallflower, to prepare you for the movie tie-in hitting the theaters this month (starring Logan Lerman, Ezra Miller, and Emma Watson)!
In 1994, while Chbosky was working on a "very different type of book" than Perks, he wrote the line, "I guess that's just one of the perks of being a wallflower." Chbosky recalled that he "wrote that line. And stopped. And realized that somewhere in that [sentence] was the kid I was really trying to find."
After several years of gestation (development of an idea), Chbosky began researching and writing The Perks of Being a Wallflower, a novel that follows the intellectual and emotional maturation of a teenager who uses the alias Charlie over the course of his freshman year of high school. The book is semi-autobiographical; Chbosky has said that he "relate[s] to Charlie[...] But my life in high school was in many ways different."
It was published on February 1, 1999 by MTV Books. The book, Chbosky's first novel, was an immediate popular success with teenage readers, has garnered a cult following ever since, and is widely considered a modern classic. By 2000, the novel was MTV Books' best-selling title,[11] and The New York Times noted in 2007 that it had sold more than 700,000 copies and "is passed from adolescent to adolescent like a hot potato".
Perks also stirred up controversy due to the portrayal of teen sexuality and drug use. It has been banned in several schools and appeared on the American Library Association's 2006 and 2008 lists of the 10 most frequently challenged books. However, the LRC has still decided to acquire it for the relevant and rarely discussed topics it explores such as introversion, abuse, drugs, sexuality, and perhaps, most importantly, the awkward times of adolescence.
The story is narrated by a teenager (the eponymous wallflower of the novel) who describes various scenes in his life by writing a series of letters to an anonymous person, who appears to be someone he does not know personally. It takes place in a suburb of Pittsburgh during the early 1990s, Charlie's freshman year in a high school. Charlie is an unconventional thinker, and as the story begins, he is shy and unpopular.
The novel has mentioned and referenced many
different books, films, television shows, and songs:
Literature
In the novel, Charlie's teacher, Bill, assigns him various books to read.
Charlie describes them all as his favorites.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
The Stranger by Albert Camus
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
The book also references a book of poems by E. E. Cummings, The Mayor of Castro Street by Randy Shilts, a book by Anne Rice, and an autobiography of a woman who was a character in Reds, most likely Emma Goldman. The poem "A Person/A Paper/A Promise" by Dr. Earl Reum is also mentioned.
Film
The novel references these films:
Rocky Horror Picture Show
It's a Wonderful Life
The Producers
Reds
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Graduate
Harold and Maude
My Life as a Dog
Dead Poets Society
The Unbelievable Truth
Night of the Living Dead
Hannah and Her Sisters
Television
The novel references these television shows:
Saturday Night Live
Love Boat
Fantasy Island
M*A*S*H
Gomer Pyle
Television star Mary Tyler Moore is also mentioned without mentioning any of her specific TV shows.
Music
The novel references these songs:
"Where Eagles Dare" by The Misfits
"Asleep" by The Smiths
"Vapour Trail" by Ride
"Scarborough Fair" by Simon and Garfunkel
"A Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum
"Time of No Reply" by Nick Drake
"Dear Prudence" by The Beatles
"Gypsy" by Suzanne Vega
"Nights in White Satin" by The Moody Blues
"Daydream" by The Smashing Pumpkins
"Dusk" by Genesis
"MLK" by U2
"Blackbird" by The Beatles
"Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana
"Another Brick in the Wall, Part II" by Pink Floyd
"Something" by The Beatles
"School's Out" by Alice Cooper
"Autumn Leaves" by Nat King Cole
"Broken Wings" by Mr. Mister
"I'm Going Home" sung by Tim Curry as Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Other music groups and artists are also mentioned without reference to a specific song, including Village People, Blondie, Jim Morrison, John Lennon, The Slits, and Billie Holiday.
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