I'll preface by saying that it is an excellent book... but, I was slightly disappointed with it as the choice for the banned book club, I was expecting a bit more depth. I have previously read the book (my freshmen year of high school) and loved it. At that point in my life it was definitely relevant. However, as a freshmen in college I found it less relevant. The themes (such as: be who you are, living deliberately, accepting mistakes, along with a major emphasis on loss of innocence) are cool and I totally dig the writing style, a set of letters to an anonymous friend. I just feel these are issues that are dealt with over and over in literature. Perhaps, Chbosky was borrowing too much from the classic literature he referenced.
The discussion was nice, the English professor had some interesting points to make, I just feel overall theres not that much to deal with in this book (though I'm not denying that it is a really great story and one that needs to be told).
I do love Adriaticos, more so when Ben is buying.
I also attended the banned book club after reading Perks of Being a Wallflower and I was very impressed. First of all, I must say that the book was really good and I'm surprised how much I enjoyed it. This book brings about many issues that are very interesting to read. Being a psych major, I really like reading this kind of book and analyzing it because I just find these issues really interesting. And the discussion with Professor Moddelmog really helped me appreciate the book even more. She and my fellow Humanities scholars brought up some very intriguing points that I missed while reading the book. Also, I finished reading the book about a month early so I got to refresh what happened. Overall, I was very impressed with how the meeting turned out and I'm glad I read the book. Oh and the pizza was good too! :)
ReplyDeleteI also attended the meeting for this spring's banned book club discussion, and have read "Perks" twice now. First off, I thought that the discussion was intriguing and that the English professor did a great job at getting us all to participate in discussion. Thought while I definitely enjoy the book and find it's style both haunting and intriguing, I'd have to say that I think, as previously mentioned, that the subject matter wasn't quite as deep as it could have been for college-level students. The issues that are exposed most directly in the book, such as teenage alcoholism, drug use, and abandonment are undoubtedly important to discuss and are very much real in schools across our country, and therefore should not be taken lightly. However, I feel that this banned book discussion may have been more appropriate for a high school-level class as the issues addressed would have been more directly applicable.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I wasn't able to attend the meetings for the banned book, I did read it. Despite what Maria and Kayla say, I actually quite enjoyed the book and think it's perfect for the early college student. In my opinion, as one gets older, they start to look back at their life, and although The Perks of Being a Wallflower was written in the present tense of the life of a freshman boy in high school, one can easily read it as if looking back at their own life. The book hit many common problems that students will have as well as uncommon problems that one only hears about. I felt like i could connect with the main character really well, and am I bit disappointed that the book is considered banned. I have read many other books that have worse qualities and plots that deserve to be banned, yet they aren't. I will agree that reading this in high school would have had a bigger impact than now, but I did enjoy it and agree that it was worth the read.
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