I started reading this book this morning and some thoughts that immediately came to mind. The format is a letter format that is entirely one-sided. The letters essentially cover a one year period in the protagonist, Charlie's life. The initial letters reveal a young man who is the youngest in his family and is pretty much confused about everything that happens around him. His ignorance borders more on the naive than the stupid. I completely understand this. I felt just like him in high school, like everyone else just seemed to understand things more than me, but somehow believed that I was right there with them. I often found myself nodding and pretending that I understood when I was just as confused. Perhaps in today's world with the easy access to online information, today's youth is more educated in the social atmosphere of high school. Some quotes that struck me in the first section were:
"Charlie, we accept the love we think we deserve."
"Not everyone has a sob story, Charlie, and even if they do, it's no excuse."
"I feel infinite."
I wonder how many of you students will understand the references to Pittsburgh and the movies, TV shows and Music of the time period. 1991 and 1992 do not seem like they were very long ago, I remember them quite well, however, I suppose that twenty years have passed since then. Perhaps my own sentimentality has taken hold and driven me back to a time when I, like Charlie, was ignorant of the things going on around me. So far, this book has grabbed my imagination and filled me with great anticipation as to what Charlie is going to experience in the next set of letters.
One final note, the English teacher asking Charlie to call him Bill has me kind of concerned. Not so much that he is assigning Charlie extra reading and assignments and guiding his education in that way, but the first name intimacy is inappropriate in the classroom. I love my students and form very tight bonds with them, but at the end of the day, they are my students and I am their teacher. Some lines cannot and should not be crossed. I hope this is just a side part if not a totally insignificant side part of the book and doesn't develop into anything more than just an irritation on my part.
I'm curious to see your thoughts on Bill from a teacher's perspective by the end of the book. I have mixed feelings on him; while he's harmless and I like him for taking Charlie under his wing and nurturing him educationally, he is a little too personal with him for my comfort. Maybe "back in the day" this kind of approach would be acceptable, but even in the 90s I think this relationship would seem strange. Then again, maybe we've just become too sensitized to perverts, pedophiles, and creepers, which persuades us to see them everywhere.
ReplyDelete